Why would anyone want to break city laws by painting a gigantic picture of the Statue of Liberty on the side of a building, face a nasty name-calling bout with city officials and neighborhood activists, then spend more than six figures of their own money and a year and a half of effort just to avoid taking it down?

For muralist Mike McNeilly, it’s the principle of the thing.

Ever since February 1999, McNeilly’s half-finished mural has remained on the side of the Westwood Medical Plaza Building on Wilshire Boulevard, enraging Westwood’s anti-billboard community activists. A few weeks ago, he added a “Censored” banner across a portion of the unfinished mural. And so the drama continues.

The day he started painting the sign, no fewer than eight police cars arrived on the scene ordering him to cease and desist. Criminal charges were later filed against him by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, and after 13 months of pretrial hearings, trial is set to begin May 17.

McNeilly has entered not guilty pleas to three charges and faces up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine. Yet he continues to fight rather than paint over his creation.

“This is a case about government vs. the individual,” McNeilly said. “Government thinks they know what’s best for the individual and they need to protect us from ourselves. We need to be protected from that (government intrusion).”

Stringent city regulations forbid billboards in Westwood Village and along Wilshire Boulevard on the Westside. McNeilly insists that the case is a First Amendment issue, and that he is being denied the right to express himself.

The city claims that it doesn’t matter what the message says, no billboards or signage are allowed on that section of the Wilshire Corridor.

Elected official’s crusade

City Councilman Mike Feuer, whose Fifth Council District covers Westwood and Beverly Hills, is an outspoken opponent of billboards. He has led the efforts to force McNeilly to paint over his mural, though he declines to comment on the matter now because McNeilly’s trial is pending.

In the past, Feuer has said it’s not only an aesthetic issue but a public safety one as well.

“In my district, people know better than to propose these things,” Feuer has said on other signage issues. “It’s a public safety matter in the city. They are designed to distract from (people’s) driving, which is a particularly dangerous problem.”

The Mueller Co., which owns the Westwood Medical Plaza Building at 10921 Wilshire Blvd. overlooking the Westwood Veterans Cemetery, referred all calls to McNeilly.

The artist, who makes his living painting giant billboards on buildings, has launched his own public relations campaign to drum up public support in the days before his trial. In late April, he sent news outlets hundreds of large posters of his Statue of Liberty painting with the “censored” banner across it.

He also maintains a Web site to disseminate his opinions on the issue.

Meanwhile, he’s not only paying the legal fees to defend himself against the city’s charges, he has filed a civil suit against Feuer and two other city employees, alleging a conspiracy against his civil rights.

“I’m hemorrhaging; I’m bleeding money,” McNeilly said. “We’re in the six figures. Thank goodness for the movie studios allowing me to paint on the Sunset Strip. I do a lot of the murals for the movie industry, which enables me to do the pro bono work I do.”

McNeilly has also been accused of carrying on his fight solely to break down Westwood’s rules on billboards. McNeilly says he was merely trying to make a patriotic statement in the weeks before Memorial Day 1999.

“It was never meant to be permanent,” McNeilly insists. “The Muellers agreed it was a fitting tribute for the time. All my murals are temporary. I do a lot of murals for orphanages, runaway kids. I don’t charge anyone.”

After an April meeting with Feuer produced no progress in breaking the impasse, McNeilly painted the word “Censored” on the wall across Lady Liberty’s face, in 24-foot-high letters, doing the work at 4 a.m. This time, five squad cars showed up to order him away.

“I’m doing this because I consider it a message,” McNeilly said. “I really want to take the ‘Censored’ off. I think it defaces the symbolism.”