A West Roxbury District Court judge today ordered a 24-year-old Illinois man held on $20,000 cash bail at his arraignment for allegedly vandalizing a series of MBTA subway cars during a 2005 spray-painting spree, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

JIM CLAY HARPER (D.O.B. 1/18/85) of Wilmette, Ill., is charged with two counts of vandalizing property for tagging the word “ETHER” on Orange Line cars at Forest Hills station four years ago. Assistant District Attorney Mark Swadling requested that Harper be held on $20,000 cash bail in light of Harper’s out-of-state residence, his potential flight risk, and the cost that the MBTA expended to remove the graffiti from the trains; District Court Judge Kathleen Coffey accommodated that request.

Harper is charged with related offenses out of Dorchester District Court, where he was ordered held on $5,000 at his Sept. 29 arraignment on vandalism charges incurred when he allegedly spray-painted his tag on a series of Red Line cars at the Codman Square station.

Swadling said MBTA Transit Police detectives had noticed a considerable increase in graffiti vandalism starting in early June 2005. Specifically, they noticed the tag “Ether” and “crew” tag “MUL” at various locations on MBTA property.

On August 11, 2008, MBTA Transit Police detectives were contacted by investigators assigned to the Transit Division of the New York Police Department with information on the identity of the person using the tag “ETHER.” In the course of an investigation into the tagger DANIELLE “UTAH” BREMNER (D.O.B. 2/16/82), they learned that Harper was a close associate of Bremner and had been arrested for leaving the “ETHER” tag in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

In light of those arrests, Transit Police examined search warrants and subpoenas targeting Harper in multiple jurisdictions across the United States. Transit Police detectives were able to link Harper to specific acts of vandalism from June to October 2005. Those acts targeted Red Line trains in the Codman Square train station, Orange Line trains in the Forest Hills train station, and Blue Line trains in the Orient Heights train station. The estimated cost of the damage is more than $20,000.

Harper is represented by attorney William Brien and is expected to return to West Roxbury court on November 3.

Bremner, Harper’s alleged associate, recently pleaded guilty to similar offenses and was sentenced to six months in a house of correction for graffiti vandalism in Boston’s Back Bay and at the Orient Heights station.