The alleged vandal accused of busting several windows at JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati is allegedly the son of a prominent millionaire family, the New York Post reported. In recent weeks, 26-year-old William DeFoor appears to have been going by the name “Julia,” but it is unclear if he identifies as transgender or nonbinary. Police listed the suspect’s name as William, and his gender as male.
DeFoor was arrested early Monday, January 5, after allegedly shattering four windows in Vance’s home. Cops said he was trying to break into the home around midnight.
The Vances were not in Ohio at the time. They moved into the vice president’s official residence in Washington, DC, after the inauguration.
William DeFoor’s family
DeFoor’s father, also named William, is reportedly a successful Harvard University graduate who boasts a decades-long history as a pediatric urologist in Cincinnati. He works as a professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine.
DeFoor’s family lives in a $1.3 million house in the city’s wealthy Hyde Park neighborhood. His father donated thousands to Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign in 2024. For years, he also made small contributions to a PAC that lobbied for urologists, federal records show.
Read More | Man who broke windows at Vance’s Ohio home is detained, the Secret Service says
Public contributions revealed that the elder DeFoor is a longtime Democratic supporter who donated upwards of $5,000 to former President Joe Biden and Harris’ respective campaigns in 2020 and 2024. He previously also backed a federal assault weapons ban after the Uvalde Elementary School shooting, according to his Facebook.
William DeFoor’s previous run-ins with the law
The younger DeFoor graduated from the Summit Country Day School in 2018, where he was hailed as a candidate for the US Presidential Scholars Program. After a two-year stint at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, he appeared to drop out in 2020, his Facebook indicates. Earlier this year, he said he was attending Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
DeFoor has a 2024 sentence for two counts of vandalism at a local interior design company. However, instead of a standard conviction, he was sentenced to two years of mandatory mental health treatment, which is still ongoing, court documents obtained by Cincinnati.com showed.
Read More | What happened at JD Vance’s Ohio home? Secret Service and police arrive in Cincinnati, one held
DeFoor was also charged with trespassing at the UC Health psychiatric and emergency services in April 2023. He was initially held on a $10,000 bond, but a judge found him not to be mentally competent to stand trial. The counts were thus dismissed in a November 8 filing that year.
DeFoor is now charged with obstructing official business, criminal damaging or endangering, criminal trespass, and vandalism, according to Hamilton County jail records. His first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, January 6.
Vice President Vance spoke out about the incident in an X post, writing, “I appreciate everyone’s well wishes about the attack at our home. As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows. I’m grateful to the secret service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly. We weren’t even home as we had returned already to DC.”
“One request to the media: we try to protect our kids as much as possible from the realities of this life of public service. In that light, I am skeptical of the news value of plastering images of our home with holes in the windows,” he added.