A Natrona Heights man has been charged with intentionally damaging headstones at St. Peter Cemetery in Butler Township with a riding mower, which was also damaged, when he worked as foreman of a groundskeeping company.

Township police filed a felony charge of institutional vandalism and misdemeanor counts of intentional desecration of a public monument and criminal mischief against Jason P. Pavlik, 25, for allegedly causing the damage May 25.

The operations director for Apartment Services, which performs groundkeeping work for the cemetery, called police and reported that Pavlik, one of his employees, intentionally damaged numerous headstones and a zero-turn riding mower at the cemetery, police said in an affidavit filed Tuesday.

The director told police that on May 28 he found extensive damage to the mower that Pavlik uses and that no one else would have used that mower on May 25. Police found the left front wheel assembly was folded under the frame, the frame was cracked and a front metal guard was dented. The damages were estimated at $1,500, according to the affidavit.

Responding police said 10 headstones had been knocked over and dragged a short distance from their bases, and some had a red paint transfer at the area of impact. The paint on the headstones matched the paint on the mower, according to the affidavit.

Police said it appeared that Pavlik drove the mower north through the cemetery and intentionally hit the headstones. A cemetery official said the headstones would be repaired in-house and no restitution was needed, according to the affidavit.