SAN MATEO, Calif. A San Mateo woman may face thousands of dollars in fines for what she calls "messages from God" that she has painted all over the outside of her home.
Estrella Benevides' house on Cottage Grove Avenue has become a traffic-stopping sideshow in San Mateo.
Benevides has painted a series of long, rambling messages on her roof, garage door, on signs and banners in front of her house, and even her car.
"I started writing on my house about four years ago," she said. "It was a message coming to me from God."
Benevides said she gets divine inspirations to paint after reading the bible, and it doesn't matter when.
"She goes up there in the middle of the night," said neighbor Robert Owlett. "At two, three o'clock in the morning, she'll be up there painting with work lights."
Neighbors like Owlett said the house has now become a neighborhood nuisance.
"It's an eyesore," Owlett said. "Everybody makes jokes about the neighborhood."
Benevides admitted that she has been held on two recent psychiatric evaluations. She also said she lost custody of her 4-year-old son in 2005 and that some of her messages reflect anger over that.
But whatever the reason, Benevides said she has every right to paint her home with the messages.
"It is not illegal based on the constitution because the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging the free speech of the people," she said.
But Benevides is facing potential fines of up to $10,000 a day if she's in violation of city sign ordinances.
San Mateo city officials say they have no quarrel with the content of her messages, just the size and placement of it; no roof signs are allowed in residential areas, nor are signs over six feet tall.
"We're not commenting on the content or the source of the inspiration, we just want to make sure that it's consistent with our codes in terms of signage size," said Robert Muehlbauer, a neighborhood improvement and housing manager.
Benevides said she has no intention of taking her signs down.
The city will hold a special hearing on Jan. 17 to decide whether she is in violation of any ordinances.
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