ST. ALBANS, Vt.—Two sisters were charged with a hate crime for spray painting anti-gay slogans and slashing the tires of the vehicles belonging to two gay men, police said Oct. 3.

Melissa Gaboury, 16, pleaded not guilty to charges of hate-motivated unlawful mischief and unlawful trespass. Her sister, Meghan Gaboury, 18, was being sought by police, said Vermont State Police Trooper Jay Riggen.

The sisters, who are distant cousins of one of the victims, and their father recently had been evicted from the apartment house where the victims lived. The house was owned by the grandmother of one of the victims.

On Sept. 30 one of the men said he spotted one of the sisters in a vehicle outside the house. The next morning the two men awoke to find their tires slashed and their cars spray-painted with anti-gay slogans.

Police said they decided to seek hate crime charges against the sisters after speaking with them.

“Their tones with me were very conversational about it, referring to the homosexual population in really derogatory terms. They were very nonchalant about it,” Riggen said. When they talked about certain anti-gay terms they had used, “you just get a sense from them that they were filled with a certain level of disgust if not hate,” Riggen said. “It was pretty shocking actually.”