Graffiti appears on an electrical box affixed to the Wesley Building on the University of Kansas campus, pictured Dec. 27, 2016.

The stack of folders in front of Judge Scott Miller was thick, at least by the standards of a Friday morning docket in Lawrence Municipal Court.

“I’m going to need a second,” the judge said.

He was looking at the case of a prolific tagger — who got caught and was charged by the tag.

Sean D. Dixon, of Lawrence, was convicted and sentenced Friday for spray-painting the word “rush” on buildings, walls, utility boxes and other surfaces all over downtown Lawrence and the University of Kansas campus. Dixon was charged this spring in four cases totaling 40 counts of defacement or damage to property by graffiti, allegedly committed over the past year.

Dixon on Friday pleaded guilty to just three counts of graffiti, one each from three of the four cases.

In exchange for his plea, the judge agreed to dismiss everything else: the entire fourth case plus most counts in the other three. The judge also dismissed a drug paraphernalia possession charge in one of the cases.

The word 'rush,' spray painted on the side of a building in the 700 block of New Hampshire street, is pictured on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017.

As punishment, however, Dixon must pay $1,500 in fines and more than $2,000 in restitution to various victims including KU, the city, a church and several downtown businesses, the judge ruled. The judge noted the amount of restitution was “very favorable” to Dixon.

Dixon also was sentenced to a year on probation, with the possibility of a year and a half in jail should he violate the terms; five days in jail or 10 days on house arrest; and 50 hours of community service to be performed by mid-December.

The judge asked what the graffiti entailed, and Dixon’s attorney, John Frydman, answered that the tags were simply the word “rush.”

“Oh yeah, there’s one of those behind our building,” the judge said. “… It’s not exactly Banksy.”

Unlike Banksy — an anonymous internationally famous graffiti artist, satirist and political activist — or graffiti artists who create work that’s actually “beautiful,” the judge said he did not see Dixon’s tags as art.

“I don’t understand what people are getting out of that,” Miller said.

Dixon, who appeared for court in a suit and tie, was apologetic and said he realized his actions were immature.

He said he’d been tagging as a “stress outlet” for mental health issues he’s now getting counseling for, and also because it was “just a thrill.”

“I actually wanted to be really good at graffiti, like the ones you say are really beautiful, but it’s kind of hard to practice the art,” Dixon told the judge.

Miller said Dixon now holds the record for the most counts he’s ever dismissed in a single case at Lawrence Municipal Court.

He told Dixon, in addition to following his other probation conditions, to continue his counseling and to find a new outlet, maybe classes at the Lawrence Arts Center, or getting some big pieces of plywood and spray-painting on them.

As for why Dixon chose the word “rush” for his signature, or tag, Frydman said his client told him this: “You get a rush from doing it.”