Six months after he tore out two dildos from an art exhibit, a former city councillor will stand trial today for charges of malicious destruction of personal property.

William H. Walsh--who was removed in November from his council seat following his federal sentencing for bank fraud--removed the dildos from a local art show on October 5, calling them obscene.

The show was situated in Gallery 57, a public arts space in City Hall Annex, throughout October 1994. Walsh said city employees working in the annex found the exhibit offensive.

Walsh removed the dildos shortly. before the exhibit opened to the public, bringing them to City Manager Robert W. Healy's office. The items were subsequently reinstalled, but with a protective barrier and a notice that the exhibit involved "sensitive" material.

Walsh will face a six-person jury and Judge Mark Cover in Cambridge District Court today. He has plead not guilty.

Under Chapter 266, section 127 of the Massachusetts General Laws, destruction of personal property is a felony and carries a maximum of two and a half years in prison and a fine, according to Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Alex S. Moffatt, who is prosecuting the case.

"We intend to prove that on October 5, 1994, William Walsh, who was then a Cambridge city councilman, went into Gallery 57 of the Cambridge City Hall annex and maliciously and intentionally destroyed Hans Evers' property," Moffatt said.

The state alleges that Walsh damaged one work in the exhibit. The work consisted of three boxes containing sexual paraphernalia. "He tore out the dildos of two of the boxes," Moffatt said. "He not only injured them, he injured the screws [and] the mirror, scraping the wood" that lined the boxes.

Walsh denied the charges, in an interview. While he admitted to removing the items, he insisted that he was obligated as an elected official to bring the items to the city council's attention.

"Don't we have rights not to be subject to having to see things of that nature we don't want to see?" Walsh asked. "It was nothing but lewdness. There was no redeeming social quality to it," Walsh added.

"The human body is a wonderful thing--there's nothing wrong with it--but displaying dildos in a box is disgusting," Walsh said.

Moffatt disagreed. "He hostilely and intentionally destroyed that piece of work," the assistant district attorney said. "What he was motivated by is at this point irrelevant."

If Walsh is guilty the state will probably seek probation or a suspended prison sentence rather than incarceration, Moffatt said. But no final decision has yet been reached, she added.

The state has subpoenaed artist Evers, Deputy City Manager Richard C. Rossi and Gallery 57 Director Hafthor Yngvason. Both Rossi and Yngvason were present at the exhibit's installation when Walsh removed the dildos.

"The deputy city manager, Richard Rossi, was there, he talked to [Walsh] and basically suggested there would be other ways to deal with [the exhibit] but nobody tried to stop him," Yngvason said yesterday.