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This is from a newspaper:
The real reason he was arrested was because he smeared poo all over the walls.
Shouldn't the past perfect be used:
... he was arrested because he had smeared poo all over the walls.
The smearing occurred before the arrest, a past event that precedes another past event, so why use the past simple?
Your quote uses "was" twice - once to show that he was arrested, and again to show that the cited reason was in the past. There is nothing in this sentence to suggest that the incident came after the arrest. In fact, the use of "because" shows that the latter was the cause of the former.
Your re-write makes perfect sense too though.
