Man Charged in Racial Attack on 5 Children

An Anglo youth was charged Thursday with civil rights violations and battery for shouting racial epithets and hurling cans and food at a group of five black schoolchildren at a Westchester bus stop.

Craig Leck, 18, was charged with five misdemeanor counts of interfering with civil rights and three misdemeanor counts of battery. He was also charged with violating his probation from two previous criminal convictions.

“Bigotry is always ugly, but terrorizing children on their way home from school is particularly grotesque,� said City Atty. James K. Hahn.

Leck is scheduled to be arraigned in Municipal Court Nov. 27. Each civil rights count is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The battery counts are punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Hahn said that Leck, a passenger in a car, yelled obscenities and racial slurs and threw soft-drink cans and slices of stale pizza at the children, ages 9 to 12, as they waited for an RTD bus Sept. 28 in Westchester. None of the children--three girls and two boys--was injured.

Police later found the car used in the attack. The driver, 17, identified Leck as his passenger and was referred to county juvenile authorities for possible prosecution. Leck was on probation for providing alcohol to a minor and for auto theft.