Man Pleads Guilty in ’83 Cross Burning
A former Ku Klux Klan member who was one of 15 men charged in a 1983 Lake View Terrace cross burning pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday to three charges stemming from the incident.
Winston Burbage, who prosecutors say now lives in Tennessee, is to be sentenced July 7. He pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to violate the Los Angeles city fire code, and to two misdemeanors--unlawful assembly and maintaining an illegal fire.
Also charged in the case, which has been tied up in appeals for more than seven years, is Tom Metzger, former California grand dragon of the Klan.
The charges stem from the burning of three 20-foot-high crosses in a field near a predominantly black neighborhood on Dec. 3, 1983. Deputy Dist. Atty. John Phillips said he expects the trial of Metzger and six other defendants to begin in June.
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