Judge Orders Review of All Hate Crime Prosecutions

SYLMAR —  A juvenile court judge Wednesday authorized a review of hate crime cases filed in Los Angeles County to determine if there is evidence that prosecutions are racially biased because they primarily target white defendants.

Acting in the case that may have set off a spate of four alleged racial attacks recently in the Antelope Valley, Sylmar Juvenile Court Commissioner Gary A. Polinsky ruled that if is there is evidence of bias, the white teenager on trial can defend himself by arguing that he is the victim of racially discriminatory prosecution.

Polinsky will conduct the review himself after the district attorney’s office turns over files on its prosecutions of hate crimes--those in which criminals allegedly were motivated by malice against the victim’s race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, gender or nationality.

The 16-year-old white youth, an alleged skinhead gang member, is accused in a machete attack on two African American cousins, a boy and a girl. The attack in Lancaster on July 8 was followed by a series of assaults on whites by blacks, which investigators have said may have been retaliation.

The request for the hate crime records was made by the youth’s defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender James Coady.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Najera called the hate crime defense groundless but said she will turn over records in several weeks. “I think it’s inappropriate for counsel to float these theories when he has no basis for them,” she said.

Carla Arranaga, who heads the district attorney’s hate crimes division, said that of the 30 race-related hate crimes prosecuted against adults in 1995, 18 victims were black, five were white, six Latino and one was of Asian descent. She did not have an ethic breakdown for the defendants, she said.

“We review them with only one factor in mind, if the victim’s race played a substantial role in the crime,” Arranaga said.

Coady also alleged at a hearing Wednesday that there is evidence the 17-year-old alleged victim in the July 8 assault, Marcus Cotton, threw the first punch and is a member of the Crips gang, a new defense.

Najera said Sheriff’s Department investigators have not said that Marcus was a member of the Crips or that he initiated the attack. She said the evidence shows the attack was racially motivated.

Authorities have said Marcus’ assailants yelled racial epithets and gave a Nazi-style salute before the assault.

Coady said that discrediting the prosecution of hate crimes in general could get the charges against the youth reduced to assault. He said proving that the attack was sparked by Marcus could reduce the risk that his client will be tried as an adult, as prosecutors are trying to do.

In addition to the state charges, the white youth and another alleged skinhead, also 16, face a federal court trial in the Lancaster attack. They are believed to be charged with violations of federal hate crimes laws, but federal prosecutors will not reveal details in juvenile cases.

The alleged attack on Marcus was followed by three assaults on whites by African Americans. It is suspected they were retaliatory attacks, because the assailants made references to skinheads or white racists, deputies have said.

The fourth attack, July 29, was carried out by suspected skinheads against a black man waiting for his child to get out of school, deputies said.

There have been no arrests in the subsequent attacks on whites. One is being investigated as a hate crime, investigators said.