MAN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR RACIAL ATTACKS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A reputed gang member was sentenced Thursday to 25 years and eight months in prison for stabbing two men because they are African-American.

Sean Patrick Delaney, 24, who is white, pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to attempted murder in the Feb. 17, 2004, attacks on Onus Clark and Shannon Thomas at the Tipsy Bull bar and grill and The Britisher sports bar across the street.

``There was no other reason for this attack except for racial hatred. These African-American gentlemen were targeted strictly because of race and nothing else,'' Deputy District Attorney John Allen Ramseyer said.

Delaney, whose father, Tom Delaney, was running for Lancaster mayor when the stabbings occurred, must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence and now has two ``strike'' convictions under California's ``three strikes, you're out'' law, prosecutors said.

Tom Delaney dropped out of the the mayoral race after his son's arrest.

Before the attack, deputies said, the father and son were ordered out of The Britisher in the 800 block of West Avenue I. The two had been harassing a female employee, and the younger Delaney screamed white-power slogans and racial remarks at other patrons, deputies said.

The father and son left, but minutes later Sean Delaney walked back in alone, deputies said. He used a butcher knife to stab patron Clark, 44, of Lancaster, who had been playing pool.

Sean Delaney then ran across the street to the Tipsy Bull, where he walked up to patron Thomas, 37, of Lancaster, who had been waiting his turn to sing karaoke, and stabbed Thomas in the chest.

Bystanders got the knife away and wrestled Delaney to the ground, where they held him until deputies arrived. Both the stabbing victims have filed civil lawsuits against him.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com