PANEL TO MEET ON BIAS ISSUE; FOCUS TO BE ON WHETHER PROSECUTORS TREAT MINORITIES DIFFERENTLY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Antelope Valley's hate crimes task force will discuss with top Los Angeles County law enforcement officials a perception that minorities are more heavily prosecuted and punished than whites.

The Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force will meet with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, District Attorney Gil Garcetti, Supervisor Michael Antonovich and Ron Wakabayashi, executive director of the county human relations commission on Monday at Palmdale City Hall.

``The task force ran into issues that we could not answer, issues that have to do with what seems to be a perception of minorities being prosecuted more vigorously than non-minorities,'' said Darren Parker, task force chairman.

The meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Palmdale City Council chambers.

Phil Rabichow, head deputy district attorney in the Lancaster office, said minorities are not more readily prosecuted and do not receive harsher sentences.

When determining whether to file a case or what charges to file, prosecutors look at two things - the facts of the case as presented to them by the investigating officers and the suspect's prior criminal history, Rabichow said.

``We don't even look at what race somebody is in filing a charge,'' Rabichow said. ``After we're done filing or rejecting a case, if you were to ask me what color, religion or race a person was, I wouldn't even know, unless it was two rival gangs involved. Certain gangs are affiliated with certain nationalities. But race is not a basis of any kind of filing.''

Rabichow said prosecutors argue for heavier or lighter sentences based on a number of factors, including the crime, the strength of the case, and the defendant's prior record and age.

The Probation Department also weighs in with its recommendation on what the sentence should be, and ultimately, it's up to the judge to make the final decision, Rabichow said.

Parker said Antelope Valley minorities have a long-held perception that race and national origin have been factors in the arrest and prosecution of people accused of wrongdoing.

``On the one hand if the victim is a non-minority and the perpetrator is (a) minority prosecution is almost automatic. On the other hand if the circumstances are reversed there seems to be (a) propensity to rationalize the actions as mutually combative or in some other way warranted or deserved,'' Parker wrote in a statement sent to the meeting's participants.

Parker cited a 1996 case where an African-American man who was waiting to pick up his first-grade son at Sierra School in Lancaster said he was attacked by three white men with shaved heads.

Charges were never filed after sheriff's deputies said several parents who witnessed the incident told them that the victim was the one who initiated the altercation.

``Some of the community leaders, in talking to the victim, heard the opposite of what the sheriffs said,'' Parker said.

Parker also cited the July 1996 attack on African-American teen-ager Marcus Cotton who was stabbed and assaulted by three white males with shaved heads who jumped out of a car as Cotton walked with his cousin along Division Street and Avenue J.

An adult and two juveniles were prosecuted federally after local prosecutors did not file charges against all of them.

The adult, Danny Williams, was sentenced last year to four years and nine months in prison, a sentence Parker considers too lenient.

Williams originally had been arrested by sheriff's deputies in connection with the Cotton attack but was not charged by the District Attorney's Office, Prosecutors said the victims could not positively identify him.

State charges were dropped against one of the teen-age boys after witnesses were unable to identify him. He is awaiting sentencing in federal court. The other boy was prosecuted in both federal and state juvenile courts and was sentenced to serve two years in a federal detention center in Tennessee.

A press conference will be held before the meeting at 6 p.m. to announce a program for juvenile offenders called JOINT, or Juveniles Offenders Investing in Tolerance, and a support group for victims of hate crimes that will offer counseling and support.

The JOINT program is for juveniles convicted of hate crimes who will do work in the community against which they committed the offense.