YOUTH MAY BE MOVED; HATE CRIME DEFENDANT COULD GO TO TENNESSEE.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer A Lancaster youth charged in federal court in a racially motivated attack on an African-American teen-ager likely will be sent to a long-term residential program in Tennessee, attorneys said. The 17-year-old defendant, who was 16 at the time of the July 8, 1996, attack that triggered a string of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley , has been convicted in state juvenile court juvenile court Special court handling problems of delinquent, neglected, or abused children. Two types of cases are processed by a juvenile court: civil matters, often concerning care of an abandoned or impoverished child, and criminal matters, arising from antisocial in the same case. ``In federal court, they've got funding together, and he goes to a long-term residential program in Tennessee,'' said Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was James Coady, who represented the boy in the state case. ``We're hoping (the juvenile court judge) will do the same thing.'' The boy was found guilty of assault and hate crime charges Tuesday in Sylmar Juvenile Court. His sentencing is scheduled for April 30. The federal court would have jurisdiction over the boy until age 21, Coady said. The defendant, along with a 16-year-old boy and 22-year-old Danny Williams Danny Williams may refer to:
Cotton played in the National Football League between 1988 and 1991. College career He played college football and was all Pac 10 at the University of Southern California was stabbed and assaulted by three white youths with shaved heads. Williams pleaded guilty last October in federal court to committing hate crimes and is awaiting sentencing. State charges were dropped against the second boy after witnesses were unable to identify him. The Lancaster youth has been held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall since his arrest a day after the assault. The other juvenile defendant has been under house arrest, Coady said. Federal prosecutors have declined to comment on the charges filed against the two younger defendants. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. police, the assailants jumped out of a car as Cotton walked with his cousin along Division Street near Avenue J. According to testimony at the juvenile court trial Tuesday, the boy said he thought Cotton was one of six African-American males who had chased him two weeks earlier in Jane Reynolds Park and tried to get his bicycle, Coady said. When the defendant spotted Cotton on the street, he jumped out of the car to have a ``fair fight,'' Coady said. Cotton denied being part of the group. ``As the two guys were fighting and exchanging punches and kicks, the other two guys jump out and join in,'' Coady said. The boy came under the influence of skinheads Noun 1. skinheads - a youth subculture that appeared first in England in the late 1960s as a working-class reaction to the hippies; hair was cropped close to the scalp; wore work-shirts and short jeans (supported by suspenders) and heavy red boots; involved in attacks at about age 13 or 14, Coady had said earlier. A psychological report indicated the boy was vulnerable to that kind of influence after his parents home-schooled him with the purpose of keeping him separate from other people, leading to a lack of socialization socialization /so·cial·iza·tion/ (so?shal-i-za´shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so·cial·i·za·tion n. . Within 10 days of the July 8 attack, four more hate crimes were reported. The string of violence prompted a Lancaster City Hall peace rally, establishment of a hate crime hotline and creation of a human relations task force. |
|
||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion