Youth in Synagogue Defacement Case Ordered to Perform Community Service

The first of six juveniles arrested for painting anti-Semitic graffiti on a San Carlos synagogue last month has been sentenced to perform 200 hours of community service.

The 16-year-old Los Angeles youth, who has been linked to the white-supremacist Skinhead movement, was ordered by a Juvenile Court referee Thursday to perform community service and pay part of the cost of removing the messages that were painted on the walls of the Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He must pay $136.22, one-sixth of the total cost.

Carlos Armour, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, argued that the teen-ager showed no remorse for his actions, and should be sent to a juvenile detention facility.

But Juvenile Court referee Gilbert Smith released the youth to his father’s custody and allowed him to return to Los Angeles.

Youth Was With Group

The youth, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was with a group of youths who, after drinking a couple of cases of beer, drove along Cowles Mountain Boulevard on Nov. 13, spray-painting anti-Semitic messages and swastikas on the synagogue and two nearby homes.

The Los Angeles teen-ager was sentenced first because he was the only one of the six alleged participants who was placed in custody after the act of defamation, Armour said. The others were released to their families. He said cases involving people in custody receive priority. Court hearings for the other suspects, all juveniles, are scheduled for late January.

Armour, who is chief of the juvenile division, will also prosecute the five remaining minors, three of whom are girls.

The referee’s decision to release the youth on Thursday stemmed in part from a plea by the youth’s defense attorney for leniency because the teen-ager had no record of criminal mischief.

Disagreeing with the referee’s ruling, Armour said, “I am of the opinion that he should have been sent to the juvenile detention facility.”

No Armed Guards

He said that, unlike a jail, the juvenile facility in Campo does not have armed guards and offers educational and counseling programs. Armour added that a stay in a juvenile facility, which is run by the local probation department, typically lasts 240 days.

“Such facilities are helpful to address the particular needs for those who have distorted views,” he said.

Members of the San Carlos Jewish community, who attended the sentencing, were not critical of Smith’s decision. But, nevertheless, they found the final outcome difficult to accept.

Synagogue members were not distressed that the teen-ager was spared time in a juvenile facility, but were hoping that the court would enroll him in an education program to teach him about the Holocaust and why his actions revived agonizing pains.

Ralph Barnes, the synagogue’s president, said nearly 50 members of his synagogue survived internment in concentration camps.

‘Two Parts to the Punishment’

“We believe there should be two parts to the punishment,” Barnes said. “The first part should be community service, and second, some kind of mandatory education program should be set up for them.

“With an educational program, maybe we can help get rid of their distorted ideas,” he said. “If we could make them responsible members of society, it would be a worthwhile exercise.”

Armour said he submitted a written request by the synagogue members to have the youth participate in such an educational program. But he said that request most likely went unanswered because the youth lives in Los Angeles and there would be logistical questions about attending such a program in San Diego.

Morris Cusato, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League for San Diego and Imperial counties, has volunteered the league’s services to the synagogue to oversee an educational program. Cusato said he will ask the league’s office in Los Angeles to persuade authorities there to have the youth undertake such a program.

Educational Program Sought

And, when the time comes for the remaining San Diego teen-agers to be sentenced, Cusato and synagogue members said they will ask the court to sentence the youths to the educational program.

“We will be asking as energetically as possible that the remaining youths, when sentenced, be given not only community service, but a formal educational period of limited duration that will emphasize the problems of bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism,” Cusato said. “Maybe then, the next time they see a swastika, they won’t think it’s such a humorous symbol.”

Barnes said the synagogue has received an outpouring of support from other sectors of the community and from religious leaders of different denominations.

“We have received several thousand dollars from all over the place as contributions to help clean up (and erase the anti-Semitic messages) and as a gesture of sympathy,” Barnes said. “Somebody even sent us money from Iowa.” He added that about 80% of the contributions were received from the non-Jewish community.

The synagogue and the Anti-Defamation League plan to use the contributions to hold an educational conference for students in the county.

“Our initial thinking is to sponsor a countywide conference that will be directed to students to teach them about civic responsibility, the nature of prejudice and the realities of extremism that exist,” Cusato said. He said the league is planning to present its ideas for such a conference to the synagogue’s board of directors in January.