Probation, Community Service Ordered in ’83 Cross-Burning

A 28-year-old Van Nuys man who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a cross-burning in Lake View Terrace in 1983 was sentenced to one year’s probation and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.

David Macis was sentenced Wednesday by Culver City Municipal Court Judge Harold I. Cherness for one misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace and another of illegal possession of a billy club, said Assistant City Atty. Robert B. Horner.

Macis participated in a December, 1983, incident near Kagel Canyon in which a group that included members of the Ku Klux Klan, The Order and the Aryan Nations church burned three 20-foot crosses in memory of a Los Angeles police officer who had been killed by a black man, Horner said.

‘Peripherally Involved’

Horner described Macis as being only “peripherally involved” with the other suspects, four of whom are now serving lengthy prison terms for crimes such as murder and federal racketeering. Macis could have received a maximum term of six months in jail and $500 fine on each charge. Also charged in the case are Tom Metzger, 47, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in California, and Richard Butler, 68, founder of Aryan Nations. Both have pleaded innocent to several misdemeanor charges and will appear along with seven other men June 12 in Los Angeles Municipal Court for the setting of a trial date.

Among those who also took part in the cross-burning incident are Randall P. Evans, 30, of Los Angeles, who is serving a 40-year sentence for federal racketeering; Thomas Bentley, 57, of Idaho, who is serving a 7 1/2-year term for conspiracy for attempting to carry out a white supremacist revolution; David Tate, 23, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a Missouri state trooper, and Frank Silva, 27, of Los Angeles, who was sentenced along with Evans on charges that included conspiracy in the murder of Denver talk-show host Alan Berg.