Wanted in Burning of Vehicles : 8 Beach Riot Suspects Identified, Police Say

Huntington Beach police said Thursday that they have identified eight people believed to be involved in the torching of police and lifeguard vehicles during Sunday’s beach riot and hope to make arrests soon.

Sgt. Larry Miller said that officers were able to make the identifications in part from footage provided by local television stations and citizens who were in the area over the Labor Day weekend. The footage, he said, showed more than 40 people hurling objects at police and engaging in other violent acts while “thousands cheered them on.”

“There’s a lot of fellas we’d like to put in jail,” Miller said. “We’ll make the arrests as soon as we can put our cases together.”

In other developments Thursday, state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) scheduled a legislative fact-finding hearing aimed at gathering information and studying means of avoiding similar disturbances.

And in Palm Springs, police officials dismissed recent news accounts that the youths who caused trouble there last Easter were the same people involved in the Huntington Beach melee this past weekend. Sunday’s riot erupted during the final day of the Op Pro Surfing Championships, apparently when two or more men tried to tear off the bathing suit tops of two women. When police intervened, witnesses said that youths began to throw rocks and bottles at officers, eventually looting a large lifeguard station and setting fire to five police cars.

More than 150 officers had to be called in from throughout Orange County to end the violence. By day’s end, 10 police officers and 30 beachgoers had been injured.

The names of those suspected of burning the vehicles were not released. But police said Thursday that 22 people have been arrested so far in connection with the violent disturbance on charges ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to being drunk in public.

Bergeson said her hearing will focus on how local police agencies “cooperated with each other” in quelling the disturbance.

Seek Information

“What we are actually trying to do is gather information . . . from local residents, law enforcement and everybody concerned,” said Bergeson, who chairs the Senate Local Government Committee and represents most of Orange County’s beach communities.

Bergeson said the panel will meet at 10 a.m. Sept. 25 in the Huntington Beach City Council chambers.

“We are concerned how the disturbance escalated to the point it did,” Bergeson said. “We might want to look at means of prevention.”

Bergeson’s panel is the second one to be formed this week. On Tuesday night, the Huntington Beach City Council voted to set up a nine-member committee to evaluate the circumstances surrounding the riot and to suggest recommendations for future handling of large beach crowds.

Commenting on news accounts linking last spring’s Palm Springs riot and the Huntington Beach Labor Day disturbance, Palm Springs Police Sgt. Steve Harrison said Thursday: “To my knowledge, the two police departments got together and exchanged notes and apparently there is no correlation other than how the incidents got started.”

Bikini Tops a Factor

Harrison explained that while both incidents were triggered by youths tearing off women’s bikini tops, “it appears that the similarities end there.”

Arrested earlier this week on suspicion of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon in the beach riot were Sean Clark Boles, 18, of Coachella; Christopher Kent Baker, 18, of Santa Ana; Darren Lee Newman, 21, and Jeffery Sean Burns, 18, both of Long Beach.

In addition, Pearse Verrad Kearns, 20, whose residence was listed by police as Camp Pendleton, was arrested on charges of attempting to strike an undercover officer during the tumult.

Those arrested on charges of being drunk in public are Richard Michael Blake, 19, Ronald Thomas Brown III, 23, John Allen Patton, 21, and Jeffrey Paul Patton, 22, all of Huntington Beach; Paul John Carr, 18, of Palos Verdes; Andrew Patrick DiFrancisco, 25, of Irvine, and Dave Brian Evans, 21, of Simi Valley.

Others arrested on the same charge are Thomas James Gorman, 26, and Terry Lane Morris, 25, both of Downey; Shawn Michael Kennedy, 21, of Moorpark; Henry Lee Perry, 35, and Charles Bedwin Zeiger, 25, both of Long Beach, and Matt Anthony Tierney, 23, Los Angeles.

Address Unknown

David Michael Garneau, 21, whose address was unknown, was arrested on charges of urinating in public, as was Michael Brian Rugg, 18, of Simi Valley. Rugg faces an additional charge of being a minor in possession of alcohol, police said.

Arrested on drunk-driving charges were Lawrence Brian Schramel, 25, whom police listed as a transient, and Thomas Allan Vanwie, 30, of Huntington Beach.

Police also released information regarding the four citizens who have lodged complaints of police brutality against Huntington Beach police.

Sgt. Tristram Swan) released the identity of only one of the complainants, and offered a limited description of the complaints:

- A man alleged that he and his two sons were not able to leave the beach area because of the crowd. He said that an officer in a black uniform approached them, yelled at them to “get out of here now” and sprayed Mace in their faces.

- A woman complained that her son, who “wasn’t doing anything,” was accosted by police who grabbed items out of his arms, slandered him and generally brutalized him.

- A woman alleged that when she did not move as quickly or as far as officers had asked, she was hit by a night stick.

- Christopher Baker, the Santa Ana 18-year-old who was arrested on charges of throwing a beer bottle at police, filed a complaint alleging that while he was trying to leave the area, he was unjustifiably hit by officers and arrested. He also alleged that police did not read his rights to him during the arrest.

Baker has pleaded not guilty to the felony assault charges filed against him.

Times staff writer Kenneth F. Bunting, in Sacramento, contributed to this story.