Maas Pleads Guilty to Harassing Black Couple

Eight days after his trial began, a Normal Heights man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to waging a racial hate campaign against a black couple who were his neighbors by placing a burning cross on their front lawn, setting fire to their pickup and placing a hate letter in their mailbox.

In an agreement worked out with federal prosecutors, Michael Maas, 28, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor civil rights violations and to one felony county of threatening his ex-girlfriend, a federal witness. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine (known as speed) and marijuana.

Federal prosecutors, in turn, dropped six additional felony counts that had been filed against Maas. Those counts all related to Maas’ threatening to kill or beat his ex-girlfriend, Deana Tolentino, if she cooperated as a witness.

U.S. District Court Judge Earl Gilliam ordered Maas to return to court Dec. 15 for sentencing. The 28-year-old Maas could receive a maximum prison term of 18 years on the federal charges and could be fined more than $700,000.

However, under the plea agreement reached between the government and Maas’ attorney, Mario Conte, Gilliam has been asked to sentence Maas to three years in prison for the civil rights violations--the maximum term--and an additional seven years for threatening to kill Tolentino. The agreement also calls for Maas to receive a five-year suspended sentence on the drug charge, and to pay the black couple, George and Michelle Shelton, $5,000.

The two sides began negotiations last week, several days after a jury began hearing the case. Last Friday, as part of the negotiations, Maas pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to attempting to murder with a machete a black man outside a Normal Heights convenience store last year.

Maas, who already is serving a three-year state prison term for breaking Tolentino’s arms with a spiked baseball bat after an argument, is scheduled to return to Superior Court on Nov. 8 for sentencing in the machete case.

After the pleas were entered Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Lynne Lasry said that although there had been some concern on the part of the government about the reluctance of some witnesses to testify against Maas, she had been prepared to carry the case forward.

However, Lasry said that she believed the plea agreement was appropriate, especially because Maas agreed to plead guilty to charges of attempted murder and threatening Tolentino. Tolentino had been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying against Maas.

Additionally, Lasry said, the government took into consideration the toll a lengthy trial could have on witnesses. “They are the ones who are living with this the rest of their lives,” she said. “It’s not easy to come (to court) and relive everything publicly.”

Maas’ attorney said that his decision to go along with the plea agreement boiled down to “a simple matter of exposure,” or the amount of time Maas could have faced in prison if he had been convicted on more counts than those he pleaded guilty to.

“My feeling, given the nature and inflammatory aspects of the charges, is that if he had been found guilty on all the felony counts, he would have been exposed to a tremendous amount of (prison) time,” Conte said.

Maas could have faced more than 60 years in prison if he had been convicted on all 11 federal charges.

Conte said Maas had told him he was was sorry for what he had done to the Sheltons. And he characterized Maas as a “very misunderstood fellow.”

“I don’t say that lightly,” Conte said. “There is a lot more about this young man that people don’t know about right now. There was a period of a year or 18 months in his life where things got out of control.”

Last week, on the first day of Maas’ trial, the Sheltons testified in court, telling the jury how they and their young son were driven from their home fearing for their lives because of the racial incidents. The incidents, the couple testified, began in October, 1985, and ended the following April when their pickup was set on fire just feet from their house.

The couple were followed on the witness stand by Tolentino, who told jurors that she had lied before a federal grand jury after Maas threatened to kill her if she told the truth.

Tolentino said that even though she lied to the grand jury, Maas did not believe her. In May, 1985, Tolentino said, Maas drove her to Bonita, where he told her he was going to kill her.

After ordering her out of the car, he chased her with the vehicle for about 15 minutes before ordering her back inside the car, she testified. He then fired a round from a rifle placed next to her head before she relented and told him what “he wanted to hear,” that she had told the grand jury about the racial incidents when in reality she had not.

Last September, Maas’ father, Earl Matthew Maas, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of tax violations after federal prosecutors agreed to drop felony charges of witness intimidation and conspiracy against him.

The government had alleged that the elder Maas helped cover up the racial incidents and terrorized a potential witness by placing a loaded, cocked pistol in his mouth.