Witnesses Missing in Spraying Case : Suspected Skinhead Denies Attack

A man suspected of being a member of the neo-Nazi Skinhead group, on probation for an earlier racially motivated crime, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to assaulting a group of Latinos by spraying them with a fire extinguisher from a passing car.

Robert Renney, 26, a transient who moved to California from Pendleton, Ore., was arrested with two others Nov. 11 by Los Angeles police officers who said they saw the alleged incident near Parthenia Street and Columbus Avenue in Sepulveda.

Renney was a passenger in the car, which the officers said they saw swerve toward a group of six to 10 pedestrians before driving toward a group of five to six men on a nearby sidewalk.

As the car passed the second group, Renney leaned out the window, yelled racial slurs and sprayed the men with the fire extinguisher, causing them to fall near broken glass, Deputy City Atty. Jeffrey M. Harkavy said.

Motion to Dismiss

Despite the fact that police have been unable to find the people who were allegedly sprayed, Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Patricia Gorner Schwartz denied a defense motion to dismiss the assault charge.

However, she said of the prosecution’s case against Renney: “I think it’s a little iffy. It seems to me that the people have a big problem because they don’t have any victims.”

Detective Michael Brandt said investigators are seeking witnesses to the incident.

“It’s a situation where we believe there were a lot of illegals in the area,” Brandt said. “They are not coming forward because they are probably more worried about that. . . . “

Authorities said that Renney and the two arrested with him last week are members of the Skinheads, a white-supremacist youth gang. The driver, Peter John McGurk, 18, a San Fernando Valley resident, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon but had not been formally charged pending further investigation.

A 17-year-old boy, also of the Valley, was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, a billy club. His case has been referred to juvenile authorities.

In the car in which the three were riding, police found a fire extinguisher on the floor board in front of where Renney had been sitting and racial-hate literature in the trunk, Harkavy said.

Renney was arrested in July after a police officer said he saw him putting “white power” stickers on the side of a bank building. In that case, Renney pleaded guilty to placing handbills on private property without the owner’s consent. Van Nuys Municipal Judge Robert L. Swasey sentenced him in August to 45 days in jail and three years’ probation.

Swasey warned Renney at the time that he would revoke the probation and impose the maximum sentence of six months in jail if Renney so much as “spit on public or private property.” A hearing on Renney’s alleged probation violation is scheduled Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Last Friday, Renney posted $2,000 bail in the assault case but was rearrested because authorities believed the alleged assault violated his probation.

Schwartz on Tuesday scheduled a preliminary hearing in the assault case for Dec. 8 and set bail at $2,000, which is in addition to $10,000 bail ordered in the probation-violation case.

Renney, who appeared in court with his head shaved, was being held in County Jail.