Cross-Burning in a Mixed Neighborhood Stumps Police

After almost a week of investigation, Ventura police and federal authorities are still baffled by a cross-burning in an East Ventura neighborhood.

“It’s a neighborhood where there are blacks, whites, purples--all types of groups living there,” said Gary Auer of the Ventura office of the FBI, who took over the investigation because the case involved possible civil-rights violations. “Having something like this happen is very unusual.”

Between 2:30 and 5:30 a.m. Friday, a cross made from wooden boards tied together with wire and cloth was implanted in the front lawn of a home on the 6200 block of Loma Vista Street. Early that morning, a neighbor walking a dog saw the cross, whose top was charred, and called the police.

Also found was a white triangular piece of cloth with two holes cut out “like for eyes,” said Ventura Detective Jeanne Boger. The cloth resembled part of a hood worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The apparent target of the incident, Auer said, was a 23-year-old, dark-skinned Latino woman, who last month moved into the home as a live-in baby-sitter for the home’s owner, who is white. Both women have asked investigators not to release their names.

On Friday, the baby-sitter told police that she had received a threatening letter a few weeks before along with a racist cartoon. The letter was signed by “the neighborhood welcoming committee.”

“I talked with one neighbor, a black family,” Boger said. “They have not had an incident, no problems whatsoever. And they’ve lived there for several years.”

Other neighbors are appalled by the incident, she said.

Auer said the FBI has no suspects.

Cross-burning, which violates the Fair Housing Provisions of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, can be punished with a $1,000 fine and one year in prison, Auer said.