3 Ordered to Trial in Racial Attack

Three young men believed to be members of a skinhead group were ordered Monday to stand trial on charges of assaulting another young man they mistakenly believed was Latino.

The victim, 18-year-old Eric Vaerga, identified the three in San Diego Municipal Court as the ones who attacked him Oct. 21 at 2 a.m. in the Mission Bay area.

Steven Kuntz, 20; Michael Mann, 19; and Michael DiPaolo, 21, were ordered to appear in Superior Court on Dec. 27, for arraignment and setting of a trial date.

They also are charged with depriving Vaerga of his civil rights.

A charge of mayhem was dismissed in the preliminary hearing conducted by Judge Nicholas Kasimatis.

Vaerga is from an island in the Pacific Ocean and looks Hispanic, said the prosecutor, Luis Aragon.

The defendants’ steel-toed boots were admitted as evidence in the hearing, and Vaerga said the men kicked him with them. The defendants reportedly yelled white-supremacy slogans during the incident. Kuntz has posted $50,000 bond and remains free, but Mann and DiPaolo remain in County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

In another unrelated incident involving another alleged skinhead, Christopher Leon, 19, was ordered Monday to undergo a 90-day diagnostic study at Chino State Prison before sentencing March 12.

Leon pleaded no contest in September to assaulting a black man accompanying a white woman to her car in University Heights on April 4.

Charles Smith, 44, suffered broken ribs, spinal and back injuries, a broken nose, and an eye injury requiring surgery.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez will study prison officials’ recommendations before sentencing Leon.