Hate-Crime Victim Vows to Stay and Defy Racists : Vandalism: The district attorney, sheriff and community leaders promise support for a black Laguna Hills family. The target of a Westminster cross-burning invites the De Silvas for Thanksgiving.

Religious and community leaders Tuesday roundly condemned vandals who terrorized a black family by spray-painting their Laguna Hills home with graffiti and leaving behind tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

“These are the most despicable individuals that I can think about,” Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates said. “Anybody that can steal about in someone’s home and terrorize a family should be handled accordingly. . . . I’ve lived in this county all my life and extend my apologies to the family. I am sorry that there are people in the world who terrorize people this way.”

Gates’ comments came after vandals broke into home of Delano E. De Silva, 42, and spray-painted racial slurs on walls and furniture. Before leaving, they turned on the faucets and blocked sinks, flooding the house and causing an estimated $80,000 in damage to a home reportedly worth $370,000.

De Silva said his son, Duvahn, 14, returned home from Laguna Hills High School last week and found the house trashed.

De Silva, who had placed his Barents Street home for sale several weeks ago when he accepted a job offer in Atlanta, said Tuesday that he is postponing his plans.

“I’m not here to be pushed over by anybody,” said De Silva, an insurance underwriter and a native of Panama who later became a U.S. citizen. “I’m not moving. I don’t want to succumb to this overt act” of racism.

Meeting with reporters at a Laguna Niguel church, De Silva was accompanied by his wife, Laverne, and 12-year-old son, Dee. His wife declined to address the press conference, brushing away tears as she read a newspaper report of the attack.

“What can I say?” she asked. “The damage has already been done.”

Throughout the day Tuesday, officials condemned what police called a “classic hate crime” and rallied around the family.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said: “One such incident is one too many. When those cases are presented to us . . . we will vigorously prosecute them.”

Condemnation also flowed at the press conference Tuesday morning at Shepherd of the Hills United Church of Christ in Laguna Niguel. Several clergymen, along with representatives of the Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Sheriff’s Department, said they will not tolerate the attack.

The Rev. John McReynolds, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana, the county’s largest black congregation, spoke about incidents involving bigotry aimed at ethnic minorities in the county.

“We have to learn to live together as brothers or die together as fools,” he said.

De Silva said he was heartened by the support he had received from neighbors and the community in general.

Attending the press conference was Westminster resident Ted Heisser, on whose lawn a cross was burned in July, 1988. A 23-year-old neighbor, arrested with what police called a hate poem in his pocket, was sentenced to a 37-month prison term for his role in the incident. Two months ago, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction.

Heisser, who is black, said he had read about the attack and had come to invite the De Silvas to Thanksgiving dinner at his home.

County law enforcement officials said they could not say whether such hate crimes are on the rise. Capizzi said that while there are no specific statistics on county hate crimes, he believes that the recent incidents “are relatively isolated, and fortunately so.”

Gates agreed that it is “pretty hard to gauge whether (hate crimes) are on the rise. But obviously, any responsible person would not like to see this continue in our community.”

Capt. Andy Romero, who heads the sheriff’s investigations unit, said no suspects have been identified so far, but investigators believe that the vandals are 18 to 25 years old because of the items stolen from the house. Among the losses were a VCR, cash, video games, a pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes and a pair of boy’s slacks.

“This is the classic hate crime,” Romero said. “The vandals definitely intended to intimidate the family and then, secondly, take property. . . . It is done by cowards who don’t want to be seen or heard.”

But De Silva said he refuses to be intimidated. Noting his six years in the Air Force, he said: “I deserve to be respected not only as a citizen but as a human being.”

De Silva said that while he has enjoyed his 13 years as a county resident, he believes that the county had better learn to handle ethnic diversity.

“The pioneers of Orange County, whoever they are, have to learn to accept changes,” he said. “This is a melting pot.”

“If I get a chance to talk to them,” he said about the vandals, “I would ask them: ‘What is it about me that would cause you to do something like this?’ ”