Youth Gets Probation for Driving Car Into Picketers

An Iranian-born teen-ager who drove his father’s Rolls-Royce into a group demonstrating in support of Operation Desert Storm pleaded guilty Tuesday to assault with a deadly weapon.

The 16-year-old was sentenced to an indefinite period of probation after Juvenile Court Judge Charles Scarlett reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The youth, an Iranian citizen, was ordered to live with his father in Paris during the probation, Gibbons said. She said Scarlett will receive a progress report on the youth within a year, at which time the probationary period can be dismissed or continued. No one was injured on the night of Jan. 30, when the youth drove his father’s car into a group demonstrating in front of the Federal Building in Westwood. Authorities said the boy had argued with some of the demonstrators a few minutes earlier.