San Gabriel : 4 Face Charges in Attack
Four San Gabriel High School students face criminal charges for a March 19 attack on two Chinese-American brothers but will not be charged with a hate crime, Los Angeles district attorney’s officials said.
The students--Joseph Vega, 18, Alex Ventura, 18, Juan Villasenor, 19, and Douglas Ortiz, 18--are each charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery on school property and will be arraigned June 18, said Jeanne Behling, a deputy district attorney.
If convicted they face a maximum punishment of one year in County Jail and a $2,000 fine for each count.
Initially the district attorney dropped the case, saying it was unclear whether the victims had provoked the fight. After complaints from a Chinese-American parents group and county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the fight was reinvestigated as a possible hate crime. But officials said Monday there was no evidence that race prompted the attack.
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