SANTA ANA : Phony Hot Line Not Hate Crime--Police

A phony telephone hot line that promises rewards for those who turn in illegal immigrants does not violate hate-crime laws and will not be investigated, a Police Department spokesman said Monday.

The Spanish-language hot line, set up by an Anaheim businessman, has angered local Latino leaders because it uses a derogatory term for illegal immigrants and appears to divide the minority community by asking callers to turn in undocumented residents.

“If he were calling other people or calling out and making statements, it would be a real slim ‘maybe,’ ” Sgt. Al Echternacht said. “But when people are calling him, it’s not a hate crime at all.”

Businessman Bruce Derflinger, formerly head of the Orange County chapter of the Jewish Defense League, explained after the hot line was discovered last week that while he intended for the recorded telephone message to be insulting, it was not racially motivated.

He said he placed the message on his business telephone line in the 714 area code hoping to create backlash against Glendale television station KVEA. The Spanish-language station set up a contest telephone line using the same number as Derflinger’s business, but in the 213 and 818 area codes.

Derflinger claimed that because his telephone line was jammed by would-be contestants, he was forced to go out of business last year.

After a meeting with station general manager Augustine Martinez, Derflinger said he would give up the telephone line and recording if the station paid at least $18,000--money he said he still owes on his failed business.

But Martinez said “there’s not going to be a lot of give” on Derflinger’s demand.

The station also issued a statement calling Derflinger’s message a “misguided effort to disparage and offend Hispanic Americans” and describing his attempt to link the hot line to the station as a “malevolent effort to tarnish the station’s reputation.” Officials also said they will “cooperate with the proper authorities to put an end to this insulting hot line.”