Hate Crime Victim Gets No Damages

After deliberating less than three hours, a jury voted unanimously Thursday not to award any monetary damages to a Jewish woman whose San Carlos home was spray-painted with swastikas.

The San Diego Superior Court jury’s decision involved a lawsuit by Adele Goldberg, 32, against Theresa Prendergast, 18, and her parents, Richard and Lucy Prendergast of Jamul. Theresa Prendergast was the driver of a car whose occupants painted the swastikas.

Lawsuits against the other youths were settled out of court.

The anti-Semitic defacement of Goldberg’s garage occurred after the same youths defaced the nearby Tifereth Israel Synagogue, although Prendergast testified she did not participate in, see or know about the damage to Goldberg’s home until later.

“Win or lose, I’ve made the community aware we can stand up and fight,” Goldberg said. “It’s over for me now. I can finally get on with my life.”

“I hope the community does learn a lesson from this,” she said. “I have no hard feelings about the verdict.”

Goldberg said one benefit of going to trial was that she got her day in court and was able to tell her story.

Attorney John Wingert, who represented the Prendergast family, said that “they all feel bad about the synagogue and the (vandalism at the) Goldberg home.” The Prendergasts were not present for the verdict.

Wingert argued during the trial that the elder Prendergasts are strict Catholics who grounded their daughter after she was arrested and convicted in Juvenile Court.

At issue in the trial was whether Theresa Prendergast conspired with the other youths to specifically vandalize Goldberg’s home.

Trial testimony from the 18-year-old defendant and other youths showed that they discussed spray-painting the synagogue but that there was no talk of targeting Goldberg’s home.

According to testimony, Goldberg had two planters in the shape of the Star of David outside her home that one of the youths tripped over, which apparently alerted the youths that the home’s owner was Jewish.

A Cadillac that was parked near Goldberg’s home but was not owned by her was also spray-painted with an anti-Semitic slur.

Goldberg’s attorney, Jeffrey Schwartz, urged jurors to award her $240,000 for the trauma and fears his client developed after discovering the swastikas on her garage door.

Judge Michael Greer dismissed many causes of action alleged in the suit before it was submitted to the jury, including an allegation of negligent supervision against the elder Prendergasts.

Richard Prendergast testified that he let his daughter use his car the night of Nov. 12, 1988, because she needed it to drive to work. She drove to work after the vandalism occurred. Her parents testified that they did not know anything about the vandalism.

Wingert said jurors told him they didn’t see how Theresa Prendergast could have foreseen that some of the youths would spray-paint a private residence.

Jose Crespo, 18, admitted last week that he committed some of the vandalism, and Ron Israel, 18, refused to answer any questions about the incident when he was subpoenaed to testify.

Both Crespo and Israel are in County Jail, awaiting an Oct. 1 murder trial in the March 2 drive-by shooting of four people who were leaving a party in Santee.