California IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : Youth Convicted of Beating Gay Man

A San Jose teen-ager was convicted of beating and kicking his gay neighbor because of the man’s sexual orientation in a hate crime that was videotaped by the victim. Prosecutors argued that Joshua Huff attacked William B. Kiley on June 11 and called him a “faggot” because the teen-ager hates gay men. Huff, who recently turned 18, was found guilty on all three counts of felony assault, battery and a hate crime in Santa Clara Juvenile Court. Kiley had set up a video camera to record ongoing harassment by Huff, who wears tattoos of a swastika and of barbed wire. Huff will be sentenced this month, and could remain in youth authority custody until he is 25. “I feel very good,” Kiley, 42, said afterward. “It’s very gratifying that the courts see hate crimes as a civil liberties issue.”