Driver Cleared of Hate Crime but Guilty of Assault : Verdict: El Toro man punched black youth, 12, in Mission Viejo. Insufficient evidence found for racial motive.

A man who punched a 12-year-old black youth from Mission Viejo was found guilty Friday of assault and battery but innocent of committing a hate crime.

A Municipal Court jury convicted Paul Richard Klein of two counts of assault but found insufficient evidence to conclude that his attack on Jason Donnell was racially motivated, jurors said after deliberating for more than four hours.

Klein, 28, of El Toro was charged with attacking Jason on June 30 after narrowly missing the boy with his car when he said Jason danced in front of the vehicle.

Juror Judy Brown of El Toro said the panel “didn’t feel that (the attack) was racially motivated. We thought there was an angry verbal exchange between them that went both ways.”

Another juror who asked for anonymity said the jury had difficulty even finding Klein guilty of assault and battery.

“We think that if it hadn’t happened to a black boy,” the juror said, “this wouldn’t have come to court at all. We decided he was guilty only because the law said you can’t hit somebody just because he provoked you. We think the law should be looked at.”

The two assault and battery counts are misdemeanors that together carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Klein had also faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon and civil rights violations.

Klein, who is white, will be sentenced in Municipal Court on Dec. 20.

Neither Klein nor Jason and his family were in the court when the verdict was announced.

The incident occurred as Jason walked along Los Alisos Boulevard in Mission Viejo with several friends. Jason testified that he was dancing and skipping in the street when a Corvette driven by Klein raced by, almost striking him.

Jason, a seventh-grader at Los Alisos Intermediate School, said Klein turned around, stopped, got out of his car and shouted, “What are you (epithet) niggers doing?”

Under cross-examination, Jason admitted that he called Klein a “honky,” but only after he had been punched.

Joe A. Dickerson, Klein’s attorney, said that he is pleased with the verdict and that he had been concerned that recent attention to county hate crimes might sway the jury against his client.

Dickerson had maintained throughout the two-day trial before the all-white jury that his client is guilty of striking the youth. “He clearly should have not done what he did,” Dickerson said while waiting for the verdict. “I think what he is generally guilty of is being dumb.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig McKinnon said he was disappointed.

“I thought we had a good chance,” he said, adding that the concern of jurors about the attitude of Jason and his friends was misplaced.

“I think in this case they were entitled to be disrespectful,” he said.

McKinnon said the sentence Klein receives for the assault and battery convictions will be as stiff as they would be if he had been convicted of a hate crime.

Rusty Kennedy, director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, said he does not think the hate crime acquittal will dissuade minorities from reporting racially motivated incidents.

“It’s hard to prove motivation in a hate crime,” he said, “but (Klein) didn’t get away cleanly with anything.”