2 Guilty of Burning Small Cross : Crime: The incident was one of several acts that neo-Nazis committed against a black family that later moved.

Two skinheads pleaded guilty this week to misdemeanor criminal charges arising from a racially motivated burning of a small cross in 1990 on the front lawn of a home belonging to a black Temple City family.

Michael Christopher Knight, 22, of Temple City admitted Monday in Los Angeles federal court that, on Feb. 8, 1990, he and other members of a neo-Nazi group burned a nine-inch cross fashioned from toy Lincoln Logs on the lawn of a home belonging to Spencer and Patricia Stewart.

Knight also admitted to disguising himself with a ski mask and, on March 6, 1990, throwing a rock through a window of the Stewarts’ home and cutting the telephone lines.

Now free on $5,000 bail, Knight faces up to two years in federal prison and a maximum $200,000 fine when sentenced April 12. Knight was charged with intimidation on account of race and aiding and abetting others in the commission of a crime.

A 20-year-old accomplice also will be sentenced for related crimes. Further information, including his name, was withheld on the second man because he was a juvenile at the time of the incidents. The case is being handled in federal juvenile court.

“People ought to know that when they take hateful actions on account of race, it’s not just morally wrong, it’s a crime--a crime the federal government will prosecute,” said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. John Wiley.

The crimes began after Knight moved next door to the Stewarts’ rented home in the 9500 block of Longden Avenue, Wiley said. Knight had meetings with a group of swastika-wearing young men who said they were members of “The Faith,” a neo-Nazi group advocating the racial superiority of Anglos.

From January to May, 1990, the group harassed the Stewarts, finally forcing the family to move, Wiley said. In one instance, the couple’s 11-year-old daughter was physically threatened when a car driven by the young men came perilously close to the bicycle she was riding.

On Feb. 8, 1990, Knight and two other young men burned the cross on the Stewarts’ lawn. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies later found Lincoln Logs like the type used in the incident in Knight’s house.

At 5 a.m. on March 6, 1990, Knight donned a ski mask and threw a rock through the Stewarts’ window.

The crimes were investigated by FBI agents and officials from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Knight and the juvenile were subsequently arrested. The Stewarts, both RTD bus drivers, could not be reached for comment.

FBI agents say the skinhead group has since disbanded.