Ex-O.C. Teen Admits Guilt in Skinhead Case

A former Huntington Beach teen-ager admitted Monday that he conspired to commit a series of attacks as part of a skinhead group bent on starting a race war, but the judge presiding over his case refused, at least for now, to accept his guilty pleas.

Carl Daniel Boese, who now lives in Crestline in San Bernardino County, fidgeted nervously as U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. questioned him about his involvement in the conspiracy and warned him about the possible penalties.

When Byrne specifically asked Boese about each of the charges filed against him, the 17-year-old admitted he was guilty of conspiracy and of attacking the Temple Beth David synagogue in Westminster.

In addition to the attack on the synagogue, members of the group, known as the Fourth Reich Skinheads, bombed homes in Lakewood and Paramount, authorities have said. They also plotted to storm the First A. M. E. Church in Los Angeles and spray the congregation with gunfire, according to federal agents.

Although he was born in Huntington Beach, Boese spent much of his youth in Ontario, before returning in January of this year and enrolling as a junior in Marina High School in honors and advanced-placement courses.

In March, he was arrested on suspicion of arson, vandalism and trespassing at Huntington Beach Union High School. Police say Boese etched a swastika into the school’s lawn, raised a Nazi flag up the school’s flagpole and burned material in the school.

Shortly after the incident, he left Marina High and Huntington Beach, where he had been living with his mother and older sister, to live with his father in Crestline.

While Boese pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and the attack on Temple Beth David synagogue, he pleaded not guilty to a third charge against him, one that accuses him of using a bomb in the Temple Beth David attack, which occurred on Jan. 18.

The bombing charge carries a 30-year sentence, and under a plea agreement, government lawyers agreed to drop that charge in exchange for Boese’s guilty pleas on the other counts.

As part of that deal, prosecutors would recommend that Boese be given a sentence of between 51 and 63 months in prison. He would also be ordered to undergo counseling.

But at the last minute Monday, the judge announced that he was not prepared to accept the agreement, because it contains a provision prohibiting Boese from appealing the sentence if it falls within the recommended range. Byrne has long objected to plea agreements that prevent appeals, and he balked at the idea again Monday.

“There is a basic unfairness,” Byrne said. “There is also a basic frivolousness.”

Byrne said he would take up the issue of Boese’s pleas again today, and prosecutors said they would consider appealing if Byrne continued to reject the agreement.

Meanwhile, federal authorities in Santa Ana agreed to allow reputed skinhead Geremy C. Von Rineman a chance to enter a court-sanctioned diversion program that could lead to the dismissal of the single federal weapons charge against him.

But his former girlfriend, Jill Scarborough, of Anaheim, who also is charged with the same weapons count, is scheduled to stand trial in December.

The agreement with Von Rineman--revealed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on Monday, the day before his trial was to have begun--gives him the chance to complete a supervised 18-month program operated by the U.S. attorney’s office as an alternative to prison.

“I think that’s the best way for him to go,” said his attorney, Stephan A. DeSales. “He’s not going to hurt anyone.”

Von Rineman, 22, was shot and paralyzed in 1989 following a race-related incident in a supermarket parking lot in Van Nuys. The shooting occurred shortly after Von Rineman and some of his friends had left a gathering of about 50 skinheads who had gotten together for a birthday celebration and to view videotapes of “Aryan weddings” recorded by members of the White Aryan Resistance.

A former resident of Huntington Beach who attended Marina High School, Von Rineman now lives in Corona with his mother and step-father.

In July, he and Scarborough were both charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun in violation of federal weapons laws. Two undercover FBI informants befriended the couple and paid $400 for the shotgun, according to a federal complaint filed in the case.

The couple, who have since broken up, were arrested by federal agents as part of a crackdown on suspected skinheads and arms suppliers that resulted in nine arrests, mostly for weapons violations.

Scarborough, 22, who lives in Anaheim, did not appear in court Monday morning as scheduled but did show up for an afternoon court hearing. She was threatened Monday with incarceration for failing six drug tests since she was released pending her federal court trial. The tests were positive for the drug methamphetamine.

U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin, who admonished Scarborough for showing up 90 minutes late for a court hearing earlier in the day, said she had concerns about allowing Scarborough to remain out of custody given her repeated “dirty tests.”

McLaughlin said she would decide whether to place Scarborough in custody after reviewing results of the impromptu drug test, scheduled to be administered Monday afternoon. The test results would not be available until Nov. 5, however, and Scarborough is free until that date.

Scarborough’s trial is scheduled for Dec. 14. Von Rineman will also go to trial on that date if he is not accepted in the diversion program.

Another Orange County suspect in the case, Josh Daniel Lee, is accused of selling illegal weapons to an undercover FBI agent and informant. His trial is set for Nov. 30.

Times staff writer Rene Lynch contributed to this story.