4 Teen-Agers Plead Not Guilty in Shooting That Injured 3 Youths : Arraignment: Brawl involved some Westlake High students. Defense lawyers say their clients suffer racism at school and in court.

All four juveniles charged in a brawl in which three Westlake High School students were shot pleaded not guilty Thursday, and their lawyers said the defendants are victims of racism at school and in the courts.

“We have a situation where nerdy Asian types are being harassed by football players who are much larger than them,” Deputy Public Defender Zane Smith said.

Another defense attorney also questioned during the arraignment why four Asian 16-year-olds have been charged and detained over the melee while their white adversaries remain free.

“Is it because (they are) Asian?” said Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., who represents one of two Westlake students charged in the attack.

After court, Mesereau said his client, a Taiwanese American, has been a target of racial epithets and “other derogatory names that reflect bigotry and racism” at the school.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who ordered the defendants to remain locked up, reacted angrily to the suggestions of racism in his court.

“Race just isn’t an issue in this courtroom,” Perren snapped from the bench.

A top school official said he is not aware of any unusual racial problems at Westlake High.

“I know that there were some problems between two kids, but that was about it,” said Fred Van Leuven, director of secondary education for the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The father of Curtis Simmons, one of the Westlake football players injured in the incident, has denied that his son racially harassed the Taiwanese boy.

The allegations by defense attorneys Thursday represent the most extensive statements yet from the defendants’ supporters in the case. The comments also mark the first time that the defendants have charged the legal system with racism in the matter.

The melee originated after the Taiwanese teen-ager and Simmons agreed to engage in a fistfight at North Ranch Park after school Feb. 3, both sides concede.

The Taiwanese youth arrived with five cars of associates, police said. They jumped out of the vehicle, announced, “We’re the Asian Mafia,” and attacked Simmons and others with baseball bats, sticks and gunfire, authorities and witnesses said. One youth was hospitalized.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies apprehended the two defendants from Westlake High within a day. They arrested a teen-ager from Brea in Orange County and one from Rowland Heights in Los Angeles County six days after the melee.

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Thursday’s not-guilty pleas set the stage for hearings March 22 in which Perren will decide, based on probation reports, whether to try the youths as juveniles or adults. Prosecutors have asked that they be tried as adults, citing the seriousness of the offense.

The Brea teen-ager, also a Taiwanese American, was the first to be arraigned Thursday. He is charged with two counts of assault with a firearm and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Perren refused to allow him to be released to his parents and handed out the same ruling for each of the remaining defendants.

Mesereau said his client was involved in “mutual combat” and nothing more.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John A. Cardoza, however, said the teen-ager was “the hub” of the brawl, a comment that prompted Mesereau to say: “If my client was the hub, then so was the alleged victim,” because they both agreed to the fistfight.

But Perren said the behavior the defendant is accused of is “predatory in nature,” noting that he allegedly arranged for five carloads of his friends to attack the crowd with weapons. The youth is charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

The third defendant--a Korean American student at Westlake charged with shooting at an occupied vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and discharge of a firearm--”fired for the purpose of breaking up the crowd,” said his lawyer, Michael F. Yamamoto.

And Smith, the lawyer for the final defendant--a Laotian American from Rowland Heights who is charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon--produced a letter from his client’s teacher. The letter said the boy is a good student who gets along well with classmates, Smith said.

“This is an isolated, unusual incident,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s a product of racism.”

He added: “I think it’s amazing that you have larger people picking on smaller people and then they are shocked when people bring sticks, bats and guns to equalize the situation.”

Cardoza said he was surprised that a defense attorney would justify the conduct of the defendants by saying they were at a size disadvantage.

“I find this offensive,” he said in court.