WESTLAKE : Teen-Ager Pleads Not Guilty in Brawl

A 16-year-old Westlake High student who is being tried as an adult in connection with an off-campus brawl that left two classmates wounded from gunshots pleaded not guilty Thursday.

A preliminary hearing for defendant James Lee was set for April 6 in Ventura County Superior Court. His bail remained at $5,000.

Prior to the arraignment, prosecutors filed charges against Lee in the adult-court system, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John U. Vanarelli.

Lee faces one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury.

Lee and three other Asian teen-agers are charged in connection with a Feb. 3 melee in which two Westlake High students suffered gunshot wounds. Both students have recovered, as have other students who were assaulted with baseball bats, 2-by-4-foot boards and other objects.

The brawl started after Lee and a Westlake football player, Curtis Simmons, agreed to fight at North Ranch Park. Lee’s attorney has said his client had been racially harassed by Simmons because he is Asian. Simmons has denied the charges.

None of Simmons’ friends who showed up at the park to participate in the fight has been charged.

In court Thursday, Lee’s attorney suggested that Simmons and some of his friends should also be facing criminal charges.

But prosecutor Vanarelli said outside court that authorities are focusing their case against the Asian teen-agers “because they brought deadly weapons to the altercation.”