Youths in Brawl Ordered Tried as Adults : Court: Three 16-year-olds are charged with various crimes in the Feb. 3 melee near Westlake High, in which two students were shot.

Three 16-year-old youths charged with taking part in a brawl near Westlake High School in which two students were shot will be tried as adults, a judge ruled Thursday.

Ventura County Municipal Judge Herbert Curtis III made the ruling late in the afternoon after listening to two days of testimony in the highly emotional case.

Curtis cited the seriousness and sophistication of the crime as reasons for his decision.

The three--one each from Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties--are charged with various crimes relating to a Feb. 3 melee at North Ranch Park. A fourth boy, James Lee, was ordered tried as an adult March 23.

The brawl began after Lee and a school football player agreed to engage in a fistfight. The two students who were shot have been released from the hospital and are recovering, officials said.

Judge Charles R. McGrath released Lee on $5,000 bail after finding him unfit to be tried in Juvenile Court. But Lee failed to make a court appearance in the case Wednesday, and McGrath is expected to issue a warrant for his arrest if Lee misses a makeup court date this morning.

A prosecutor noted Lee’s absence from court when asking that bail be set at $200,000 for each of the other three youths--Yohn Yi of Thousand Oaks, Oubonsack Sonethanouphet of Brea and William Huang of Rowland Heights.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Vanarelli also said each of the youths is either a gang member or has ties to gang members.

“When you deal with gangs and gang members, these are the things that happen,” Vanarelli said.

But attorneys for the youths argued for bail of $5,000 for each, saying their clients’ cases are being tried separately from Lee’s.

Curtis set bail at $50,000 for each boy.

The three teen-agers came to the park as part of a group of five carloads of Asian youths who intended to help Lee in the fight, according to court testimony.

Lee and football player Curtis Simmons had been involved in an ongoing feud when they decided to settle matters at the park, investigators have testified.

About a week before the brawl, Lee and his brother, Frank, telephoned the three teen-agers and other Asian youths and asked them to show up at the park on their behalf.

On the day of the fight, Lee’s supporters jumped out of their vehicles, announced: “We’re the Asian Mafia,” and attacked Simmons and others with baseball bats, sticks and gunfire, according to court testimony.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies apprehended the two local youths within a day of the incident. They arrested the youths from Brea and Rowland Heights within six days.

All of the youths but Lee have been in the custody of juvenile authorities since their arrests.