Venice ‘Agitator’ Is Arrested for Refusing Psychological Test

A self-described agitator in the Oakwood section of Venice who recently handed out flyers warning whites they would be targeted by Latino gangs has been arrested for refusing to submit to psychological testing as a parole condition, a state Department of Corrections official said last week.

Timothy Clayton, who outraged local merchants and others with a leafletting campaign earlier this month that targeted upscale shopping districts near Oakwood, was arrested June 24 after he refused to agree to the tests ordered by his parole agent, officials said.

Jerry Di Maggio, regional parole administrator for the Department of Corrections, said the violation was not related to the flyer campaign.

Clayton, 43, an angry critic of political leaders in Oakwood, claimed in a recent interview to represent local gang members.

He and several volunteers distributed thousands of handouts two weeks ago, mostly along Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Main Street in Venice and Santa Monica.

The flyers, which warned whites that they were in danger of being shot by Latino gangs, were widely condemned by community leaders as racist and inaccurate.

Clayton justified the campaign as an attempt to jolt business leaders into taking action to stop a gang war in Oakwood that has claimed at least 17 lives, many of them bystanders, over the past year.

Clayton was paroled last March after serving part of a seven-year prison sentence imposed in 1990 for evading police and two years for possessing cocaine while incarcerated, according to Department of Corrections records.

Clayton entered the state prison system in 1971 on a robbery conviction and returned in 1975 after being arrested for illegal possession of a firearm.

In 1978, he was sentenced to a total of nine years for burglary and forgery, according to the records.

He is being held in the Los Angeles County Jail and is awaiting a parole hearing on the latest allegation.