Hate Crime Case Hinges on Group Responsibility : Courts: Civil trial targets 10 youths present at Laguna Beach beating in 1993. Expanded laws have given victims a better chance to seek compensation.

Loc Minh Truong may never remember what happened the night he was beaten so severely that he nearly died on a rocky Laguna Beach shoreline, the victim of a hate crime that sparked widespread outcry.

But the 57-year-old man will always bear the physical injuries from that January, 1993, attack that shattered his teeth, tore his left eye from the socket and left the back of his head impaled on a rock.

Two young men already have been convicted of attacking Truong because they thought he was gay, but the case will move back to court this week as Truong seeks money to help pay medical bills and other expenses.

Truong is suing the two convicted assailants, along with eight other teen-agers who were at the scene of the attack but never charged with a crime. Those teens said they did not know the attack was going to occur.

Six teens have already settled out of court for more than $400,000, according to Truong’s attorney, Russell Kerr.

The trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, will delve into issues of group responsibility, and just who can be held liable for a crime. Expanded civil rights laws have given Truong and other hate crime victims better legal footing for seeking compensation in civil court, Kerr said.

“These cases are examples of peer pressure escalating into mob violence,” Kerr said. “In such situations, you can’t stand by and watch an attack with impunity when, by your actions and your presence, you have incited and encouraged the attack.”

Truong, an electronics plant worker who was unemployed at the time of the attack, spent more than a month in the hospital and has since had to move in with family for help with his care.

Kerr said his client has permanent brain damage that causes memory problems. Truong can no longer drive a car, shop by himself or hold a job, he said. He is seeking about $150,000 for medical bills as well as general and punitive damages of $2.5 million, according to court records.

The lawyer said he hopes the case might prevent other hate crimes by raising the possibility of stiff civil penalties, a sentiment echoed by others in the county.

Pat Callahan, executive director of the nonprofit Orange County Together, said such court action sends the message that hate crimes “will not be tolerated.”

“If you do it, you will be open to criminal, civil and all kinds of penalties,” she said.

Barbara Bergen, an attorney who works with the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles, said more hate-crime victims have been pursuing damages in civil court.

“Criminal court is fine as far as deterring people from committing other crimes and punishing them for the crime they committed, but it doesn’t compensate the victim,” she said.

Jeffrey Michael Raines, a 19-year-old from San Juan Capistrano whom authorities said actually beat Truong, pleaded guilty earlier this year to attempted murder and other charges, including the commission of a hate crime. He was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, where he remains today.

Christopher Michael Cribbins, who authorities said started the attack by pushing Truong and then ran away, pleaded guilty to assault and committing a hate crime. Cribbins, 23, of San Clemente received a one-year jail sentence, which he has served, and was placed on probation for five years.

Neither man has hired lawyers to defend them against allegations of assault and civil rights violations included in Truong’s lawsuit.

Six of the other eight defendants--who were accused of negligence in the lawsuit--denied any responsibility for the attack, but settled out of court. Kerr said he will likely agree to dismiss the seventh defendant from the action.

That would leave the eighth man originally named in the suit, Edward DaCosta, 19, on the defendant list with Raines and Cribbins.

Truong alleges that DaCosta was negligent for driving Raines and Cribbins to the scene of the attack and for lending encouragement.

But DaCosta, who will be the only defendant in court with a lawyer, said he had no idea that the attack was planned or likely to occur that Jan. 9 night, according to his lawyer.

“It was just a group of kids out for the night and they happened to have this guy along who went nuts and pummeled this guy,” his lawyer, Stephen Coonzt, said.

According to court records, the group of mostly San Clemente high school students had been drinking and hanging out at a Laguna Beach nightclub when Raines suggested they “beat up fags.” Most of the defendants denied hearing such a statement.

The group, traveling in two carloads, later stopped near several gay bars off Coast Highway and Raines and Cribbins went down to the beach where the attack occurred, according to court records.

Police, after receiving calls from witnesses, found Truong’s nearly lifeless body on the rocky shore.

John Hill, a professor at Western State University College of Law who did some legal research for the suit, said the case could challenge the tradition of generally not holding someone liable for failing to prevent harm.

“Can someone be liable for standing around, for failing to rescue or to interfere or to tell the assailant to stop?” he asked. “There are some really interesting issues here.”