GLENDALE : Antonovich Criticizes Hate Crime Dismissal

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich criticized the district attorney’s office this week for dropping hate crime charges against an 18-year-old man accused of painting satanic symbols and anti-Christian slogans on a Glendale church.

Prosecutors allowed Philip Michael Dunigan to plead guilty in May to a lesser charge of vandalizing religious property, sparing him a state prison term. He was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail, three years probation and community service.

“This sends the wrong message out,” Antonovich said in a statement released by his office. “We need to send a strong message that hate crimes will not be tolerated and seek the harshest sentence for the first offense.”

The supervisor said that because the hate crime charge was dropped, “if Dunigan is convicted of future hate crimes, he will receive a lighter sentence.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Ellen Aragon, who prosecuted the case, contended that Dunigan received “a fairly stiff sentence.”

“I think it’s a very serious sentence for a young man who’s 18, with no prior record,” Aragon said. “To be convicted of a felony and serve 180 days in county jail is a substantial amount of jail time.”

Dunigan was one of four San Gabriel Valley youths arrested in connection with the Feb. 26 defacing of the church. One of the defendants was never charged for lack of evidence, while another, Damian Chavez, 18, is awaiting trial on weapons charges. Robert Nusselein, 19, was recently found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a state hospital.