THE SIMPSON VERDICTS : Brown Family, O.C. Publishers Threatened : Hate: Sheriff’s deputies increase security at Dana Point home of Simpson’s ex in-laws. Callers also rail at black couple, shelters.

Sheriff’s deputies increased patrols around the Monarch Beach home of Lou and Juditha Brown on Thursday after at least three telephone death threats were made against the family, authorities said.

Threats also were reported to the Black Orange magazine, according to county Human Relations Commission officials. And at a county shelter for battered women, a handful of callers railed against the shelters themselves for siding with Simpson’s prosecution team, employees said.

At the Browns’ home, callers left messages on an answering machine and with a gate guard that included death threats as well as “social and political commentary,” Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Simon said. The callers were both men and women, whom sheriff’s investigators are trying to find, Simon said.

Investigators declined to talk specifically about the number of deputies deployed to the house but said they were taking the threats “very seriously.” The increased security measures will be in place until they no longer are necessary, Simon said.

Since O.J. Simpson’s acquittal was announced Tuesday, the Browns have been secluded at home for the most part, talking to close friends and relatives and visiting the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation near their home.

At least three threats, possibly more, have been directed at them by anonymous male and female callers, Simon said. Deputies declined to comment on the nature of the calls.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county’s Human Relations Commission, said threats also were left on an answering machine at the office of the Black Orange publication.

The magazine’s publishers, the Rev. Randall Jordan and his wife, Joyce, came home Wednesday to the angry voice of a woman warning them to “watch their backs” because she knew where they lived, said Kennedy, who spoke to the couple after the call.

“The woman proceeded to spew the most foul and malicious profanity,” Kennedy said. “At one point, she said, ‘You better stop playing the race card.’ ”

The Rev. Jordan, who had made public statements supporting the verdict, was not available for comment.

Beverly Gallagher, a counselor at the Interval House, a shelter for battered women in west Orange County, said it received angry calls after its telephone number appeared on television Wednesday, intended for battered women to call.

Instead Gallagher said, the shelter received calls from irate people accusing it and others like it of creating an atmosphere of awareness that had contributed to Simpson’s prosecution.

But by the end of one such call, Gallagher said, the man asked for information about volunteering to help battered women.

“You let them vent,” she said. “That’s the main thing.”