Neo-Nazi Suspects Were Detained Before

Two suspected neo-Nazi punk rockers who were arrested this week for possessing a human skull and signs from a Jewish cemetery were detained by police last year after officers found them riding in a van with stolen grave markers and flower urns, authorities said Wednesday.

In a case that has outraged Jewish leaders, Jacob Luis Rupe, 20, and Craig Matthew Lax, 21, were arrested Tuesday after police found a skull and two signs believed to have been stolen from Mount Sinai Memorial Park inside the Burbank apartment they share.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles, said he hopes police will investigate until they can determine whether the crimes were random acts or orchestrated events engineered by hate groups.

“We would like to know whether these are two local hoodlums or two individuals who have been inspired or in contact with others around the country who unfortunately have the same perspective on life,” Cooper said.

“It’s both macabre and cowardly,” added Tzivia Schwartz, Western states counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. “That somebody would choose to act out their bigotry is bad enough, but that they choose victims that cannot defend themselves I find personally revolting.”

The investigation Wednesday showed that Rupe and Lax were also passengers in a van that officers pulled over last Nov. 19 during a routine traffic stop at the intersection of North California Street and San Fernando Road, said Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch.

Inside the vehicle, police discovered grave markers and flower urns that were later reported missing from Sholom Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Sylmar. According to Koch, whoever stole the markers also damaged a number of crypts.

Sheriff’s investigators who handled the case arrested the driver of the van, Kevin Beardsley, 21, of Burbank, but not Rupe or Lax because of a lack of evidence. Now, however, the pair may be charged in connection with that incident due to witness statements and evidence that police have collected this week, some of it from the suspects’ apartment in the 2300 block of Fairview Street.

Rupe and Lax spent Wednesday in a Burbank jail pending their expected arraignment today on charges that could range from grand theft vandalism to possession of stolen property.

Rupe, who is being held on $15,000 bond, and Lax, whose bond is $10,000, could also be charged with possessing human remains, which is classified as a felony under the state’s health and safety code, police said. Within the next several days, a forensic anthropologist will examine the skull to determine its age, race, sex and if possible, its identity, according to Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the coroner’s office.

Police on Wednesday said they have no motive. But an acquaintance of Rupe said authorities are overreacting.

Mitch Siegel, manager of Book City in Burbank, said Rupe has been a model employee during the two years he has worked at the shop on San Fernando Road.

Siegel described Rupe, who goes by the name Jake, as a reader of Anne Rice novels and occult fiction and said he occasionally plays drums for various bands.

“Jake is one of the nicest, most honest people I’ve ever known,” Siegel said. “His appearance throws people off a bit because he has a punk rock haircut, but he isn’t going out and killing people and taking their bodies back to his house. He’s not a neo-Nazi.”

Siegel said Rupe did not steal the skull police found in his apartment. “He said he found it someplace,” Siegel said.

Koch, who stressed that the bookstore where Rupe worked is not under investigation, said his officers served a search warrant at Rupe and Lax’s apartment after receiving a tip from a person who had been inside the residence, saw the skull and signs and “thought it was wrong.”

Police traced the signs, one of which is described as a Holocaust memorial, to Mount Sinai Memorial Park. A spokeswoman at Mount Sinai confirmed that several signs had been stolen from the cemetary about 18 months ago.

Tamaki is a Times staff writer and Ryfle is a correspondent.