Case Will Test Definition of a Hate Crime

Two raging men square off at roadside, each screaming that the other cut him off in traffic. Amid the shouts, the younger man, an El Toro Marine, allegedly shouts racial epithets and then roughs up his rival, a 60-year-old native of Korea.

Is the incident a routine assault, just another example of Southern California motorist madness? Or do the venomous words allegedly used against Hahm Johng Soo elevate the confrontation to a hate crime?

That decision will be made by prosecutors in the Orange County district attorney’s office who are reviewing the July 16 incident sent to them by Irvine police as a potential hate crime.

“It’s a gray area, really,” Irvine Police Lt. Tom Hume said Wednesday. “We’ll let the D.A. make the call.”

The incident in question began somewhere along the stretch of Culver Drive near Deerfield Avenue where Soo and the wife of U.S. Marine Cpl. Richard Alan Hale became locked in a driving duel triggered by some perceived slight, Hume said.

When Soo stopped in front of the Hales’ Acura, the 23-year-old Marine bolted from the passenger seat and confronted Soo, according to police reports. Hale allegedly shouted a slur, grabbed at Soo’s throat and then at the older man’s hand, Hume said.

“According to Mr. Soo, Mr. Hale grabbed his fingers and squeezed and asked how he would like it if his finger was broken,” Hume said. “Then Mr. Hale left. Mr. Soo thought Mr. Hale did break his finger, so he followed [the Hales] as they drove off.”

Hume said the two Irvine residents again confronted each other--with Hale allegedly hurling more racial invectives--this time at the busy intersection of Culver and Irvine Boulevard, and a shoving match ensued. As Soo was knocked to the ground, a passing motorist called police, who then found both men at the scene.

Hale, a heavy-equipment mechanic at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station since 1991, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault. Soo, whose finger was not broken, received elbow scrapes and bruises, Hume said.

Police decided to seek a felony hate crime charge this week after further review of the case. Hume said that review was prompted by a call from a Korean American group seeking more information on the incident.

“I reviewed the case and while I didn’t think race was necessarily the cause of the incident, there is that aspect,” Hume said. “My impression is it doesn’t quite fit [into the usual definition] of a hate crime, but most departments would rather let the experts at the D.A.’s office make the decision. It’s the cleanest way to handle it.”

California lawmakers added the hate crime law to the books in 1992, and a successful prosecution can add as many as three prison years to the sentence in a crime committed because of a victim’s race, gender, age religion, disability or sexual orientation.

In 1994, El Toro Marine Kevin Carl Miller, then 24, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a hate crime for making racial slurs and driving two young black men off the road after pelting their car with beer bottles. Miller, who is white, cited race as the sole reason for his crime.

Orange County prosecutors have said there are numerous obstacles to effectively using the hate crime law. Often, acts seen as hateful are not actual crimes. Other times, pinning down bias as the specific motive of the crime is a nebulous proposition.

“Oft times, it is difficult,” said Tom Glazier, the Orange County deputy district attorney who handles hate crime cases. “It depends on the evidence in any given case.”

Glazier could not comment on the incident involving Hale and Soo because it is a pending case. But in 1995, Glazier offered The Times an example of the difficulty of pursuing a hate crime case by offering the hypothetical example of two men hurling racial pejoratives during a brawl.

“It’s not enough to just say someone used a racial slur,” Glazier said at the time.

Koo Oh, president of the Korean-American Assn. of Orange County, said his group will monitor the case. “I don’t know if it’s really a hate crime, but these are sensitive times and we must all be careful,” Oh said. “Things like this should not happen.”

Neither Soo nor Hale could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Soo told police he did not want to comment publicly about the incident. “Mr. Soo said, ‘No, I want this to be between that fellow [Hale], his wife and the court,’ ” Hume said Wednesday.

Hume said that no matter the outcome of the case, both men seemed to play a part in ratcheting up the ultimately violent confrontation. Both are also lucky that someone was not hurt more seriously, he said.

“I don’t know why people do these things, why they can’t do the mature thing and think about the cost of their actions,” Hume said. “But people don’t have much patience these days. And they’re so much more aggressive. It’s ridiculous and dangerous.”