No Bail for Skinhead Held in Racial Attacks

A Lancaster man indicted on charges of civil rights violations in racial attacks in the Antelope Valley was ordered held without bail Wednesday, a day after he turned himself in to federal authorities.

Danny Edward Williams, 22, surrendered Tuesday after obtaining a pledge of protection from the FBI, said Leonard D. Basinger, a Santa Ana attorney who accompanied Williams to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.

A self-described skinhead, Williams was wanted as a fugitive in connection with a series of hate crimes, including machete and baseball bat assaults on African Americans.

Williams was attacked by a group of black inmates when he was jailed briefly on an unrelated charge in July. “They beat him up pretty bad, and he was afraid if he surrendered it would happen again,” said Basinger, who secured the FBI protection pledge.

Basinger said a former client--a friend of Williams--called last Friday asking the attorney to intercede. Basinger said Williams learned from television that he was wanted following the federal indictment, which prosecutors announced at a news conference the day before.

Williams is being held in a single cell in a special housing unit at the downtown detention center, said jail spokeswoman Jill Witmer.

At a hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Stephen Hillman denied Williams release on bail, saying that the allegations represent serious offenses. He also noted that Williams violated terms of probation from a prior felony conviction, which Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco said was not race-related.

The indictment charges Williams with conspiracy to deprive African Americans of their civil rights and two counts of intimidating, injuring or interfering with African Americans on public streets. It cites two violent attacks in Lancaster--an April 28 baseball bat beating of an African American outside a video store and a July 8 machete attack on a black youth who was walking his cousin home.

According to the indictment, Williams and others drove around the Antelope Valley looking for blacks to taunt, making Nazi salutes and shouting “white power” and other racist slogans.

Also arrested in the July 8 machete attack was a 16-year-old boy, who is accused of slashing Marcus Cotton, 16, and spitting on Angela McKenzie, 17. A juvenile court commissioner on Tuesday ruled that the youth be held in custody at Sylmar Juvenile Hall. A hearing to determine if the youth should be tried as an adult is scheduled Oct. 16.

The rash of racial attacks in the Antelope Valley has been widely publicized, drawing scrutiny from state and federal investigators and the county’s Human Relations Commission.