E-Mail Against Asian Students Was ‘a Joke,’ Defendant Says

The defendant in the nation’s first federal hate crime trial involving a threatening message sent via the Internet testified Friday that he meant no harm when he e-mailed 59 Asian students that he would hunt them down and kill them if they didn’t leave UC Irvine.

Richard Machado, 20, of Los Angeles told jurors that he acted out of boredom and sent the electronic message as “a joke,” just to elicit a response from the recipients.

The idea of sending the message just “popped in my head,” Machado testified, adding that he later was ashamed of what he had done.

Prosecutors have argued that Machado, a former UCI student who flunked out of school, violated the civil rights of students because he allegedly interfered with their right to attend a public university.

Machado sent the threatening message Sept. 20, 1996, to a group of mostly Asian-American students. Signed “Asian Hater,” the message warned recipients that all Asians should leave UC Irvine. Otherwise, the sender would “find and kill everyone of you personally,” the message vowed. “OK? That’s how determined I am.”

The defense has contended that Machado’s words, while hurtful and inflammatory, were a childish prank from a then-teenager.

Friday afternoon, Machado was the final defense witness called in the case. He spoke in a low monotone and provided crisp responses to questions by his attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Sylvia Torres-Guillen.

Machado, a naturalized U.S. citizen from El Salvador, told jurors how elated his relatives were when he became the first member of his family to enroll in a university. He had dreams of becoming a doctor, Machado said, but those died when his eldest brother became the victim of a deadly carjacking in Los Angeles one month after Machado entered UCI.

He was devastated by his brother’s death, Machado said, and it eventually led to his academic expulsion from the university in the summer of 1996.

Machado said he was too ashamed to tell his family about his expulsion, so he continued to have his brother drop him off at the university, where he would fill the day working in the computer laboratory.

On Sept. 20 of last year, Machado said, he was so bored he decided to send an inflammatory message to students online. He gave the message a sense of hatred because he wanted to provoke a response, he said.

Machado acknowledged telling investigators, “I didn’t exactly like Asians, [but] I didn’t hate them.”

Machado testified how he fled to Mexico after he heard a radio report that he had been indicted on 10 counts of civil rights violations.

He said he surrendered to authorities near Nogales, Ariz., because he had become miserable in Mexico and missed his family.

Earlier, Giovanni Bui, a representative of UCI’s Asian Pacific Students Assn., testified that Machado apologized to the group’s leaders about a month after sending the offensive e-mail. The meeting was sought by Machado and moderated by UCI administrators.

“I learned a lot more facts about Richard Machado that I did not know before,” Bui said. “I personally don’t believe he’s a malicious individual.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mavis Lee attempted to show that Bui did not receive the threatening e-mail, so he could not have experienced the hurt and pain felt by some of the message’s recipients.

Lee will begin her cross-examination of Machado when the trial resumes Tuesday.