Pair Accused of Bomb Threats Plead No Contest

Two alleged white supremacists accused of planting fake bombs in the San Fernando Valley to scare away minorities entered pleas of no contest Wednesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court to drug charges and hate crimes involving bomb threats and a shooting.

Jeffrey Allen Campbell, 28, agreed to a 15-year prison sentence, and Justin Nicholas Bertone, 19, accepted seven years in exchange for prosecutors’ dropping some of the charges against them.

“Campbell was the major player,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Carla Arranaga. “Bertone pretty much acted at Campbell’s behest. He was young and impressionable.”

Both defendants deny that they are white supremacists, according to their lawyers.

James Blatt, an Encino defense lawyer hired by Campbell’s family, said his client told him the motivation behind the threats was not racial hatred but a “stupid attempt to scare away the competition” for selling drugs.

Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department’s criminal conspiracy section arrested Campbell and Bertone in January after concluding that they were responsible for planting about 10 fake bombs in the Valley and Hollywood in 1997. At the time, authorities said the motivation was to scare away Latinos and African Americans.

Campbell and Bertone did not admit the 1997 crimes, but admitted incidents between July 22 and July 24, 1996, in which they made two false bomb threats involving an apartment building at Foothill Boulevard and Sherman Grove, and another at a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. They were also convicted of shooting at a home occupied by Latinos. Those charges all include special allegations that they were hate crimes.

In 911 calls reporting bombs at those addresses, operators were told the explosives were planted “to rid Sunland-Tujunga of minorities,” according to LAPD Det. Kenny Wheeler, the lead investigator in the case. People of various races lived in the apartment building, and the Kentucky Fried Chicken was managed by a member of an ethnic minority.

Racism was implied in the threats and planting of realistic-looking pipe bombs that followed, but it was not explicit, he said.

Campbell and Bertone also entered no contest pleas to charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell.

In exchange for their pleas, charges will be dropped in the other bomb threats, which Arranaga said were determined to be childish pranks, not hate crimes.

“I’m really happy that they got what they got,” Wheeler said. “It was just a matter of time, I believe, before they would have tried to set a bomb off.”

Wheeler said he was particularly glad to know Campbell will be imprisoned because he thinks Campbell corrupted Bertone and half a dozen other “very naive, very impressionable” teens into joining him in his crimes.

Wheeler said he is still investigating the involvement of the rest of Campbell’s group--allegedly called White Criminals on Dope--in the bomb threats and bombs that contained all the necessary ingredients except explosives.

Campbell’s lawyer said his client admitted his involvement to police after his arrest and had no intention of taking the matter to trial.

He has a history of convictions dating back to 1985 on drug charges, possession of stolen property, theft and assault.

Felicia Kahn Grant, Bertone’s defense lawyer, said her client agreed to what was a fair offer on charges that prosecutors could prove to a jury, based largely on his confession to authorities. She said the evidence was not as strong in the other allegations.

“He is remorseful and concerned,” she said. “He’s a young kid and he’s going to go to prison for seven years.”

Sentencing is set for May 13.