Details Emerge of Friendship Based on Hatred

Jeffrey Lee Campbell was 33, fresh out of prison and covered with tattoos when he met Justin Bertone, a rebellious 16-year-old whose smart mouth and erratic behavior were about to get him kicked out of Verdugo Hills High School.

Their unlikely friendship--built on a shared hatred of ethnic minorities--began at a high school “kegger” party three years ago and, authorities allege, culminated in a criminal conspiracy.

The two men, who were arrested Thursday, are suspected of planting 10 fake bombs in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood to drive nonwhites from the city. Authorities allege that Campbell and Bertone left the realistic-looking devices near homes and businesses, then reported them by telephone to authorities who had to conduct emergency evacuations.

Charges are expected to be filed Monday, according to Los Angeles Police Department investigators. Authorities say both men are active white supremacists.

Those who know the men describe Bertone, now 19, as a hapless young man who was influenced by Campbell, a bitter convict whose own father called him “a three-time loser.”

“Justin is not a leader. He is a follower,” said John Stevenson, who has lived with Bertone and his mother for several years in their Sunland home.

Stevenson said he and Carole Bertone worried about Justin’s friendship with Campbell.

“We tried to steer him clear of Jeff. We warned him,” said Stevenson, an employee of the Burbank Unified School District. “But Justin just had total admiration for the guy. He believed in him.”

Until his arrest Thursday, Campbell, 36, worked for his father at Charlie One CB, a retail electronics store on Foothill Boulevard in Sunland.

Charlie Campbell declined to say whether he thought his son was involved in any crimes, but added: “He’s a three-time loser. A convict. I’m not going to have anything to do with him.”

He said his son had brought Justin into the electronics shop on several occasions, but he had never been introduced.

“He seemed like a nice kid,” Campbell said. “But they did their thing, and I did mine. I didn’t ask a lot of questions.”

Until recently, Jeffrey Campbell lived with his wife, Kylie, and her young son in a single-story stucco house on Hollywood Way in Burbank. A child’s swing dangles from a tree in the frontyard.

Neighbors said the setting was anything but serene early Thursday when officers from the LAPD, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived at the house with weapons drawn.

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Both Campbell and Bertone were arrested there on suspicion of making terrorist threats. They are each being held in lieu of $2.5-million bail.

Neighbors said Campbell, his wife and her son had lived in the house for a little more than a year, but the woman and boy had recently moved out.

Campbell and his wife had loud arguments, and Kylie’s son, who is about 5, once showed up on their doorstep crying, said one neighbor, who asked that his name not be used.

One group of neighbors, who also asked not to be named, described Kylie as friendly and outgoing, but said Campbell kept to himself.

“He was a very standoffish, stay-away-from-me type of guy,” one neighbor said. “His attitude was, ‘You help me, but I won’t help you.’ ”

Sometime last fall, a neighbor said, Campbell sent Kylie over to ask for a favor: print material from a white supremacist World Wide Web page.

Once the neighbor saw the hateful material, “I told him, ‘Forget it,’ ” the man said. “I wouldn’t print that garbage out for anybody.”

Police say Campbell and Bertone are associates of a white supremacist group that calls itself White Criminals on Dope.

Stevenson acknowledged that Bertone “used to be a white supremacist-type guy,” then added, “I don’t think he’s like that now.”

As evidence, he said Bertone listens to the music of slain African American rapper Tupac Shakur and dates Latinas.

He said Bertone “has become a better person within the past year or two,” since being expelled from school. Recently, Stevenson said, Bertone had been working on his beat-up old Volkswagen and was planning to use the car to look for a job.

“He has a lot of good traits,” Stevenson said. “The only really bad trait he has is Jeff.”

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Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this story.