Alleged White Supremacists Plead Not Guilty to Bomb Charges
Two alleged white supremacists from the San Fernando Valley pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they planted 10 fake bombs around Los Angeles in an attempt to scare minority business owners and rid neighborhoods of nonwhites.
After entering the plea in Los Angeles County Municipal Court, Jeffrey Allen Campbell, 36, and Justin Bertone, 19, were ordered held on $2.5 million bail each.
Bertone’s court-appointed lawyer, Lee Rosen, told the judge he would request that Bertone undergo a psychiatric examination.
Los Angeles police, with the assistance of the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, arrested Campbell and Bertone at Campbell’s home on Hollywood Way in Burbank.
The two men, whom police said are associates of a white supremacist gang calling itself White Criminals on Dope, are charged with making terrorist threats in connection with planting the fake bombs. Investigators said Campbell and Bertone threatened some of their alleged targets by telephone.
Carla Arranaga, the deputy district attorney in charge of prosecuting hate crimes, said Campbell and Bertone carried out a “campaign of terror.”
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