Ex-UCI Student in E-Mail Hate Case in Trouble Again

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Richard J. Machado, the former UC Irvine student who was the first person to be convicted of a hate crime on the Internet, to serve four months in a halfway house for failing to comply with the terms of his probation.

Machado, 21, was found guilty in February of violating the civil rights of Asian students at UCI by sending e-mail messages threatening to kill them if they didn’t leave school.

He was sentenced to serve one year in jail and one year probation, but he was freed from jail for time served while awaiting trial.

Under the conditions of his probation, Machado was required to report every month to a probation officer about his progress in finding a job and seeking psychological treatment.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael J. Gennaco said Machado did not comply with the requirements, and when he finally did report, he lied about his job status and where he was living.

“What we have here . . . is a defendant who just doesn’t get it,” Gennaco told U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler in a Santa Ana courtroom.

But Machado’s attorney, Sylvia Torres-Guillen, argued that her client is a troubled young man who has difficulty relating to authority figures. She argued that he did not need to be placed in a halfway house, saying that stricter conditions on his parole would suffice.

“He is not the kind of person who will harm others,” she said. “The only one he is hurting is himself.”

Machado’s mother, Guadalupe Machado of Long Beach, was in court Wednesday and told a reporter that her son has lived with her since the trial. But Gennaco disputed that assertion, saying Machado had quit his job around July and was missing for months until his arrest Sept. 16 on a bench warrant.

Stotler agreed with the prosecution’s position and the recommendation by Machado’s probation officer, and ordered Machado to serve four months at Gateways Community Corrections Center in Los Angeles. He will be allowed to go to work but will be required to report back to the center every day. After the four months, he will be on eight months’ probation under the current terms.