Man Pleads Not Guilty in Hate Crime Case
A Glendale man arrested last week after he and his brother allegedly mounted a hate campaign against minorities pleaded innocent Monday to civil rights charges.
Philip Martin Alexander, 21, made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, where he was arraigned on three hate crime counts, including conspiracy and violation of civil rights, according Thom Mrozek, a U.S. attorney’s office spokesman.
Chief U.S. Magistrate Carolyn Turchin scheduled Alexander’s trial for March 2. His 19-year-old brother, Steven Eugene Alexander, who is in state custody on an unrelated burglary conviction, is set for arraignment in federal court Jan. 25.
A federal indictment accuses the brothers of cruising the streets of their La Crescenta neighborhood last summer, shouting racial epithets, flashing skinhead gang signs and threatening to harm minorities they encountered.
As part of the conspiracy, federal officials allege, the defendants harassed and intimidated groups including African Americans, Latinos, Armenians and interracial families in a predominantly white neighborhood of Glendale. If convicted, they could be imprisoned for up to 12 years.
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