Community Service Is Ordered in Santa Clarita Hate Crimes Case

A judge ordered a vocational center principal Wednesday to perform community service for several gay and ethnic groups, after a jury found him guilty of charges stemming from a hate crimes case.

Before imposing the sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Lippitt lectured Santa Clarita resident Donald R. Gaskin at length on the importance of tolerance.

“You may not approve of those you perceive to be different. But you may not commit crimes against property or person, and damage the dignity of a fellow human being, simply because of who they are,” Lippitt said in a three-page summary of her comments released afterward.

“He took it very much to heart,” Gaskin’s attorney, Pat Harris, said. “This has been a traumatic experience for him. He wants to move on with his life.”

Gaskin, 49, who ran unsuccessfully for the Castaic Lake Water Agency board in 2000, is on a disability leave from his job running the 6,000-student North Valley Occupational Center in Mission Hills, Harris said.

The case began as a parking dispute with a lesbian couple who live next door to Gaskin in the Princess Park area of Santa Clarita.

In May 2002, the district attorney charged Gaskin with misdemeanor civil rights violations and petty theft after the couple accused him of stealing their sprinkler heads and mail.

The jury found Gaskin not guilty of civil rights violations but convicted him on four counts of petty theft.

During his 2 1/2-week jury trial in April, witnesses testified that Gaskin used slurs “both in the neighborhood and at school,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Tuppence Macintyre said.

The victims, whose names were not released, testified they found nails in their car tires, anti-lesbian slurs in fresh cement outside their home, and profanity written in dust on Gaskin’s car, parked outside their windows.

Lippitt turned down Macintyre’s request for a 90-day jail sentence. Instead, Gaskin must provide 60 days of community service for AIDS Project L.A., the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, a senior citizen program in Chinatown and a Latino component of the Legal Aid Foundation, plus serve 20 days picking up trash for Caltrans.

Lippitt also ordered him to undergo weekly counseling and take a one-day course at the Museum of Tolerance, which Macintyre said usually includes writing an essay or letter to the victim.

Macintyre said the victims “understood the jury’s verdict and were pleased with the judge’s sentence.”