Simi Teen Gets 9 Months for Racial Attack

A black teenager who was punched and kicked in a racially motivated attack in Simi Valley last month forgave one of his assailants Wednesday before the white youth was sentenced to nine months in custody.

The tearful 16-year-old Royal High student faced his victim, Jim King, 17, of Reseda, and asked forgiveness for the Dec. 6 hate crime.

King agreed, earning praise from the defendant’s attorney, Philip Dunn.

“It’s an extraordinary young person, one who’s been through what he’s been through, who is still able to display compassion and concern for someone who had injured him,” said Dunn, whose Simi Valley client was not identified because of his age.

The minor, whom police say instigated the attack and was joined by three friends, must remain in custody for 270 days.

A second Simi Valley 16-year-old, a former Apollo High continuation school student, was told in a separate hearing Wednesday that he would remain in custody for eight months.

Both youths are in custody at Juvenile Hall in El Rio and will receive credit for the more than six weeks they have been detained since their arrests.

The minors also were ordered to avoid contact with each other and other skinheads, not to possess any clothing or insignias that identify them as being white supremacists and to attend a sensitivity course called “Eliminate the Hate.”

They also must attend counseling with their parents, who are responsible for reimbursing Ventura County for their sons’ confinement costs. The parents were also ordered to pay King $656 in immediate restitution and for his ongoing medical expenses.

If either youth violates parole or is arrested on similar charges, he could be transferred to the California Youth Authority and receive up to eight years in custody, said prosecutor Stacy Ratner.

In an earlier hearing, King testified that the white teens shouted racial slurs at him in a parking lot where he was selling newspaper subscriptions. He was punched, and as he tried to run away, he tripped over a planter and fell, injuring his right knee. Then all four punched and kicked him. No weapons were used.

Police reported finding white power and skinhead paraphernalia in a vehicle used by two of the minors to flee the scene, and searches of the four teens’ homes uncovered additional hate literature downloaded from the Internet.

Although he still has trouble bending his knee and sleeping, King said he does not hold a grudge against his assailants and believes they deserve a chance to reform.

“I don’t hate the kids. And I don’t hate a whole race because of four individuals,” King said after the rulings. “If it took me to get beat to be an example to show people that it’s not right to be a racist, then I have to accept that.”

A third minor who admitted his involvement in the beating had his case transferred Wednesday to juvenile court in Los Angeles County, which has jurisdiction because he is a resident of Granada Hills. The fourth attacker, also from Simi Valley, is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 31.