Athlete’s Dad Accused of Trying to Lure Teens Into Hate Group

The parent of a high school football player who invited teammates over to his house for weightlifting sessions allegedly tried to recruit the teens into a heavily armed white-supremacist group, Riverside County authorities announced Tuesday.

The parent, Howard Marshall of Winchester, was one of 19 alleged white supremacists arrested in November on suspicion of gun and drug violations, news that stunned school officials and parents in the rural communities near Hemet and Menifee in the southwest part of the county.

“These individuals in the movement can believe whatever they want to, but when they amass an arsenal and engage in criminal activity, we will step in and prevent that,” Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle said at a morning news conference.

Authorities said they delayed announcing the arrests because they were pursuing other possible suspects and did not want to compromise the investigation.

Doyle also announced the formation of a partnership with Riverside County Superintendent of Schools David Long and Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask to combat hate crime on school campuses.

Parents of football players said they had no idea Marshall had been arrested or about the allegations against him.

Jeanne Hifo, whose biracial son is on the team, said some white teammates acted and dressed like skinheads, but that was common at the school.

“Some of the black kids hadn’t come out for the football team last year because of the white supremacy issues,” Hifo said her son told her.

The isolated, rural areas of Riverside County have long been attractive locales for small groups of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, but officials said they were surprised at the school connection.

Doyle said the investigation, joined by the FBI, was triggered by an allegation in September that Marshall, 44, had given steroids to his son and at least one other player at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee during the 2003 season.

When authorities searched the homes of Marshall and his step-brother in Menifee, they recovered 90 automatic and semiautomatic rifles and pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition, body armor and drugs, they said. They also said they found German Nazi war helmets and boots and Nazi flags.

“Sixty years and one day removed from the discovery of Auschwitz, I’m amazed we’re still fighting this garbage in our country,” sheriff’s spokesman Tom Freeman said.

The alleged supremacists met frequently at members’ homes and at rural locations in the southwest part of the county, sheriff’s officials said. Some of the suspects also were affiliated with nationwide white-supremacist organizations, including Public Enemy Number One, a growing “white power” group in Southern California and in state prisons, authorities said.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Marshall on federal gun charges in November. Marshall has had previous convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession and cultivation of marijuana. He is being held without bond at a federal facility.

An FBI agent who assisted in the investigation said there was no discovery of a planned assault by the hate group.

Roy “Rusty” Hill of Menifee, a former member of the U.S. Olympic shooting team, was also arrested on suspicion of violations related to the case, but sheriff’s officials said he was not involved in the white supremacy movement. Hill, who competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, is Marshall’s step-brother. Hill’s attorney said some of the confiscated weapons were his target guns.

“They’re using [Hill’s] guns to bolster the idea that this is a big conspiracy with an arsenal of guns,” said attorney Steve Odom. Hill was arraigned this month and pleaded not guilty.