Lawyers in hate case get testy

Two lawyers in the trial of 10 black youths accused of beating three young women in Long Beach on Halloween night hurled accusations for much of the court session Thursday, ignoring the judge’s repeated pleas to stick to the evidence.

During a nearly two-hour argument over her request to dismiss the case for lack of evidence, Deputy Public Defender Stephanie Sauter accused Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas and the media of inflating a fight that got out of control into a hate crime.

Bouas said Sauter’s accusations were “ludicrous” and meant to “pander to the press.”

The 10 youths, ages 12 to 18, have been charged with assault with intent to cause great bodily harm; eight face hate crime allegations.

Sauter cited testimony that two of the victims had been drinking that night, and an eyewitness, Marice Huff, who described people “running to ... a fight, like a school fight.”

With the media depicting it as a vicious racial attack, “the easy thing to do is to say these horrible 10 black kids just attacked these white girls,” she said.

She accused the prosecution of wanting to convict any 10 black youths, regardless of guilt or innocence, and “then we can move on, and the community’s safe again.”

Bouas became furious, shouting at Sauter, “To say that we picked 10 random people when her client has blood on her pants!”

Sauter objected that Bouas was not sticking to the evidence and asked for a mistrial, which Judge Gibson Lee denied.

The court earlier barred DNA evidence Bouas said would show that blood on the defendant’s pants matched victim Loren Hyman, but allowed testimony on the existence of the blood. “The evidence is that only Loren Hyman was bleeding that night, and we know the person who has blood on her pants ... “ Bouas yelled.

“Poor black children that were selected by the Police Department,” she echoed Sauter’s comments sarcastically.

Sauter again objected that Bouas was straying from the evidence and asked for a mistrial. The judge denied the motion.

The prosecutor switched to a different topic. “Let’s talk again about the witness intimidation that takes place,” Bouas said.

Police have said that witness Kiana Alford’s car was wrecked by gang members during Alford’s last day of testimony.

The prosecutor accused one of the minors of calling Alford “a bitch” as they were waiting outside the courtroom.

Bouas also complained that police reports related to the case had been leaked to The Times.

Lee took Sauter’s motion to dismiss under review. Earlier in the day, he rejected another defense attorney’s motion to dismiss and a motion by the prosecutor to amend the charges against five of the minors.

joe.mozingo@latimes.com