Last Defendants in Race Riot Plead Guilty to Battery

The prosecution of four men arrested during a 1987 protest against the appearance of avowed racist J. B. Stoner finally wrapped up this week, with two men pleading guilty to charges of battery for attacking two youths identified with the neo-Nazi Skinheads group.

Late last week, the last of three charges against another defendant in the case was dismissed when a jury couldn’t reach a verdict.

Roger Marheime, 42, a Pasadena City College professor, pleaded guilty in Glendale Municipal Court on Tuesday to charges of battery and failure to disperse. Jose Hernandez, 34, a member of the Los Angeles-based International Committee Against Racism, pleaded guilty to one count of battery.

As part of an agreement worked out between attorneys in the case, charges of riot and unlawful assembly against the two men were dismissed. Each of the defendants was sentenced to two years of probation.

The guilty pleas by Marheime and Hernandez came four days after a jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquitting Santa Monica Deputy Public Defender John Michael Lee, 43.

Glendale Municipal Judge Charles E. Horan declared a mistrial for Lee and dismissed a pending misdemeanor charge of failing to disperse. Earlier in the week, Horan had dismissed the other two misdemeanor charges against Lee.

The ruling by Horan came immediately after jurors announced that they had been unable to reach a verdict. The jurors heard four days of testimony in the case and deliberated for eight hours.

No 2nd Trial

In making the ruling, Horan told attorneys that there was no reason to press charges against Lee again.

The prosecutor in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip Heeger, said he would not oppose Horan’s decision.

During the trial, Heeger showed the jury a videotape of the disturbances that broke out at the rally. The videotape showed Lee shouting at police officers as he moved with a crowd moving west along Pioneer Drive near Pacific Avenue. Other segments showed fights between demonstrators and youths with shaved heads, identified as members of the Skinheads, a neo-Nazi group.

Lee’s attorney, Hugh Manes, argued during the trial that Lee was arrested because the police officers patrolling the protest “didn’t like what he was saying.” Manes told jurors that he would prove that his client did not obstruct officers.

Lee, Hernandez and Marheime--along with Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin--were charged with riot, unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, and resisting and obstructing arrest during the November, 1987, rally protesting the appearance of Stoner, a convicted church bomber in the ‘60s, at the Glendale Holiday Inn. Hernandez and Marheime were also charged with battery after they allegedly kicked and threw a soda can at the Skinhead youths.

Rubin pleaded no contest in July to failure to disperse and was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $772.