Inland woman, men accused of hate crime

Sharyn Obsatz (Riverside Press Enterprise)

23 Dec 01

LAKE ELSINORE - Two Winchester men and a Lake Elsinore woman were arrested

Saturday morning, accused of slinging racist slurs at a black store clerk

and beating two customers they perceived to be gay.

The men, 19 and 22, and the 20-year-old woman face assault and hate-crime

charges, Riverside County sheriff's investigators said.

Authorities said one of the men hit one of the male customers on the head

with a metal trash can cover during the attack outside the Circle K

convenience store on Grand Avenue in Lakeland Village.

"That's like a nightmare . . . It's just sickening," Circle K clerk Becky

Hill said Saturday afternoon after hearing about the verbal assault.

The men and the woman arrived at the market just before 2 a.m. Saturday,

according to a sheriff's report. Authorities said the men made defamatory

remarks about patrons outside whom they perceived to be gay, knocked over a

display as they left the store and refused a request to clean it up.

Sheriff's deputies say the men punched the patrons outside while the woman

began aiming racial slurs and threats at the female clerk, who was calling

police.

The three fled, but officers stopped their car nearby, according to the

sheriff's report.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call

the sheriff's Lake Elsinore station at (909) 245-3300.

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04) White supremacist arrested in attack

Sandra Stokley (Press-Enterprise)

25 Dec 01

RIVERSIDE - An admitted white supremacist was arrested Monday after he

allegedly screamed racial slurs at a black man and then attacked him near

Fairmount Park, police said.

Robert Clyde, 36, of Riverside was booked into Robert Presley Detention

Center on suspicion of making terrorist threats, battery and a hate crime,

said Sgt. Frank Assumma.

Assumma said officers responding to a report of a stabbing at Fairmount

Park at 11:40 a.m. found Clyde suffering from cuts to his face and head, a

split lip and several loose teeth.

Witnesses and the victim, whose name was not available, told police that

Clyde walked up to the black man at the corner of Main and Russell streets

and yelled racial epithets before physically assaulting him, Assumma said.

The victim, using a large bolt he carries for protection, fought back and

injured Clyde, who ran off.

"He (Clyde) got the worst end of it," Assumma said.

Assumma described Clyde and the victim as homeless.

Assumma said Clyde was uncooperative during questioning but acknowledged to

police officers that he is a member of the American Front Skinheads, a

white supremacist group.

Clyde also wears several white supremacist tattoos, including a swastika

and the letters "SWP" on his left arm.

Clyde was taken to Riverside Community Hospital for treatment of his

injuries before being taken to jail. Assumma said the victim was not

arrested.

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05) Calif. Student Arrested in Assault

AP

24 Dec 01

IRVINE, Calif. -- A college sophomore is accused of sexually assaulting a

15-year-old girl he met on the Internet and carving swastikas on her face,

police said.

Brian Dance, 20, a student at the University of California, Irvine, was

booked on charges of torture, rape by a foreign object and robbery. He was

being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Dance allegedly met the girl in an online chat room and picked her up

Thursday afternoon at an Orange County mall. Police said he took her to a

university parking lot, forced her into the back seat of his car, covered

her eyes with duct tape and beat her for more than two hours with his

hands and a belt.

The girl was sexually assaulted, robbed and had swastikas carved into her

cheek and forehead with a knife, police said. She was treated and released

early Friday from a nearby hospital, Sgt. Tom Little said.

The girl told police a female friend also was communicating with the

suspect in an online chat room, Little said. A detective had the victim's

friend act as a decoy and arrange a meeting with the suspect at the same

mall.

The 15-year-old identified Dance as her attacker when he arrived, and he

was arrested without incident, authorities said. Police said they found

duct tape in his pocket and a knife they believed was used in the attack.

Dance is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

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