############################################################ Indictment charges 4 with hate crimes Years-long, graffiti-strewn trail led to arrests, authorities say By Marisa Taylor UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 11, 2000 First came the Nazi swastikas that appeared one day outside Rep. Bob Filner's office in Chula Vista. Then came the gift box packed with a dummy grenade for Art Madrid, the mayor of La Mesa. Finally, the 7-foot snakeskin arrived -- draped over a rose bush outside the East County home of Clara Harris, a civil rights activist. Between January 1997 and May of this year, Filner, Madrid, Harris and other community leaders periodically found their offices and homes defaced, spray-painted and barraged with Nazi and racist propaganda. Some were angry. Others were afraid. All of them wondered who did it. Federal authorities say they now know. After a two-year investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego yesterday unsealed federal civil rights charges against Alex Curtis -- a Lemon Grove man whom the Anti-Defamation League has called a "rising star among bigots" -- and three other men. The group is accused of leaving a string of threatening messages, including racist slogans advocating violence against minorities. Sometimes the group repeatedly targeted a single person, according to the indictment. Morris Casuto, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, found swastika stickers and fliers near his office and home several times. After Filner's office was covered with stickers, a snakeskin was slipped into the office mail slot. Over the years, Filner said, he has dealt with crank calls and other anti-Semitic insults. But the incidents attributed to Curtis and the three others were more troubling, he said. "My employees felt particularly threatened," he said. "It was more visible and more organized." Group members also are accused of spray-painting anti-Semitic slogans and symbols on the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Carlos and the Temple Adat Shalom in Poway. Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel said many members of his congregation were especially horrified by the incident because they are concentration camp survivors. "To come into their house of worship after suffering that experience was like experiencing it all over again," Rosenthal said. "It was extremely traumatic." William Gore, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Diego, said Curtis encouraged his followers to take a "lone wolf" approach to white supremacy by operating individually. "He also told his followers to use whatever means necessary to accomplish their white supremacist goals," Gore said. Sometimes it appeared that Curtis was taunting authorities, Gore said. One of the anti-Hispanic stickers that appeared on Madrid's front door listed the telephone number of a hate hotline that Curtis runs. On Thursday, authorities seized Nazi books, propaganda and a licensed 9mm handgun from Curtis' room in his parents' house. They also seized Curtis' computer, which he is said to have used to set up a Web site where he posted racist writings. Yesterday, the Web site was still operating. Curtis, 25, and Michael Brian DaSilva, 21, of Lakeside were arrested Thursday. Next week, they will be arraigned on the four-count indictment. So far, they have not hired attorneys, officials said. The two other men, Robert Nichol Morehouse, 55, and Kevin Christopher Holland, who authorities estimate is 22, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights. According to the indictment, DaSilva told Holland's wife that Holland would die if he cooperated with authorities. Each of the men faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. David Zugman, Morehouse's attorney, said his client is a night watchman who lives with and cares for his parents, who are in their 80s. "He's not exactly the coming of the Third Reich," said Zugman, who declined to comment on the allegations against his client. Zugman criticized the federal case as a superficial response to a problem with hate crimes and racism. "This is window dressing," he said. "This is only going to calcify their positions and makes them martyrs." But the community leaders who became victims of the propaganda praised the federal indictment. "Authorities have sent a message to those who would presume to decide who is to live safely and freely and who is to be taunted, harassed and intimidated," Casuto said. Filner said: "I'm glad it was pursued, because any expression of hatred against one group is something that everyone should be concerned about." Clara Harris of the Heartland Human Relations and Fair Housing Association said she met Curtis years ago when he was a teen-ager. Over the years, she said, she tried to reach out to him and invited him to some of the meetings of her civil rights organization. But the last time she talked with Curtis, she said, he told her that he was going to show up at one of those meetings with Tom Metzger, San Diego County's most famous racist and Curtis' mentor. Curtis never showed up. "I'm very sad that they have decided to waste their lives, because for the most part they're bright young people who could do a lot for their community," she said. ############################################################
