HATEWATCH: SKINHEAD PLEADS GUILTY TO HATE-CRIME ASSAULT

After reading the following article, I have to wonder what part of his anatomy did this judge shove his head into to propose a lame sentence for what this racist did.
  
“But in return for the guilty plea, Judge Bruce Clark said he would consider a lighter sentence than the seven years Schumacher faces: 180 days in county jail and three years’ probation.”
  
Then again, maybe the judge is related to Schumacher, or he has sympathies with the ideology of racist skinheads.
  
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Gang Member Pleads Guilty to Hate-Crime Battery
 
Oak View man attacked interracial couple at gas station

By Mike Harris
Friday, September 11, 2009

A reputed white supremacist skinhead gang member has pleaded guilty to a hate-crime battery of an interracial couple in Oak View.
 
Matthew Schumacher, 27, of Casitas Springs is scheduled to be sentenced in October, after pleading guilty last week in Superior Court to one count of battery and three enhancement allegations.
 
Those allegations, which prosecutors said increased the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony, are that the battery was a hate crime, that it was carried out as part of gang activity, and that Schumacher has previously served time in prison for a drug-related offense.
 
The District Attorney’s Office wants Schumacher, a reputed member of a Ventura-based skinhead gang, sent back to prison. But in return for the guilty plea, Judge Bruce Clark said he would consider a lighter sentence than the seven years Schumacher faces: 180 days in county jail and three years’ probation.
 
Schumacher remains in custody in lieu of $145,000 bail pending sentencing Oct. 2.
Deputy District Attorney John Barrick said Schumacher assaulted a white man who was with his African-American girlfriend at a gas station in Oak View on July 25. Barrick said Schumacher uttered racial slurs at the couple, who are both 25-year-old residents of Ventura.
 
Barrick said Schumacher punched the man in the back of his head while he was gassing up his vehicle. The blow knocked the victim to the ground but did not seriously hurt him.
Barrick, who prosecutes most alleged hate crimes in the county, said that even though the victim’s injuries were slight, he disagreed with the judge’s decision to consider putting Schumacher on probation.
 
“I feel that once a guy goes to prison, any felony he does after that, he shouldn’t get probation,” Barrick said. “The victim’s injuries were very minor. But it was the conduct itself and who perpetrated the offense that we obviously take very seriously. We really don’t like people in this county getting beat up because they’re dating minorities.”
 
Clark is a retired judge who filled in for Judge Edward Brodie the day Schumacher pleaded guilty, the prosecutor said. Brodie will be back from vacation by the sentencing date, Barrick said, and “I can almost guarantee that Judge Brodie is not going to go along with” a probation sentence.
 
Brodie could send the case back to Clark for sentencing, “because when a defendant pleads guilty, he’s entitled to have the judge he pled guilty in front of be the sentencing judge,” Barrick said.
 
Deputy Public Defender Nicholas Gray, who represents Schumacher, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
 

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