As nearly 40 parents and supporters waited for hours outside a Long Beach courtroom Tuesday for the start of the trial of 10 black youths charged with a Halloween night attack on three white women, talk in the hallway was of how the accusations couldn't be true.
Some claimed that the defendants -- a male teen and nine girls ages 12 to 17 -- were wrongly identified and not involved in the attack. They said the youths were among hundreds at or near a block party in the predominantly white upscale Bixby Knolls neighborhood.
And the supporters said prosecutors disregarded the accused youths' account that a trash-talking volley between a group of male youths and three young women near a huge haunted house and street party escalated into a brawl only after one of the victims slapped a black girl uninvolved in the initial exchange. In addition, the original exchange was "more sexual than about race," said the father of one girl on trial.
What's more, the parents and friends of the defendants insisted that the accused male actually prevented one victim from getting hit in the head a second time with a skateboard. Those accounts were sharply at odds with official reports, along with a story published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. In that newspaper's account, the women, whose full names were not divulged, said they were confronted by a group of about 12 males before and after they went through the haunted house. As the size of the crowd grew, the women were hit with lemons and small pumpkins.
Then came a series of anti-white epithets and, in a matter of minutes, the women had been set upon by the crowd, while onlookers did nothing to stop the attack.
According to the newspaper, the women were beaten, one of them to unconsciousness. One of the women was smashed in the head with a skateboard and kicked, while the other two were pummeled in the face and body. At that point, a passerby -- whose name was not released by police -- started pulling the attackers off the women.
Eight of the charged youths have hate-crime allegations filed against them along with felony assault counts. The district attorney has alleged that anti-white insults hurled during the attack indicate it was racially motivated. Two others, including a 12-year-old girl, were charged only with the felony assault count.
All remain in custody. Two other teenage boys have been arrested but will be tried separately.
