White Supremacist Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

CNN News/June 13, 2001

San Diego -- A 25-year-old man who published a white supremacist Internet newsletter was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for threatening a Jewish congressman and other officials and vandalizing two synagogues.

The man pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to violate civil rights as part of an agreement with prosecutors. As part of his plea, Alex James Curtis also agreed to apologize to his victims and not to engage in any white supremacist activity during the three years of probation he must serve after his sentence.

Curtis, who published the monthly National Observer newsletter from his parents' home in the San Diego suburb of Lemon Grove until his arrest last November, apologized in April to four of his victims, including Rep. Bob Filner.

In 1997, Curtis and an accomplice twice defaced the windows of Filner's office with stickers depicting Nazi swastikas that included phrases such as "White Power," "Hitler was Right," and "Yabba Dabba Doo, Kill Every Jew," according to a federal indictment.

Authorities said Curtis and three other men also were responsible for similar incidents in 1997 and 1998 at two synagogues and the homes and offices of Morris Casuto, the director of the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League; La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid; and Clara Harris, former director of the Heartland Human Relations and Fair Housing Association.

An accomplice, Michael Brian DaSilva, pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to violate federal civil rights in the 1997 vandalism of a synagogue. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 17.