SAN DIEGO — A 25-year-old man who has used the Internet to become a rising star in the national white supremacist movement has been indicted with three followers for harassing a Jewish congressman, a Latino mayor and two other public officials, federal prosecutors said Friday.
"We have zero tolerance for these kind of cowardly acts," said U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega.
Alexander James Curtis is accused of being the ringleader of a group that between 1997 and 1999 smeared anti-Semitic graffiti on two San Diego synagogues and left graffiti, stickers and leaflets outside the offices of Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, local Anti-Defamation League leader Morris Casuto and Clara Harris, former director of the Heartland Human Relations and Fair Housing Association.
The four defendants are charged with violating federal civil rights and hate-crime laws that make it illegal to target someone for mistreatment based on race, religion, color or national origin.
Curtis and the three others are not charged with any violent acts, but during a two-year investigation by the FBI and San Diego Police Department, authorities overheard them plotting violence, officials said.
Also indicted with Curtis are three men who met him through his extensive Internet sites dedicated to preaching racial superiority and violence: Michael Brian DaSilva, 21; Robert Nicol Morehouse, 53; and Kevin Christopher Holland, 22.
Morehouse and Holland have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and cooperated with authorities in the indictment of Curtis and DaSilva. DaSilva is serving a state sentence for possession of a concealed and loaded sawed-off shotgun.
Curtis was arrested Thursday in his bedroom at his parents' home in suburban Lemon Grove. FBI agents seized racist literature, a framed picture of Hitler, racist leaflets, a semi-automatic pistol, a Confederate flag and a book written by Che Guevara. The materials were seized as evidence that Curtis has mounted a campaign of hate.
Curtis and DaSilva face four charges that could bring a maximum 40 years in prison. Morehouse and Holland face a maximum 10 years when sentenced in April. No promises of leniency have been made to them, Vega said.
Among other acts, the four are charged with sticking the skin of a boa constrictor through the mail slot of Filner's Chula Vista office. Some of the group's racist stickers contained the phone number for Curtis's telephone hotline.
The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have called Curtis the most radical of a new generation of hate leaders who have rejected the limitations of traditional groups such asthe Ku Klux Klan and the National Alliance and encouraged a much more violent racist underground.
Tom Metzger of the Fallbrook-based White Aryan Resistance, one of Curtis' longtime mentors, said the indictment reflects a growing federal campaign to suppress white supremacist political views.
"Alex Curtis is very highly respected throughout the country, and to go after him with relatively Mickey Mouse charges is just going to infuriate more of the people who are in our camp," he said.
William Gore, head of the San Diego FBI office, said he is not worried about a backlash.
"If followers of Alex Curtis see him as a martyr, so be it," Gore said. "I feel better having him off the street."