Ruling Paves the Way for E-Mail Hate Crime Retrial

SANTA ANA — A federal judge denied a request to have hate crime charges dropped against a former UC Irvine student accused of sending e-mail threats to “hunt down and kill” Asian students at the university.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler paves the way for a Jan. 27 retrial of Richard Machado on 10 counts of alleged civil rights violations.

Machado’s first trial ended in November with a jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal. He is the first person in the nation to be tried on charges of committing a hate crime via the Internet.

On Friday, his attorney, U.S. Deputy Public Defender Sylvia Torres-Guillen, told the judge that the charges should be dismissed because a reasonable person in cyberspace would consider Machado’s death threat a “flame,” or inflammatory message, not a “true threat.”

The threatening message demanded that all Asians leave UC Irvine or the sender, who called himself “Asian Hater,” would “make it my life’s work . . . to hunt all of you down and kill your stupid asses.”

Prosecutors have argued that by seeking to frighten the 59 students who received the e-mail into quitting the school, Machado sought to interfere with their right to attend a public university.

During his trial, Machado, 20, testified that on the day he sent the message, he was bored and wanted to start a dialogue with people signed on to the school’s computer network.

On Friday, the judge denied the defense attorney’s request, saying a reasonable person could have found enough evidence to convict Machado.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco said the government is prepared to go forward with its case.