UCI Asians Tell of Fright After Threat

SANTA ANA — Several UC Irvine students of Asian descent testified Wednesday that they feared for their lives after receiving an anonymous electronic mail message threatening all Asian students at the university with death.

One student, Sabina Lin, said she armed herself with Mace and would ask her friends to walk her to classes.

“I didn’t want this person to hurt me,” said Lin, a sophomore in aerospace engineering.

Lin was one of several students who testified in the trial of Richard Machado, a former UCI student who is the first person nationwide to be prosecuted for an alleged hate crime carried out on the Internet.

Prosecutors have charged Machado with 10 civil rights violations, saying he tried to interfere with the students’ rights to attend a public university.

The message Machado reportedly admitted sending was transmitted on Sept. 20, 1996. It was signed “Asian Hater,” and warned that all Asians should leave UC Irvine. Otherwise, the sender would “hunt all of you down and kill your stupid asses.”

“I personally will make it my [life’s work] to find and kill everyone of you personally. OK? That’s how determined I am.”

Machado’s attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Sylvia Torres-Guillen, has argued that her 19-year-old client was a bored teenager who simply committed “a stupid prank” to provoke a response.

On Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mavis Lee summoned some of the 59 students who received the message to talk about their fear.

Yen Nguyen, a graduate student who described her ethnicity as Viet-Chinese, said the e-mail unsettled her. She said she feared for her life.

“I wanted to go home to my family where I feel safe,” she said.

Another recipient, Jason Lin, who works in the engineering building where a computer was used to send the message, said he saw Machado sitting at the computer terminal minutes after the message was transmitted.

“It harmed me psychologically,” Lin said.

Under cross-examination by Torres-Guillen, Lin and at least two other UCI students said they didn’t call the police or take any steps to withdraw from the university.

Dana Roode, assistant director of computer services at the school, testified that he confronted Machado and asked him to leave the computer laboratory shortly after the e-mail was sent and traced back to him.

But Roode said he didn’t report the incident to police until three days after the message was sent because “it didn’t appear to be an immediate threat.”

Torres-Guillen contends that her client, who was despondent and flunked out of school following the carjacking death of his eldest brother, wanted to “mess around” and “meant no harm” by the message.

Federal prosecutors say Machado’s threatening messages were not protected speech.