UPDATE, APRIL 21, 6 A.M.: Brodie Durazo was sentenced this week to remove graffiti for 240 hours. (No, not in a row.) The 21-year-old Buena Park resident was also placed on three years of informal probation. A 10-day jail order was suspended pending completion of community service.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 8, 6:06 A.M.: Brodie Durazo—the 20-year-old man who was believed to have committed a hate crime against a Buena Park Sikh temple, apologized to congregants and was ready to accept a plea deal after copping to vandalism—failed to appear at sentencing.
That may have jeopardized the Buena Park resident’s plea deal.
The evening of Dec. 6, Durazo spray painted “F@#k ISIS,” “Islam” and a gang tag on a dividing wall and tractor-trailer parked at Gurdwara Singh Sabha Temple, 7142 Orangethorpe Ave.
Police investigated the graffiti as a hate crime because it went up six days after the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
Durazo sincerely apologized at a temple gathering on Dec. 13, and when the Orange County District Attorney’s office announced charges in January, a hate-crime count was not among them.
He pleaded guilty on Feb. 22 to vandalism of religious property and vandalism with less than $400 in damage, both misdemeanors. Another misdemeanor count of vandalism with less than $400 in damage was dropped.
When Durazo failed to appear for sentencing this week, a bench warrant was issued and then put on hold to see if he would come to court on April 19.
If he fails to appear for that court date an arrest warrant is likely to be issued, according to Deputy District Attorney Jess Rodriguez.
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