3 Teens Sentenced in Vandalism Incident at St. Genevieve High

Three former football players who pleaded no contest to charges of painting racial slurs on the office door of a black coach and causing $10,500 damage to St. Genevieve High in Panorama City were sentenced Friday to three years’ probation and 90 days of work on a Caltrans highway crew.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael J. Farrell also ordered each of the teen-agers to pay as much as $3,500 to the parochial school for the cost of repairing chipped water fountains, cleaning lockers spattered with eggs and removing racial slurs painted on the door of Jimmy Chambers, an assistant football coach.

Carlos Gonzalez, 19, Paul Francis Zamora and Jesus M. Renteria, both 18, each pleaded no contest in October to one count of felony vandalism and one count of misdemeanor terrorism.

The slurs actually were painted by one of two juveniles who also participated in the June 13 incident, according to probation reports. The youth was urged to paint the racist graffiti by Gonzalez, who had been disciplined in the past by the coach, the reports said.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine. But Farrell said that he imposed the lighter sentence because the three have good backgrounds and have expressed remorse. Each teen-ager’s court file contained several testimonial letters from family friends and employers.