Klinton Dion was arraigned in Burbank Criminal Court on January 3 with two hate crime charges of vandalism of religious property and ten additional hate crime counts for displaying Nazi symbols on public and private property.
At 8:30 am, the court bailiff announced that Dion was going to be a “no show” as he had refused to board the jail bus to court, which, if he did again, would result in him being “extracted” from his jail cell and brought before the judge, the bailiff added. Apparently, Dion’s public defender, Inna Petrovsky, persuaded him that it would be in his best interest to cooperate with the court and make his appearance so that presiding Judge Carolina Lugo could ask him the necessary legal questions for the record.
By 10:30 am, the average-height and slim-built Dion was in the courtroom slouched in a chair, exhibiting a blank face and vacant eyes. The judge asked him a series of questions as to whether he understood his legal rights and if he agreed to show up for all of his scheduled court appearances. Dion answered each of the judge’s many questions with a bored-sounding “yeah” while showing no emotion.
Dion’s preliminary hearing is currently scheduled in the Burbank courtroom for Jan. 18 at 8:30 am. The judge made a special point to remind Dion of the importance of appearing for all his court dates, not to jeopardize any of his legal rights.
The media was informed by a Burbank Police Dept. spokesman not to contact the Burbank Synagogue, Temple Emanu El, that was defaced by Dion, as they are declining interviews. Rabbi Ira Rosenfeld of Temple Beth David of the San Gabriel Valley, however, agreed to comment as a representative of Southern California Jews on why local Burbank residents need to pay close attention to antisemitic incidents as a threat to their entire community.
Rabbi Rosenfeld emphasized that when one group is attacked, usually because they are the easiest to target, the hatred that brings it on keeps flowing to other groups and individuals, resulting in nobody being safe. He spoke of how social media influencers and self-promoting politicians on both sides of the political spectrum can start spreading hate that results in lost souls, such as Klinton Dion, becoming motivated to act out destructively. The 2018 killer of nine members of the Tree of Life Temple in Pittsburgh, Robert Bowers, was referred to by his neighbors as a “ghost” because he was such a quiet loner, not unlike the homeless vagrant, Klinton Dion, with his reported history of mental health issues.
For now, Dion is safely locked up, unable to make his $35,000 bail, and is likely to get a substantial jail sentence as someone charged with hate crimes that could get him put away for up to 20 years, especially with his prior 2011 assault conviction.
