Teen given 7-year sentence for skirt-burning on Oakland bus

The mother of an agender teen whose skirt was set aflame on an AC Transit bus in Oakland last year told the 17-year-old attacker Friday that he did a “horrible, terrible thing” but added, “We do not hate you.”

“Hate only leads to more hatred and anger,” Debbie Crandall told a teary-eyed Richard Thomas, moments before he was sentenced to seven years at a state juvenile center for severely burning 19-year-old Sasha Fleischman, who is now a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

“I’m hoping you gain some understanding in the years to come,” Crandall said.

Thomas did not speak in the Oakland courtroom, but his attorney, William Du Bois, told Judge Paul Delucchi, “What he thought was a prank exploded into a tragedy of major proportions.” Du Bois said outside court that his client “will be eternally sorry.”

Thomas was charged as an adult in connection with the Nov. 4, 2013, attack on Fleischman, who was then 18 and whose skirt was set on fire as the student slept — an attack that police said was partly motivated by homophobia.

Lives 'forever altered’

Thomas, who was 16 at the time, had been charged with aggravated mayhem, assault and hate crime enhancements before reaching a plea deal on only the assault charge. Fleischman’s family had disagreed with the decision to prosecute Thomas in adult rather than juvenile court.

“Whether this was an incredibly immature prank or a malicious act, either way, this was a tragedy,” Delucchi said as he handed down the sentence. “We now have two lives that are forever altered.”

Three months after his sentence begins, Thomas will return to court, and Delucchi will review an evaluation of his conduct in custody.

If he is “fully engaging in the programs and services offered and is of good conduct,” another review will take place just before he turns 18 in July 2015, prosecutors said. If Thomas earns another satisfactory progress report, his term will be reduced to five years.

Du Bois said he expects his client to do well and be released after he turns 20. The attorney has said his client is not homophobic and has a relative who is transgender.

Fleischman, an Oakland resident who attended Maybeck High School in Berkeley, was named Luke at birth but does not identify as male or female, instead preferring the term genderqueer. Fleischman has sought legal recognition for a “nonbinary” gender and started an online petition hoping to draw President Obama’s attention to the issue.

Victim’s pain

Oakland police said in court documents that Thomas, a student at Oakland High School, admitted to lighting Fleischman’s garment on fire because he was “homophobic.” The teens were on an AC Transit bus on MacArthur Boulevard near Ardley Avenue, a few blocks from Fleischman’s home in the Glenview neighborhood.

In court Friday, Crandall told Thomas, “Maybe you just thought it was weird that Sasha was wearing a skirt. Maybe you thought the people around you thought it was funny.” But she described how she came to the scene and found her child writhing and shivering uncontrollably in pain, the teen’s legs “covered with black, charred patches of skin.”

'He’s just a kid’

Fleischman spent a month in the hospital, had a feeding tube and skin grafts, Crandall said.

The victim’s father, Karl Fleischman, spoke outside court. His voice broke as he described seeing Thomas sentenced.

“My God, he’s just a kid,” he said. “Our hope is that someday, Richard will be able to be the person who can come to the aid of somebody who needs help. I just hope that he can become a force for good.”