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Long Beach woman accused of viral racist rants in Torrance sentenced to 45 days in jail in separate incident
A 54-year-old Long Beach woman suspected of hurling racist verbal attacks at Asian Americans in a pair of viral videos at Charles Wilson Park in Torrance in June received a 45-day jail sentence on Tuesday, Oct. 6 in an unrelated incident.
Lena Hernandez pleaded no contest to battery involving an assault on an Asian American woman at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance in October 2019. In addition to the county jail term, she must serve three years of informal probation and take 52 anger management classes, said Torrance City Attorney Patrick Sullivan.
Prosecutors said Hernandez verbally assaulted a custodian at the mall, then physically attacked Kayceelyn Salminao, who tried to intervene.
Hernandez was ordered to return to Torrance Superior Court for surrender Nov. 10 after taking the plea deal Tuesday.
Salminao’s attorney, Sandy Roxas, said they were disappointed in the court’s decision to not sentence Hernandez to the maximum of six months for the misdemeanor battery charge.
“This whole process has been just devastating for [Salminao], and it was not the outcome that she wanted or that she hoped for,” Roxas said over the phone. “She feels like justice has not been served.”
Salminao read a statement before the court on Tuesday in which she described a brutal scene where Hernandez shoved her to the ground, pulled Salminao’s hair, held her head to the ground, and punched her in the back of her head multiple times.
It took her months, she said, before she felt comfortable enough to walk outside in their Torrance community.
“The psychological and emotional pain I suffered while trying to cope through my assault is stillongoing,” Salminao said. “I am still afraid to go anywhere alone.”
The 2019 Del Amo incident came to light after a woman later identified as Hernandez was caught on cell phone video in two separate incidents on June 10 and 11, where she directed racist tirades at several Asian American individuals at Charles Wilson Park. Those videos went viral after they were posted to social media.
“Go back to whatever (expletive) Asian country you belong in,” a woman recorded on a cellphone video told a Filipino American woman, identified as Sherry Ann Bulseco, while she was working out along a staircase at the park. “This is not your place. This is not your home. We do not want you here.”
The next day, the same woman was recorded accosting an Asian man and his son, mocking them and telling the man, “You need to go home.”
City prosecutors in July declined to charge Hernandez for the pair of verbal attacks. Sullivan previously said in a press release there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against the Long Beach resident, referring to “critical gaps in the evidence regarding how each incident unfolded,” but did not explain further.
Roxas said the racist incidents at Charles Wilson Park were avoidable and accused city prosecutors of moving slow on her client’s case. She said prosecutors began to take her client’s Del Amo battery case seriously only after the heavy public attention generated from the park incidents in June.
“When you look at the history of attacks of Lena Hernandez, she’s obviously someone who is hateful toward Asian Americas,” Roxas said. “If the viral videos wouldn’t have come out, they would’ve sat on the case.”
Hernandez was identified as a retired social worker.
She was arrested on July 3, but posted bail and was out of custody during the court proceedings.
Hernandez was previously convicted of two counts of misdemeanor battery in a separate incident on April 6, according to court records. In that case, the court sentenced her to five days in county jail and probation.