Gangbuster : Sole Prosecutor of Valley’s Hard-Core Young Criminals, on Call at All Hours, Has Untarnished Record in Court

In his early years, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Cesar C. Sarmiento yearned to be an electric guitarist. As it turned out, he was more adept at fingering case files than guitar strings.

Sarmiento, 32, played the electric guitar in high school and college but decided just before starting law school to give up his dream of becoming a professional musician. “You just have to make a decision,” he said. “I realized I hadn’t put enough hard work into it.”

He still plays the guitar, but Sarmiento’s devotion is reserved for his job as the sole prosecutor of hard-core gang crimes in the San Fernando Valley.

When a drive-by shooting occurs, when a gang retaliates with another hit, or when an innocent victim is caught in the cross fire, Sarmiento is the one awakened in the middle of the night to investigate.

“We call him up when everything’s real fresh and still there,” said Detective Dave Alfred, of the police Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, also known as CRASH, an anti-gang unit. “In fact he gets upset if we don’t call him. It’s kind of unusual. Most D.A.s I’ve had experience with don’t come out to the crime scene. I don’t have D.A.s telling me, ‘Call me at home,’ either.”

Seeks Witnesses

Sarmiento investigates 10 to 15 cases at any given time, most of which take him to crime-ridden neighborhoods of Pacoima, Sylmar, Van Nuys and North Hollywood. Police estimate that there are as many as 2,800 gang members in the San Fernando Valley and trace the beginnings of Latino gangs--which are the most prevalent--to the 1930s.

To prosecute gang-related murders, armed robberies and rapes, Sarmiento needs accounts from witnesses. Often, just after a crime, Sarmiento said, emotions will run high enough so that “gang-bangers will drop a dime,” that is, gang members will break their code of silence and phone authorities.

“I like to be involved in a case at the earliest possible date--like when it happens,” Sarmiento said. He tries to talk to gang members “just after they saw their home boy get shot. That way you get the statement right away, then you baby-sit them and keep in touch with them.”

Since he became special gang prosecutor in 1985, Sarmiento says, he has spent equal time on Valley gang turf and in the courtroom. He said he prosecutes about 50 cases a year. According to court records, he has never lost a case.

Intrigued by the gang mentality, and hoping to help take some of the worst members off the streets, he took the job without illusions.

“If you thought you were going to really clean things up, you’d go crazy,” Sarmiento said. “I don’t see my role as a big solver of the gang problem. It’s been there a long time, and just because there’s a hard-core gang unit, gangs are not going to disappear. We’re pretty much after the fact.”

Once enough evidence has been gathered and a suspect has been identified, police present the case to the prosecutor, who determines whether charges will be filed. The next step is the arraignment, at which the prosecutor formally presents the charges and the defendant enters a plea.

From then on, the prosecutor prepares his case in anticipation of a jury trial.

Sarmiento is one of 21 deputy district attorneys in Los Angeles County who specialize in gang cases, prosecuting only the most serious and complicated crimes such as murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and rape.

“Cesar is a very polished lawyer, that’s what helps him,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. A. Michael Genelin, who heads the hard-core gang crime prosecution unit. “He’s articulate, has a good appearance and is very aggressive. All of those things combine to make a very fine advocate.”

But he’s not popular with everyone.

Some say there is nothing special about the way Sarmiento does his job, noting that his cases often are so heinous that they present little challenge when it comes time for closing arguments to the jury.

One public defender said he does not consider Sarmiento an exceptional attorney. “He doesn’t do anything different from any other D.A.,” said Daniel B. Blum, adding that prosecuting hard-core gang crimes requires “just being a little more hardened than those prosecuting other kinds of crimes.”

Others suggest that Sarmiento may be too reserved and unflappable, lacking the fire within to really stand out.

Another of his courtroom opponents, public defender Paul Enright, said the prosecutor simply “takes his work seriously.”

Does Not Speak Spanish

One of three sons of a Filipino immigrant who worked as a career serviceman, Sarmiento could be mistaken for Latino, with his dark skin and Hispanic name. He said that speaking Spanish would be useful in his work, since many of his witnesses as well as defendants are Latino, but he has never learned the language. “That is his only drawback,” CRASH Detective Mike Coffey said.

But Sarmiento is conversant in gang slang (he has a dictionary of gang terms) and knows the distinctions between such entrenched Valley gangs as San Fers, Sol Trece and Pacas, based in the Pacoima and San Fernando areas. He has learned to use street names like Flaco, Loco, or Gordo and talks about gang members’ families as if he knew them well. “You have to know how to talk to these guys,” he said. “But I don’t try to talk on their level. I just try to be straightforward.”

He has also learned to distinguish the characteristics of gang graffiti to aid him in understanding the culture.

After graduating from UC Davis law school in 1980, Sarmiento worked as a public defender, which may give him an edge, having worked both sides of the process.

“I understand defense’s arguments, which is helpful in how I approach a case,” he said.

Worked as Public Defender

As a public defender, he represented the same kind of people he now prosecutes.

He gave up defense work because he “had some mixed feelings about getting somebody off who shouldn’t be off.”

He is now investigating the murder of a 10-year-old Pacoima boy shot in the back of the head July 20, police say by a 17-year-old gang member. About a week after the incident, he spent a morning at Pacoima Park with two detectives going over details, re-enacting the crime and piecing together witness accounts.

During his leisure, Sarmiento returns to his youthful passions of guitar playing or shooting basketballs, Ellen A. Sarmiento, his wife of six years, said.

Sarmiento grew up in Chatsworth, graduating from Chatsworth High School and California State University, Northridge.

His family members, including Sarmiento’s wife, who is also an attorney, worry about reprisals associated with the prosecution of violent crimes. Sarmiento is aware of the danger but not intimidated by it.

“There’s always the possibility of his being followed or threatened or identified and that is in the back of my mind,” said Ellen Sarmiento, who works in the city attorney’s office. “But I think he has a very realistic attitude about his work. He realizes the dangerous aspects of his job and is careful.”

Sarmiento said he tries to ignore the outbursts of defendants’ friends and family. He was recently spat upon by the sister of a man sentenced for rape, and often is the target of yelling in the courthouse halls.

He takes it philosophically, with characteristic calm.

“It’s not unusual for people to have emotional outbursts,” Sarmiento said. “You’re really talking about some very intense feelings. Every case has its own particular tragedy attached to it.”

Not a Brave Crusader

Sarmiento does not see himself as the brave crusader.

Others probably wouldn’t either. With his boyish looks and slight build, he hardly fits the image of a seasoned district attorney.

“His looks are deceiving,” said Detective Coffey, who works closely with Sarmiento. “He used to be a surfer kid growing up here in L.A., and now he’s prosecuting major cases. His knowledge and courtroom demeanor is far beyond his years.”

While delivering closing arguments in a murder case last month, Sarmiento appeared more professorial than anything. He did not seem assertive so much as academic, using such aids as a blackboard and pointer.

He avoided dramatic or emotional appeals. He did not accentuate the brutality of the crime. In fact, he seemed to downplay it.

“When you shoot a guy point-blank in the face . . . there is little argument that you were trying to kill that person,” he told the jury. “It was a totally senseless shooting: He shot the man in the face for no reason at all.”

“He may appear to be young, but that’s no reflection on his competency,” said Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew, who has presided over a half-dozen cases that Sarmiento prosecuted. “He handles some very nasty cases, dealing with a very rough group of people who have been in the system. He’s definitely tough enough to handle that type of element.”

Sarmiento said his job requires “a total immersion in the culture” and a knowledge of gang psychology. He believes that the gang mentality “makes people do things that they wouldn’t do individually.”

“That’s why gangs are kind of a cowardly way to run your life,” he said. “Guys will do things or say things they wouldn’t do on their own.”

Sarmiento’s first hard-core gang assignment was in 1983 at Inglewood Juvenile Hall. Since then, about 10% of the cases he has prosecuted were tried in Juvenile Hall, he said.

He does not hold much hope for young gang members who have been in and out of Juvenile Hall since age 13 and are now in their mid-20s and in prison.

“When you start talking about rehabilitation, it’s kind of a joke,” he said. “I never thought I’d be talking like that. When I was in college, I was real idealistic.

“When you get out in the world, you realize that there are some people who are better off not being allowed to walk in society.”