Movie Makers Crowding in on Gangs : Juvenile Court Commissioner Lends Expertise in Dramatizing Youth Problem

The entertainment world has discovered gangs. “Colors,” starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall and directed by Dennis Hopper, is set to open in movie theaters April 15. Last month, ABC-TV aired the made-for-television movie about gangs called “Broken Angel.”

The increased interest in gangs does not surprise Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack J. Gold, who lives in Studio City. Gold has served as technical consultant to two movie projects so far this year. He is signed to act in one of them, a still-untitled work directed by Hugh Hudson (“Chariots of Fire”) and starring Donald Sutherland. Gold will play a judge who sentences Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz in a scene set for filming this month at the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court, next to Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

Both Hudson and the star of the second movie, Emilia Crow, sat as observers in Gold’s courtroom as part of their research. Crow’s project, “Juvie,” is to begin filming this spring. She and husband Robert Crow co-produced the recent Roger Vadim film, “And God Created Woman.”

“The gang problem is the biggest problem, bar none, that we have brewing in this city,” Gold said.

Says Movies Don’t Feed Gang

However, unlike some police officials, Gold does not believe that gang violence and growth are encouraged by the release of movies on the subject.

“You can’t predict what a bunch of gang members are going to do because of a movie,” he said.

His knowledge of gangs comes as a result of five years spent as a Juvenile Court commissioner. (Commissioner is a full-time post appointed by a presiding judge; judgeships come through election or appointment by the governor). Recently transferred to a courtroom downtown, Gold previously sat in Juvenile Court in Sylmar.

He paints an alarming picture of the growth of gang activity in the San Fernando Valley. The potential for violence to innocent people is high, he contends.

“The feeling that this will never happen in Sherman Oaks or Tarzana or Studio City, a lot of people have it, but that type of situation can happen in any part of the city at any time,” Gold said. “Now you have the real heavy gangs coming into the Valley, the Crips and Bloods, to sell rock cocaine.”

Reading Graffiti

Gold said his knowledge of the growth and movement of gangs comes from his court caseload, from contact with police and probation officers and by observation of placas, or gang names and emblems graffitied onto walls. The Valley has as many as 20,000 gang members, he said, a figure disputed by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“That’s a lot bigger than what I’d estimate in the Valley,” said Foothill Division Detective Clifford Ruff, a 7-year member of the police anti-gang effort Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, called CRASH. “We have probably 3,000 on file in Foothill Division, and there are maybe 5,000 for the Valley. But that doesn’t account for the ones that come here and live somewhere else. We get a lot of people passing through the Valley.”

Other police officials have placed Valley gang membership as high as 10,000.

Ruff, who called Gold “one of the few magistrates I know who is up on gang activity,” agreed with him that gang members are coming to Valley from South-Central Los Angeles.

“It’s picked up,” the detective said. “The Valley is lucrative for drug trade because there are working people who have money to spend on drugs. It’s brought black gangs up from the inner city to peddle rock cocaine.”

Ruff said some of the drug traffickers are “hard-core” gang members capable of violence, while others are “businessmen” who will avoid trouble if possible.

Gold often takes a hard line on gang issues. Locally, he pioneered the sentencing of gang members to graffiti cleanup for convictions that formerly brought only probation. He urges property owners who catch a graffiti writer to follow the little-used legal tactic of sending a cleanup bill to the youth’s parents, then suing if the bill is not paid.

And he contends that stiff prison sentences for gang-related crimes are far more effective than community intervention programs, saying, “How do you work with a guy who’s making $1,200 a day selling dope?”

Although Gold’s current projects are his first movie and writing endeavors, he has played conga drums professionally, appearing in the early 1970s on albums by the Jackson Five and Bonnie Bramlett.

“He’s an excellent Latin percussionist,” said Deke Richards, who has produced not only for the Jacksons and Bramlett, but for the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and other stars. “He’s doing percussion on a couple of projects for me now.”

Too Smart

Richards said Gold “has the talent” to make a living in music, but was smart to opt for the legal profession.

“It’s difficult being successful in the music business,” he said. “There’s a lot of gambling and frustration. You can be riding high or you can be starving.”

Gold, who grew up in the Hollywood and La Brea areas, said he has no regrets about his choice.

“I never thought about a career in music,” he said. “You’re at too many people’s mercy.”