Gang Member’s Mother Denies ‘Failure’ Charge

A South Los Angeles woman pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she failed her duties as a mother by allowing her 15-year-old son to participate in a street gang, in the first case of its kind under a new parental responsibility law.

Outside the crowded Municipal Court room, Gloria Williams, 37, refused to answer questions about the charges alleging that she “failed to exercise reasonable care, supervision, protection and control” of her teen-age son. The youth is in custody on charges that he participated in the gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl.

“I’ll have something to say when this is all over,” murmured Williams, a frail-looking woman.

The mother of three was arrested last month at her home on West Boulevard after police, investigating her son’s alleged involvement in the rape, discovered graffiti covering the boy’s bedroom walls. Officers also seized two photograph albums that they said contain pictures of Williams and her children posing with Crips making gang hand signs and brandishing weapons.

When asked how she felt about her arrest, Williams, who faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine, rolled her eyes at reporters and said, “How do you think I felt? I was mad.”

Her 20-year-old daughter, Tiffany Grasham, declared, “I am very disgusted about this whole thing. Other gang members have been arrested. Why hasn’t anything been done to their parents?”

Grasham, who is featured in many of the seized photographs wearing Crips colors and making hand signs, added, “Those photographs were taken a long time ago, and all they show is a bunch of people dancing and having fun.”

Grasham said the weapons in the photographs were air guns. About the hand signs, she said, “People pose when they take pictures, and that’s all we were doing.”

Arrest Criticized

Daye Shinn, Williams’ attorney, said, “The only reason (police) arrested my client is because she’s black and she’s in a certain low-income bracket. . . . Because law enforcement has not been able to solve the gang problem . . . they are shifting the blame onto the parents.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Deputy City Atty. Debra Gonzales said later. “We are not saying there aren’t other parents out there who are in violation of (the parental responsibility law), but she just happens to be the first person we have actually charged.”

The state law was passed last September as part of the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act, drafted by City Atty. James K. Hahn and Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to treat street gang activity as a form of organized crime. Under the parental responsibility provisions of the law, parents can be punished if they knowingly fail to control or supervise their children.

Shinn, one of the defense attorneys in the 1970 Charles Manson murder trial, said he is confident that investigations will show Williams is not guilty of any negligence.

Williams “is a hard-working, single mother who works eight or nine hours a day trying to raise her kids,” Shinn said. “What do they want her to do? Quit her job and go on welfare to take care of her children or put her in jail and leave the kids roaming the streets at home?”

Since Williams’ arrest, officials at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said dozens of parents who live in gang-infested neighborhoods have called them, afraid that they too could be arrested if their children get into trouble. Executive Director Ramona Ripston said the ACLU plans to file a lawsuit within the next month challenging the constitutionality of the parental responsibility law.

Working Women

“Many of the callers have been working mothers who get home at 5 p.m. when their children get home at 3,” Ripston said. “Are the parents supposed to be punished if their kids get in trouble during those couple of hours? Each time a child commits a crime, are the parents going to be examined?”

Maybe the parents should be looked at, said Rose Crannon of Concerned Parents of South Central Los Angeles.

Crannon, whose grass-roots group provides emotional support for parents of gang members, said it is not uncommon for mothers and fathers to condone their children’s criminal activity.

“There are many parents who . . . accept drug money and stolen property even though they know their kids are getting it illegally,” she said. “They will look the other way because they have never had a new car or color television set.”

A trial date for Williams was set for June 22.