‘Chaka’ Arrested on Trespass, Marijuana Possession Charges

The city’s most prolific graffiti tagger was arrested by Griffith Park rangers early Sunday and booked for trespassing on a city golf course and possession of marijuana, authorities said.

It was the second time that 18-year-old Daniel Bernardo Ramos--who is suspected of scrawling the name “Chaka” on 10,000 places statewide--has been detained since he was sentenced last Wednesday to three years’ probation, 1,560 hours of graffiti cleanup work and restitution to be determined later.

In an interview at her modest apartment in the Aliso Village housing project near downtown, Ramos’ mother blamed her son’s notorious obsession on “friends who want him to do bad things.”

“I don’t know what to do, my head is like this,” Maria Ramos said, holding up a clenched fist and visibly trying not to cry.

His friends, she said, call him up on the telephone “every 10 seconds. They tell him, ‘What you do is art.’ He believes it.”

Senior Ranger Hector Hernandez said Ramos was carrying less than an ounce of marijuana when he was arrested with two companions near the seventh tee of the golf course in Griffith Park about 1 a.m.

The two men--Edward Cazian, 20, and Joe Garza, 28--also were booked for alleged trespassing. A third person at the course was carrying a wide-tipped marking pen in her purse that she told park rangers “belonged to Ramos,” Hernandez said.

If it can be proved that Ramos owned the pen, he could face up to two years in County Jail for violating a condition of probation that he stay away from marking pens or cans of spray paint, authorities said.

Still, Hernandez said, “an initial investigation indicated no vandalism or graffiti in the immediate area of the golf course.”

Ramos, who served five months in jail, was released Wednesday after pleading guilty to 10 counts of vandalism. Twenty-four hours later, authorities found Ramos’ infamous moniker scrawled on a courthouse elevator door moments after he and two companions stepped out of it on his way to visit a probation officer.

Although Ramos denied responsibility for the graffiti on the elevator door, the Los Angeles Police Department is continuing an investigation that will determine whether new vandalism charges will be filed against him.