LOS ANGELES : Youth Charged Under Injunction Against Gang
A youth who police said hurled bottles at a patrol car and tried to flee into a nearby apartment is the first suspected member of a Blythe Street gang in Panorama City to be prosecuted for allegedly violating the conditions of a sweeping injunction issued in April.
The controversial 22-point injunction, which bans gang members from the area of Blythe Street west of Van Nuys Boulevard after 8 p.m. and prohibits a number of otherwise legal activities, was sought by the city of Los Angeles as a tool to pry loose the drug-dealing gang’s grip on the street.
Jessie (Speedy) Gonzalez was charged Tuesday in Van Nuys Municipal Court with willfully disobeying the injunction, issued April 7 by Superior Court Judge John H. Major over the objections of the American Civil Liberties Union. He also was charged with resisting a court order and trespassing.
His arraignment was put off until June 22 at the request of the public defender’s office to give it time to challenge the constitutionality of the injunction, which is by far the most wide-ranging ever issued by a court against a Los Angeles gang.
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