Police Station Tagger Sentenced to 45 Days

Prosecutors say it was one of the most brazen acts of vandalism in recent memory that landed one gang member in jail: He left graffiti inside an interview room at a Los Angeles police station while officers waited outside.

Gilberto Perales, 29, was sentenced to 45 days in County Jail after he pleaded no contest Thursday to one misdemeanor count of writing on personal property that belonged to someone else.

“It strikes me as the height of arrogance when they believe they can tag anything--including an interview room inside an L.A. police station,” said Deputy City Atty. Gary Geuss. “There is no length they will not go to tag in the Valley these days.”

Municipal Court Commissioner Mitchell Block also placed Perales on three years probation and scheduled an Aug. 18 hearing to determine how much he should pay the city to repair the damage.

Police said Perales belongs to a gang that is fighting authorities for control of a neighborhood just a few feet away from the Los Angeles Police Department North Hollywood Division station.

Members of the police anti-gang unit say they are targeting the gang because of the way its members flagrantly conduct criminal activity within sight of the police station.

Another member of the gang was sentenced last week to six years in state prison for threatening a mother of seven who has tried to fight gang and drug activity in the Tiara Street neighborhood.

Maximilliano Guerrero, 20, received the stiff sentence for simulating a gun with his hand and pointing it at Viviana Guerra.

Police arrested Perales and two other people April 20 on suspicion of being drunk in public and having an open alcoholic beverage container.

He was arrested about a block from the North Hollywood Division station, authorities said.

Perales was waiting in an interview room when he used a pencil to scrawl his gang moniker on the wall, Geuss said.