Ruling Limits Cities’ Gang-Fighting Strategy : Law: State Court of Appeal decides that such groups cannot be controlled by banning activities that are generally considered legal.

Limiting a popular anti-gang strategy employed by many Southern California cities, a state Court of Appeal has ruled that the city of San Jose lacks the power to control gangs by prohibiting behavior that is otherwise legal.

The ruling could wipe out controversial portions of several court orders aimed at gang members in the San Fernando Valley, Norwalk and Burbank, authorities said.

Cities across the state have enacted ordinances and sought injunctions designed to limit crime by barring gang members from performing normally legal acts, such as possessing cellular phones or congregating in public.

The 6th District Court of Appeal on Monday upheld an injunction issued against a San Jose gang, but ruled that many of the acts prohibited by the injunction were not crimes, regardless of whether they are committed by gang members.

As a result, the city of San Jose can continue to prohibit gang members from engaging in a list of criminal activities, including spray-painting walls, threatening and assaultive behavior and possessing and selling narcotics.

But the court ruled it was “constitutionally impermissible” for the city to prohibit the gang members from possessing beepers in public places, signaling or acting as lookouts to warn others that police are approaching, and a laundry list of otherwise legal actions.

The decision “narrowed” and “limited” the injunction obtained in San Jose, according to San Jose City Atty. Joan Gallo.

“The net effect is that the police departments can’t use overly broad and unconstitutional mechanisms for picking up people when they haven’t committed criminal acts,” said Amitai Schwartz, a San Francisco attorney who represented six gang members who challenged the injunction.

The city of San Jose in 1993 obtained an injunction against two street gangs, the Varrio Sureno Locos and Varrio Sureno Treces, in a four-block area of San Jose known as Rock Springs, a community that prior to the injunction had been plagued by drug dealing, partying and graffiti.

The Court of Appeal found that five of the youths who challenged the court order could be named in the injunction because they were suspected of possessing, using or selling drugs. But the court dismissed a sixth youth, Blanca Gonzalez, as a defendant because she had only dressed in gang clothing, claimed gang membership and hung out in Rock Springs.

The case had been closely watched by prosecutors and defense attorneys in Los Angeles, where similar injunctions have been granted.

Most recently, county prosecutors obtained an injunction against a Norwalk gang establishing curfews and forbidding 22 members of the Orange Street Locos from carrying crowbars and wearing baseball bats, among other things.

Burbank authorities won a court order in 1992 banning suspected gang members from gathering on a section of West Elmwood Avenue, including some who lived there, after two people were shot and injured within hours of each other.

The slaying of apartment owner Donald Aragon on Van Nuys’ infamous Blythe Street later that year prompted the city attorney’s office to obtain an injunction to curb the actions of a gang they said had taken over an entire block. Issued in 1993, the injunction prohibited gang members from doing everything from possessing beepers to standing on rooftops.

“Assuming that it stands, (Monday’s decision) has pretty much rendered the Blythe Street injunction useless,” Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Alex Ricciardulli said. “All along we’ve been saying that there are criminal laws out there and to take a shortcut is illegal.”

Debbie Lew, supervising attorney for appeals for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, said her office could still prevail in court if it is able to distinguish differences between the San Jose and Blythe Street injunctions.

“I think in most cases they’re distinguishable,” Lew said.

The controversy is far from over.

Both the Los Angeles city attorney’s office and the Los Angeles County public defender’s office have petitioned the state Supreme Court to review the Blythe Street injunction. Charges based on violations of the injunction were thrown out earlier this year by an appellate judge who ruled that prosecutors had filed the case in the wrong court.

Gallo said a decision on whether to petition the state Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeal decision regarding the San Jose gang members will be made next Tuesday by the San Jose City Council.

“From our perspective, whether or not we appeal, there will be a gang-abatement program in San Jose,” Gallo said.

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