Court Order Against L.A. Gang Expanded

In an accelerating law enforcement campaign against the region’s largest street gang, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Friday approved a preliminary injunction aimed at the heart of the notorious 18th Street gang’s domain, a crowded and crime-plagued square-mile area west of downtown where the group was born more than 30 years ago.

The first such legal action taken jointly by city and county prosecutors, banning any public association of even two gang members, is the most ambitious ever in Los Angeles County. The order affects more gang members than any previously approved in California, authorities said, and includes the most severe restrictions to date on gang members’ freedom to gather in public view in Los Angeles.

Previously, the most restrictive ban--involving 18 members of the gang and a smaller branch near West Los Angeles--barred three or more gang members from congregating in public. That injunction came last month.

Friday’s order grants police an additional tool to tame some of the most violence-prone streets in Los Angeles. It is the start of a newly coordinated effort to break the grip 18th Street and other gangs exert in communities across the county, officials told reporters after the hearing.

For months a multi-agency team, including Los Angeles Police Department officers, state parole and youth authority agents and county probation officials, has been working to nurture community support among fearful residents and build a legal case against the gang.

“People of L.A. have been forced for far too long to be victims in their neighborhoods. That’s over,” said Michael Genelin, head of the district attorney’s hard-core gang division.

Gov. Pete Wilson praised the court decision, saying “we are sending a clear message [that] we will use all available tools to curb illegal gang activity. . . . We cannot call ourselves a civilized society if our homes become prisons to innocent citizens who live in fear.”

The court order, approved by Judge William C. Beverly, followed a hearing in which 15 reputed 18th Street members neither spoke nor had any legal representation.

The defendants, some with tattoos and one with an oversized “18” jersey, sat impassively as Beverly proceeded swiftly. Without elaboration, he accepted prosecutors’ written legal arguments that the gang is a “public nuisance.”

The preliminary injunction, which remains in effect indefinitely pending a full trial, bans the defendants from standing, sitting, walking, driving or appearing anywhere in the target area with a known 18th Street gang member. They also are prohibited from possessing drugs, drug paraphernalia, beepers, cellular phones, police scanners and weapons.

Adult defendants may not be on the street between 10 p.m. and sunrise, except when traveling to or from legitimate functions. For juveniles, the curfew begins at 8 p.m.

Prosecutors and sworn declarations from police paint a particularly chilling picture of domination by vicious and calculating gang members in the Pico-Union target area, near the intersection of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways.

The gang is frequently involved in murders, assaults, auto thefts, carjackings, burglary, narcotics trafficking, arms dealing and vandalism, according to police declarations.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles, the nation’s gang capital, have enthusiastically embraced injunctions in the wake of recent high court rulings that upheld cities’ authority to broadly restrict gang activity. However, civil libertarians contend that the orders trample on constitutionally protected freedoms of association.

Outside court Friday, 18th Street members said they are being unfairly targeted and complained that the legal proceeding was lopsided because they could not afford attorneys. (In civil actions, defendants are not entitled to public defenders.)

“They’re taking our constitutional rights. Nobody’s representing us,” said Jerson Juarez, 20, who said he has moved from the neighborhood, enrolled in paramedic training and is trying to get out of the gang. “It’s unfair for those who are trying to be something.”

Other defendants were less moved and more defiant.

Some flashed gang signs at the media as they left the courthouse, and at least one tossed rocks at a television reporter interviewing a defendant.

“Gangbanging is never going to die,” said one 14-year-old named in the preliminary injunction.

Another defendant, Carlos Abaunza, 46, said he joined 18th Street 34 years ago as a founding member. He predicted that the court order would primarily affect younger gangsters, who are more frequently on the streets. It would have little effect, he said, on older gang members, who law enforcement officials contend are responsible for directing much of 18th Street’s illegal activity from behind the scenes.

“We’re not taking it seriously,” said the heavily tattooed Abaunza.

In fact, he said, the official attention being focused on the gang--which police say has up to 20,000 members in Southern California--is uniting members and helping attract recruits. “Other gangs are getting . . . into 18th Street,” he said. “It’s growing.”

Prosecutors contend that the injunction will cripple recruiting efforts in the area by keeping present gang members off the streets.

Either way, 18th Street is the largest criminal street gang in the country, according to Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and City Atty. James K. Hahn.

The gang, whose rise was chronicled last year in a Times series, has spread from its central Los Angeles roots across city and state boundaries. It also has extended its reach into Mexico and Central America, bolstered in part by stepped up federal efforts to deport gang members living here illegally.

A three-inch stack of documents filed in support of Friday’s preliminary injunction portrays the gang as a growing regional menace. Eighteenth Street is among the deadliest in Los Angeles and linked to more robberies and witness intimidation incidents than any other gang, according to the documents.

In the past 15 months, 18th Streeters have been suspects or victims in 32 homicides in the LAPD division that patrols Pico-Union. Much of the mayhem stems from disputes with rival gangs and drug dealers over the gang’s system of street “taxes,” officials say.

So pervasive is the fear of 18th Street in Pico-Union, prosecutors say, they were able to obtain only eight declarations from residents and had to give assurances that the statements would remain sealed by the judge.

Residents are regularly intimidated or beaten if they complain or cooperate with police, authorities say in court papers. In one instance, gang members allegedly monitoring 911 broadcasts went to the home of a woman who reported a crime and threatened her. At a motel favored by 18th Streeters for parties, a manager was hit with a brick when he refused to give them a room. One brazen 18th Street gang member demanded that a resident pay him to park on a public street.

“I’m from 18th Street,” the gangster said. “You have to pay rent.”

And in a park overrun by 18th Street-backed drug dealing, where play equipment is often covered with the gang’s various logos, police said they recently recovered 100 dirty syringes from the children’s sandbox.

“The saturation of 18th Street graffiti . . . specifically in the parks, sends a message to the community and children that 18th Street controls the area. This inevitably affects and entices children to join the gang,” one LAPD detective stated in court papers. “Citizens work all day or night to make a decent living, only to have their freedom taken away by the 18th Street gang.”

Pico-Union residents and business owners interviewed Friday said they are eager to fully realize the promised effects of the injunction.

“Definitely, this is a good thing for the neighborhood,” said one homeowner who has lived 20 years in the heart of the targeted 18th Street area. “People are scared stiff,” he added, refusing to be identified for fear of retaliation.

One immigrant entrepreneur, whose small business has been overrun by 18th Street-controlled dope dealing, hopes the order might bring back customers and help save the family-run operation, which is teetering on the brink of insolvency.

“We are just trying to survive,” said the Spanish-speaking owner, who also feared being identified.

Prosecutors insist that the mere threat of the injunction has suppressed the gang’s profile. The long-term success of the drive remains to be seen. But the gang’s graffiti, the roving presence of gang members and typically freewheeling drug bazaars have appeared to be less visible in recent days.

“It’s not as bad,” said the shop owner, who has struggled against the gang’s grip on the neighborhood.

* INVESTIGATION HAMPERED: Victims of South-Central turf battle are increasing, but witnesses are reluctant to come forward. B1