Hearing on Shatto Park Gang Injunction Delayed

A hearing to decide whether to issue a permanent injunction against the 18th Street gang in Shatto Park has been postponed for three months.

The delay comes in the wake of an unfolding corruption probe in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division, where a number of officers are the target of an investigation of perjury and planting evidence on suspects.

The city had won a preliminary injunction against the gang’s Shatto Park branch, which is within the Rampart Division. The injunction prevented 80 to 90 gang members from meeting in public, drinking alcohol and participating in narcotics sales.

But the preliminary measure was suspended in September after the police scandal broke. And the city attorney’s office, which had scheduled a hearing earlier this week to consider making the ban permanent, asked for more time to determine how the alleged police misdeeds would affect its injunction request.

“That’s what we’re assessing,” said Kelly Huynh, a deputy city attorney.

At the city attorney’s request, a Superior Court judge agreed to continue the matter until March 15, she said.

In addition to the Shatto Park injunction, the police probe has also foiled plans for an injunction against the 18th Street gang’s Pico-Union branch, also within the Rampart Division. The second injunction, aimed at 60 individuals, also was stayed when details about the Rampart Division scandal came to light.

Meanwhile, 10 other gang injunctions are unaffected by the Rampart Division scandal and remain in place, a city attorney’s office spokesman has said.