Enforcement of Gang Injunction Delayed Again

Amid widening fallout from the Los Angeles Police Department’s corruption scandal, a Superior Court judge Friday postponed enforcement of an injunction against 18th Street gang members in the Pico-Union District.

Judge Rodney E. Nelson put the injunction on hold for an additional 60 days at the request of city and county prosecutors, who are assessing the damage to the court order caused by LAPD officers being investigated for a wide range of misconduct.

More than half of the approximately 50 gang members named in the sweeping injunction were accused, in part, on the basis of sworn statements from Rampart Division anti-gang officers caught up in the growing scandal, records show.

Prosecutors were granted a 30-day stay last month on the injunction, which widely restricts gang members’ rights to associate in public. They said Friday, however, that they need more time to allow investigators to continue their probes.

“We need to let some of these investigations conclude so we can figure out what we have left,” said David E. Demerjian, head deputy of the district attorney’s hard-core gang division.