A Culture of Violence and Denial

It was there in the photos, had anyone thought to look.

A picture from a prom, where the theme was “Welcome to the Jungle,” shows four beefy boys posing with hands chest high, fingers forming a white power salute in front of their ruffled tuxedo shirts. A snapshot, confiscated from a bulletin board in one young man’s bedroom, reveals teenagers pointing their handguns at the camera lens.

It was there too, in the anabolic steroids stashed in closets, the guns hidden under false floors of cars, the white supremacist literature on dressers, the bare-knuckled fight club party in an empty backyard swimming pool, the way the young men surrounded their victims and barked like dogs before beating and stomping them.

Had anyone thought to look, they might have seen evidence of trouble in this hushed, upscale exurb southeast of Phoenix. They might have seen the early signs of racism and violence that are pitting many of its residents against each other. Due attention might have saved Gilbert and its schools--and the third of its residents who are Mormons--from a nasty dispute and lingering ill will.

The troubles began with an outbreak of white supremacy, which can be traced to a group, mostly athletes, at Highland High School. Police say the group was founded six or seven years ago by a student, Michael J. Papa, who was on the wrestling team. The group changed its name every year and eventually became the Devil Dogs. Part of the time, its members hung out at a local Taco Bell, a nexus for bullying and violence.

Few people were paying attention. Even now, some, including the school superintendent, minimize the magnitude of the problems. According to police, a number of violent incidents, including some at the Taco Bell, involved the Devil Dogs--but because witnesses failed to cooperate and victims refused to press charges, only a few could be prosecuted.

Many people did not begin to appreciate the full extent of what was happening until police busted a large drug ring earlier this year and said that former mob hit man Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano was involved--along with members of the Devil Dogs. Because of the drug bust, the group gained attention--indeed, infamy--throughout Gilbert and beyond.

So did past instances of their handiwork:

* A young man was held to the ground and kicked in the head while teenagers barked and yelled epithets. The victim suffered a depressed skull fracture. The damage required two surgeries. Police mentioned three Devil Dogs in their report, but so many people were involved that officers were not sure who inflicted the near-fatal blows. No charges were filed.

* Two men were beaten while their assailants yelled anti-gay and white power slogans. This time, three Devil Dogs were convicted. They told police the assault began after they watched an Ultimate Fighting Championship (no holds barred) competition on TV, got drunk and “went out to stomp on homos and pussies.” According to court testimony, one of the teens, a linebacker on the Highland football team, bragged about the beating and showed off his bloody knuckles.

* At the time, the linebacker was on probation for an on-campus attack on another Highland student. He also had been involved in a Devil Dog assault on an Asian couple in which members yelled ethnic slurs and threatened to tip over the couple’s boat on a Gilbert lake.

Then, in May of last year, the Devil Dogs were involved in one of the worst beatings in the history of Gilbert.

The victim was an 18-year-old named Jordan Jarvis. He had never heard of the Devil Dogs the night he and a buddy dropped off some friends at a party. After waiting outside, Jarvis went in to let one of the friends know that he and his buddy were leaving. A young woman confronted him and asked his name.

Jarvis told her.

She called for her boyfriend.

Police and witnesses give this account of what happened next: A group of young men ran to Jarvis and accused him of beating a friend of theirs. Jarvis said he didn’t know what they were talking about. He went back outside to his friend’s open Jeep, climbed inside and buckled his seat belt.

Devil Dogs and at least 50 other teenagers from the party surrounded the Jeep, according to police and the witnesses.

Jarvis, strapped in and unable to defend himself, was beaten, kicked and choked.

Young men yelled, “White power!” and barked--a signature sound of the Devil Dogs.

Blood seeped from Jarvis’ head and nose.

When his buddy finally managed to get away, he drove Jarvis directly to a hospital. Jarvis had been beaten so badly that he was unrecognizable. His mother, Cheri, and her older son passed him in the emergency room without knowing him.

His head was too swollen for treatment that night, other than some stitches. He has since undergone surgery three times to, among other things, realign his nose, remove bone spurs at the base of his skull and scrape calcification from his eye sockets.

Five Devil Dogs pleaded guilty or were convicted in the beating. Police described the incident as a case of mistaken identity.

*

About two years ago, as the Devil Dogs were growing ever more violent, founder Michael Papa made friends with another former New Yorker, Gerard Gravano, who introduced Papa to his father, Salvatore.

In New York, the elder Gravano was known as Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. He had admitted 19 murders before taking a plea bargain and turning against mob boss John Gotti. Testimony from “Sammy the Bull” helped put Gotti in prison. Gravano entered the federal witness protection program and moved to Arizona.

Gravano, 55, appeared to have settled into a suburban life. He had changed his name to Jimmy Moran and had undergone minor plastic surgery to alter his appearance. He operated a pool construction company and a real estate development company. His ex-wife, Debra, owned Uncle Sal’s Italian Ristorante in the upscale Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale.

Living as businessman Jimmy Moran, Gravano became a mentor to Michael Papa, now 23, authorities say. They say that Papa, Gravano and some members of his family built Arizona’s biggest Ecstasy drug ring--a multimillion-dollar enterprise that targeted teenagers in Phoenix’s flourishing rave scene.

Papa, police say, began recruiting his fellow Devil Dogs as muscle. One police surveillance report says that Michael Papa summoned about 30 Devil Dogs to shake down a restaurant owner who owed the drug ring money.

At the time of the drug bust, the ring was selling more than 30,000 pills a week, authorities say, and had cornered the Arizona market for Ecstasy, an illegal anti-depressant popular at raves: dance-till-dawn parties with pounding electronic music.

And then it all unraveled.

At 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, agents from a multiagency task force closed in on dozens of residences in the Phoenix area. The result: 45 arrests and a 201-count indictment alleging drug trafficking as well as other crimes. Also seized were methamphetamines, marijuana and steroids.

Among those arrested were Gravano and his ex-wife, their son and daughter--and Papa, the Devil Dogs founder. All have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Gravano remains in jail, facing bail of $5 million; his son, Gerard, is also still being held. Debra and Karen Gravano have been released on bond.

Uncle Sal’s Italian Ristorante, authorities say, was used to launder money, and Debra Gravano’s spacious Tempe home was used to store drugs. The construction company, police say, was a front for the drug dealing.

As many as a dozen of those arrested have Devil Dog connections, police say.

Growth Partially to Blame for Problems

At least in part, Gilbert can blame development and its attendant growing pains for the trouble. It has the fastest growing school district in the state, and the town’s 245% growth rate over 10 years is staggering, even by Arizona’s standards: Gilbert’s population has gone from 29,000 in 1990 to about 100,000 today, much of it because of job growth in the Phoenix area.

In 10 years, student enrollment here has ballooned by 170%. Schools are “bulging at the seams,” says Keith Vaughan, director of school planning and development. “You used to drive down the road and see sheep crossing. Things are changing.”

Change is also a code word for ethnic diversity. Even with the encroachment of “outsiders,” fewer than 3% of Gilbert’s 27,000 students are African American. Their small percentage makes many black youngsters feel as if they stand out.

For both blacks and whites, such upheaval causes insecurity--the bane of adolescence. One Devil Dog, who is 17, was asked during a court proceeding why he had joined. He gave an age-old adolescent explanation: Popularity. “The older guys had the girls and the cars,” he said. “I wanted to be, like, real cool.”

Not only were the Devil Dogs cool and popular athletes, but they had public support. After Jordan Jarvis was beaten, prosecutor Hugo Zettler did not try the case as gang related. To the New Times, an alternative weekly, he explained his approach this way:

“Look, the kid’s nose was broken, which is not earth-shattering in and of itself. It’s a stretch to think of them [the Devil Dogs] as a gang. Maybe technically. They were kind of wannabe gang members. All these guys were wrestlers and football players. Bullies is what they are.”

In fact, five of Jarvis’ attackers were athletes at Highland High School. A parade of teachers and city officials wrote letters to the court vouching for their high character.

The Highland High football coach and two teachers wrote on behalf of one member, and two football coaches and a former candidate for the school board wrote on behalf of another. In one proceeding, the Highland High athletic director took the stand on behalf of a wrestling star.

A former Gilbert mayor expressed common sympathies when he wrote that, sure, the boys’ actions had been “obnoxious and aggressive,” but they were behaving “like jocks are supposed to be.”

It was at a Highland High prom that the photo was taken of the Devil Dogs flashing their white-power salutes. The picture showed plainly that not only violence but racism was a problem.

Mike Sanchez, a former police detective who recently quit Gilbert’s two-person antigang unit in frustration, says race has affected perceptions about the Devil Dogs.

“They’re white,” Sanchez said. “They don’t fit the stereotype of a gang member. That was the whole issue. That’s where the blinders were. They [officials] didn’t want to see it [as gang behavior] because of race.”

Sanchez said that he and his partner frequently told their superiors about the Devil Dogs and identified the group as a gang. He noted that the Devil Dogs exhibited five out of seven signs of gang activity, including wearing white shoelaces on black boots to indicate that they were white supremacists.

If nothing else, Sanchez said, the Devil Dogs’ propensity for violence should have caused more concern among authorities. No-holds-barred fighting was a favorite pastime. One Devil Dog celebrated his 16th birthday by staging a bare-knuckled fighting extravaganza in his backyard, according to police reports. Authorities say the teen’s parents drained the swimming pool to serve as a sunken boxing ring.

Violence often spilled out from individual homes or neighborhoods as Devil Dogs set out on hunts, seeking victims to beat. Devil Dogs told police that they went on these forays two or three times a week. “We know of maybe three or four documented fights, with serious injury,” Sanchez said. “[In other instances] they never got caught. To this day, right now, they think they’re untouchable.

“Other kids are afraid to report it [fighting] because they knew the reputation of the kids that did it, and they saw that nothing happened before. The Dogs boasted about it. ‘We’re untouchable. You can’t get us.’ They had connections. That scared kids even more.”

Tanya Player, who is African American, moved her family from Los Angeles three years ago to get away from gangs. But now, she said, her 16-year-old son, Hadji, is subjected to harassment and threats.

“It’s unbelievable,” Player said. She said Hadji worked at Taco Bell and was told by teenage customers, “You niggers are taking over.” She said he was threatened with violence. When her son retaliated verbally to a white student’s harassment at school, she said, the two were given unequal punishments. School authorities deny the charge.

Some gang members, Player said, are at the forefront of student harassment. “I think it’s in the community, coming from home. Hadji was called a nigger every single day. What did the principal do? Nada. They are in denial.”

While Tanya Player refuses to give in to the bullying and will not move, Shirlene Rutledge has had enough. She said her daughter Candace also has been subjected to racial slurs and has experienced more harsh punishment than other students.

Rutledge has pulled Candace out of school.

“There is no way she will ever go back, never,” Rutledge said. “It’s deeply rooted. They are bound and determined they will not change. The parents are backing up what the children are doing. The parents are teaching that mess in the home. They are putting up [racial] barriers that we are spending time with our children taking down. We have a very serious problem here, and it didn’t just crop up.

“We are leaving Gilbert.”

The East Valley chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People says it will file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Gilbert Unified Schools, alleging a pattern of overt discrimination and charging that school officials ignored harassment of black students. The state NAACP met in late May with leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well to discuss discrimination.

Complicating matters, founders of the Devil Dogs were Mormons, police say, but most of its current members are not. Nonetheless, one Devil Dog told a reporter that young Mormon men were recruited because of the prominence of their families--which, the Devil Dogs believed, would shield them from detection or prosecution.

“The whole Mormon thing--it’s phenomenal. You can’t believe it,” said Sanchez, the former police detective. “The whole thing is part of the Mormon culture--’We don’t have a problem, we can deal with it.’ A circling-the-wagons type of thing. That’s the way they do it in Gilbert.

“They see it as an internal problem. All the leaders of the town are in the church. It’s how things are done.” When incidents at the Taco Bell began to increase, Sanchez said, workers called the local LDS bishop to intervene instead of the police.

City Councilman Steve Urie, who is Mormon, acknowledged that this happened at times. “It was easier to call the [LDS] stake president to handle it than bring in the police. It was [the Taco Bell employees’] decision. The stake presidents did talk to the youngsters and try to straighten them out.”

Wilbert Nelson, president of the Arizona NAACP, said the influence of the Mormon church is “an extremely touchy subject.”

“It is the heart of the problem--we can’t dance around that,” Nelson added. “The heart of the matter is that church leaders in the Mesa-Gilbert area have tremendous influence. The issue is not discrimination. The issue is the institutional foundation upon which the discrimination is founded.”

Such influence, Urie said, “may be the perception. . . . One may perceive that because someone is LDS and knows people across town, then they may have a higher status. What I can say is that we have higher standards of moral conduct for ourselves than we expect for others, and when one of our kids does something that is not right, we are very disturbed.”

Wilford Andersen, spokesman for the LDS church in the Phoenix area, said church officials meet regularly with young members to discuss social issues. Whether there is a gang problem in Gilbert or not, Andersen said, the problem lies not with the teaching of the church.

“I hope that the youth members of our church are not participating in racism of any kind,” he said. “If they are, they are doing so against the teaching of our church.

“I am not suggesting that every member of the church is without fault, but as a church and as an institution, we teach that all men and women are brothers and sisters. If there are members of our church [involved in gangs]--and I’m certain there are, as there are in other churches--it’s not coming from the church.”

Walter Delecki, the superintendent of schools, said that he has heard “rumors” of white supremacists in Gilbert schools, but he dismissed the notion that Devil Dogs are racists, noting that many of their victims are not members of minority groups.

“White supremacists don’t beat up white people, to my knowledge,” he said.

Delecki, who is not Mormon, is aware of pending NAACP action against the district. He says charges that Mormon children are given special handing are completely unfounded. As for disparity in meting out discipline, he bristled. “We’ve had that accusation, and I haven’t seen any facts. That’s not how I run this district or work with people. There is a lot of religious bigotry here: In my opinion, it’s from the people who are anti-LDS.

“This town has been accused. I haven’t seen it. Be factual. In my 22 years here, no one has been treated better or lesser because of their religion or ethnicity.”

The Gilbert school district held a series of public meetings over the summer to address hate speech and intolerance in schools with a goal to come up with written guidelines. Those guidelines were distributed to teachers, students and staff when school started Aug. 21.

The city is working with a race-relations mediator from the U.S. Department of Justice. At a Summit to End Hate and Violence, Mayor Cynthia Dunham spoke against “blatant misinformation” that she said exaggerated the numbers of gang members in Gilbert. Her own Police Department identified about 45 active Devil Dog members last year.

After listening to the forum, Steve Thom, the federal mediator, noted that before hoping to solve a gang problem, Gilbert needed to acknowledge that problems existed.

Still Targeted, Family Says

Jordan Jarvis requires still more surgery to repair the damage that Devil Dogs inflicted on his face. Recently, a surgeon planned to harvest cartilage from his ears to repair his nose, but he encountered too much damage to do the procedure.

He and his family say they remain a target of the group. While Jarvis was in the hospital, the family’s answering machine was filled with the sound of barking dogs.

His mother received threats: “Watch your back.” Their home was vandalized.

Jarvis has been attending community college in another town, hoping to lose himself in the anonymity of campus life, but he believes that students notice him because of his reconfigured face.

“Sometimes I feel like a big-headed monster,” he said, slumped on a couch while his girlfriend patted his back.

His mother, Cheri, has picked up the habit of scanning the street and searching through windows, ever vigilant for danger. Still, she attends meetings and speaks out, although at a recent school meeting a detective from the Gilbert Police Department stood guard outside the door. Parents of jailed Devil Dogs say she and her son are ruining the lives of good boys from good families.

“Before this happened, I was totally clueless about what’s going on,” she said. “I certainly feel differently today. People here take the attitude, ‘We live here, let’s not talk about this.’ I take the opposite approach, ‘I live here, let’s clean it up.’ It’s getting swept under the carpet with big-time denial. Gilbert needs to know about this.”

The Jarvises recently settled a civil case against those involved in the beating. After investigations and court cases recede, Jordan and Cheri Jarvis hope they can get on with their lives, but they know better. Recently, they were informed that in jail, the word is that when the Devil Dogs are released, they will come after Jordan.

“We just can’t let them get to us,” Cheri Jarvis said, checking the window. “We have to do what’s right.”

*

Times researcher Belen Rodriguez contributed to this story.