Gang Law Gets First Results in Pacoima

A Pacoima gang member was sentenced to three months in county jail for violating an anti-gang injunction at the San Fernando Gardens housing project, the city attorney’s office said Tuesday.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge John C. Gunn sentenced 21-year-old Anthony Chavez for violating a court order against trespassing, as well as engaging in other illegal activities, around the northeast San Fernando Valley housing project.

Officials with Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky J. Delgadillo’s office said Chavez is the first Pacoima Project Boys gang member to be sentenced under the 3-month-old injunction. There have been a handful of additional arrests but the outcome of those cases is pending, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for Delgadillo.

The gang injunction grew out of a March 20 lawsuit that accused the 200-member Pacoima Project Boys of being an unincorporated association that engaged in criminal activities and created a public nuisance.

A San Fernando Superior Court judge issued the order Aug. 22, although delays in enforcing it disturbed some area residents and business owners. The injunction zone is bounded by Paxton Street on the north, Glenoaks Boulevard on the east, Pierce Street on the south and San Fernando Road on the west.

The San Fernando Gardens housing project is the heart of the gang’s turf. Through the first nine months of the year, there were 36 robberies, 43 assaults, 62 auto thefts and one killing reported in the area, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Injunctions are in force against 10 other Los Angeles street gangs, including two in the Valley, said officials with the city attorney’s office. The Project Boys originated in San Fernando Gardens in the early 1980s, authorities said.

Chavez was arrested Oct. 24 when LAPD officers patrolling San Fernando Gardens saw him in public with a group of fellow gang members.