Legal team honored for winning gang conviction
The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday honored the federal agents and prosecutors involved in convicting four members of a Latino street gang in Highland Park last year for violating the civil rights of African Americans with a campaign of threats and violence, including murder.
The group noted that the case against the Avenues gang “broke new ground as the first time a street gang was convicted of violating federal hate crime laws.”
Honored at a luncheon at the Skirball Cultural Center were federal prosecutors Bobby Bernstein, Alexander Bustamante and Thomas O’Brien; FBI agents Jerry Fradella and Christian M. Haugen; and federal paralegal Martha Lovejoy.
Two sheriff’s deputies, an LAPD lieutenant and a Pasadena police corporal were also honored for working to stop hate crimes and ease race relations.
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