Thread: Judge issues injunction against 104 gang members

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... 1otnc.html

Judge issues injunction against 104 gang members

2 safety zones created in National City by court

By Gregory Alan Gross
STAFF WRITER

November 1, 2005

A judge issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against 104 documented members of the oldest street gang in San Diego County.

The injunction covers members of OTNC, the Old Town National City gang, which has prowled National City streets since World War II and whose members, in some cases, go back four generations in the same family.

"They've taken over our neighborhoods in National City, where their mere presence in parks . . . is enough to scare innocent people away," District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said during a news conference held shortly after the judge ruled.

"Their reign of terror is over," she said.

It is the second such injunction issued against OTNC and the largest gang injunction in county history. A law enforcement task force of some 100 officers served papers earlier this month on all but a handful of the 104 people – mainly men – named in the injunction.

A similar injunction was issued in 1998 against 66 OTNC members. Yesterday's injunction includes 17 of those hit with the 1998 court order, as well as 87 OTNC members documented since then.

National City Mayor Nick Inzunza called the injunction "an additional tool" to combat gang crime in the city, which he said "has been going on for years."

The injunction establishes two safety zones in National City in which the conduct of the gang members will be strictly regulated.

Safety Zone 1, the larger of the two, encompasses most of the city, from Division Street in the north to the Chula Vista city limits, and from just west of Interstate 5 eastward to Euclid Avenue.

Safety Zone 2 encompasses the Plaza Bonita shopping mall.

The injunction lists 21 forbidden activities, such as wearing gang clothes, using gang signs, trespassing, making graffiti, urinating in public or "making loud noise."

The key provision is the ban against associating with other gang members inside the two zones, Dumanis said.

Those caught violating the order can be charged with a misdemeanor and and be sentenced to varying lengths of community service, up to $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail.

In the South Bay courtroom, the people named in the injunction had a chance to address the judge.

Maria Madriaga spoke on behalf of her daughter, Angelina Juarez, 16.

"She doesn't even hang around with the guys," Madriaga said, referring to the gang members. She told the judge that a National City police officer took Angelina's picture and asked her to throw up gang signs, which is how she was documented.

Judge Jeffrey F. Fraser said defendants have until the trial date on Jan. 23 to file declarations explaining why they should not be named in the injunction.

If no one responds to the preliminary order by that date, a judge will consider making it permanent.

At Kimball Park in National City yesterday afternoon, Joe Baca, a 71-year-old retired Border Patrol agent, said he was in favor of the ruling.

"Some of these guys prey on innocent people," he said. "Somebody's got to put a stop to it."

Two brothers who claimed to be gang members said they felt "disrespected" when they saw they were not named in the injunction. But they both later decided it was probably better that they weren't listed.

"I think the injunction is wrong," said Jesse Perez, 23, who said he served three years for armed robbery. "We live here. I can see it if we were rolling together. My brother and I aren't doing anything. We're just kickin'."

Daniel Perez, 19, agreed. "A lot of people on that list are like our friends," he said. "We grew up together and attended the same elementary school."

Although the injunction sets up the safety zones strictly within National City, OTNC isn't just a local problem, said National City police Lt. Keith Fifield.

"It's not like the old days. They all have cars now, they're very mobile," Fifield said. "Our gang members are being arrested all over the county."

Their mug shots were displayed on a board displayed during the news conference, held in the District Attorney's Office.

"The folks you see on the board here are not something you see on TV," Inzunza said. "They're my neighbors. They're the people who live on my streets. They're the people my children and my family have to deal with every day."

Speaking in Spanish, Inzunza also emphasized that the injunction was meant only to target OTNC, not Latino youth in general in his heavily Latino city.

"I want the people to realize that this is not a attack against their youth, against their children," he said. "It is an attack against the gang members."

The injunction covers members of OTNC, the Old Town National City gang, which has prowled National City streets since World War II and whose members, in some cases, go back four generations in the same family.

Illegal immigrants