Most of gang ban is upheld

A state appellate court has affirmed almost all of Ventura County’s injunction against a violent gang in Oxnard, objecting only to a provision that called for an overnight curfew.

In a ruling filed Monday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal took exception with a provision that barred members of the Colonia Chiques who had been served with a copy of the injunction from being in public from 10 p.m. to dawn. The three-judge panel called this portion of the injunction “unconstitutionally vague.”

Other parts of the injunction remained in place after the appellate court decision. The injunction, announced in March 2004, established a 6.6-square-mile safety zone stretching roughly from the Ventura Freeway almost to the Pacific Ocean, within which members of the gang were banned from assembling, flashing gang signs, fighting, possessing weapons, wearing gang colors or having an open container of alcohol.

“I consider this to be a victory for law enforcement in controlling gangs,” said Michael Schwartz, special assistant district attorney, who argued the appeal for the Ventura County district attorney’s office.

But the public defender’s office, which initiated the appeal, also claimed victory, saying that the curfew allowed Oxnard police to routinely stop any vehicle carrying a suspected gang member after 10 p.m.

“This will probably result in a reduction of our caseload in the hundreds of cases per year,” Chief Deputy Public Defender Michael McMahon said. The exact number is unclear, he said, because minor drug arrests and other alleged crimes often began as traffic stops linked to the gang curfew.

Without the curfew, the 150 to 200 people served with the injunction now “can walk out their door, walk around the block or go to the grocery without fear of being arrested because they’re out past 10 p.m.,” McMahon said.

David Rodriguez of the League of United Latin American Citizens said he believes the injunction has helped reduce crime in Oxnard, but that the curfew went too far.

Members of the Colonia Chiques, the county’s largest gang with more than 1,000 members, have been suspects or victims in more than 40 homicides since 1992, authorities said. Oxnard Police Chief John Crombach has said gangs are responsible for 20% to 30% of all violent crime in the city and that the injunction has helped cut the number of homicides and aggravated assaults in the first half of 2007.

Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, whose office has obtained injunctions against 50 street gangs, said in a statement that the appellate court decision indicates “gang injunctions will remain an important and viable tool to suppress and abate criminal street activity.”

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greg.griggs@latimes.com