The City of Santa Barbara’s proposal for a permanent gang injunction will go before a judge in March, a change that came with the case’s new judge, Santa Barbara County Superior Court’s Colleen Sterne.
The City Attorney and District Attorney’s offices had planned to pursue a preliminary injunction, but Sterne said the evidence for that motion seemed essentially the same as the case that would go to trial, so “there doesn’t really seem to be any good reason to delay it.”
If approved by Sterne, the gang injunction would apply to named individuals who are involved with either the Eastside or Westside gangs.
The 30 named people would not be allowed to associate with other gang members within “safety zones” mapped out by the Police Department, near schools or at city parks. The zones include large portions of the city’s Eastside, Westside, downtown and waterfront areas for Fourth of July and Fiesta events only.
They would be allowed to move freely through the areas individually, but could not associate in groups of two or more gang members, have firearms or weapons, use drugs or alcohol, have graffiti tools or do graffiti, trespass, recruit or intimidate people in those zones. More names could be added over time, reportedly with a judge’s order.
Many of the defendants have retained attorneys, and the ones who came to Monday’s hearing agreed, after conferring among themselves, to a March 5 court date to consider a permanent injunction.
The City Attorney’s Office has a 450-page declaration from Santa Barbara police Detective Gary Siegel and hundreds of pages of evidence and testimony from other witnesses, representatives said. Now, the two sides have to exchange information by the end of the year and submit briefs to Sterne by Jan. 30 so she has time to review everything. Both sides supported an earlier court date.
Sterne also issued a tentative ruling Monday stating that the city cannot use juvenile court or other official records as evidence because of confidentiality laws.
Steve Dunkle, a defense attorney for a few of the named individuals, agreed with the ruling and said some individuals had no adult record.
“Juvenile brushes with the law should not carry a lifelong stigma,” he said.
Officers can still testify to contacts they made or behavioral knowledge of the people when they were juveniles, but the city cannot use information based only on arrests or court records, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Hilary Dozer, who is the DA’s representative for the case.
The existing court files will remain sealed since they include juvenile, and therefore confidential, information, Sterne said, but with her ruling, nothing filed from now on should have to be sealed.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.