LA City Attorney

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has secured an injunction to stop the habitual criminal activity of the San Fernando Valley’s Columbus Street gang. The injunction was signed on June 27, 2013, by Judge Rolf Treu in Department 58 of the Los Angeles Superior Court.


“For too long, the Columbus Street gang has used intimidation, violence and fear in holding this community hostage to its nefarious activities,” said City Attorney Trutanich. “Today, our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have secured an important tool to curb illegal activity in our neighborhoods and bring safety and security to our residents.”
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Feb. 2013, the injunction is designed to severely restrict the ability of the gang to engage in criminal and nuisance activities within an established safety zone. The zone is defined as a 2.7 square mile area covering territory generally bounded by Plumber Street to the north, Sepulveda Blvd. to the west, Saticoy St. to the south, and Woodman Ave. to the east.  The safety zone includes neighborhoods in Panorama City and North Hills.
Terms of the approved court order include many of the standard gang injunction provisions, including: limiting the gang’s ability to associate in public with other members, intimidating witnesses, selling or possessing drugs, driving or possessing another person’s vehicle or possessing weapons or graffiti tools.
The injunction includes more than 400 pages of declarations from law enforcement officials about the long-standing criminal activity of the more than 200 members of the Columbus Street gang. Such criminal activity includes murders, assaults with deadly weapons, shootings, street robberies, illegal drug sales, trespassing, intimidation of residents and gang graffiti. The evidence submitted by the City Attorney’s Office includes more than 150 incidents of criminal activity by members of the gang.
City Attorney Trutanich has utilized injunctions as an effective tool for law enforcement and prosecutions, adopting and adapting conditions specific to each gang. With this latest injunction, the City Attorney’s Office currently has 45 gang injunctions, covering 73 gangs and more than 116 square miles of claimed gang territory in Los Angeles.
Deputy City Attorneys Greg Dorfman and Alin Sahagian of the Safe Neighborhoods and Gang Division filed the lawsuit against the gang on behalf of the city.  (www.lacity.org)

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