By Ruby Gonzales
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
CALIFORNIA — Beginning next year, gang-infested neighborhoods could be enriched by the criminals who plague them.
California will become the only state in the nation on Jan. 1 with a law that allows local prosecutors to go after the assets of gangs by suing the criminal organizations and their members in court.
Michael Dundas, legislative director for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, which sponsored the law, explained the concept.
“The gang is causing an injury to the neighborhood, and we are filing a civil action to bring damages,” he said. “Any money we receive has to go back to the neighborhood.”
The state law seeks to chip away at a gang’s economic assets — everything from cars to homes to bank accounts — making it harder for its members to carry out their activities, according to Christy Wolfe, spokeswoman for state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who introduced the law.
Any awards collected through the court actions would be used to benefit the neighborhood affected by the gang.
The state Attorney General’s Office has the power to sue gangs in court to seize their assets, and Cedillo’s legislation — part of his package of anti-gang initiatives — gives the same authority to county and city prosecutors, Wolfe said.
“This would be a useful tool for them,” she added.
Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, said he was not sure whether the office had ever sued a gang and obtained its assets.
But local officials said the law makes sense, because it applies only to gangs targeted in court-ordered injunctions, which usually are brought and maintained by county and city attorneys.
In addition, local law enforcement normally has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of local gangs, officials said.
“This is another tool we wanted to acquire to fight gangs at the local level,” said Nick Velasquez, spokesman for Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
Considered the “gang capital” of the country, Los Angeles is home to more than 39,000 gang members and has 33 active gang injunctions, more than any other city in the state, Velasquez said.
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Groups