Vanguard Investigation Finds That West Sacramento May Not Even Be Enforcing the Gang Injunction

Questions About Whether West Sacramento Needs a Gang Injunction as Trial Set to Begin –

Is there a Broderick Boys Gang?

One of the biggest questions is whether and really to what extent there is even a Broderick Boys Gang in West Sacramento.  Residents of the community have disputed the existence of “an organized criminal street gang” in their community and dispute whether there is indeed a public nuisance from which they need to be protected and enjoined.

According to the defense, “there was insufficient evidence a gang named the Broderick Boys exists in West Sacramento or that the alleged gang or its members create a public nuisance within the Safety Zone. They further contend the trial court erred in concluding there is a greater risk of harm from denying the temporary injunction than granting it. Finally, defendants contend various provisions of the injunction are vague, overbroad or otherwise violate their constitutional rights.”

The answer in this case depends on who you talk to.  The Vanguard traveled to the home of Yolanda Ferguson who has lived in the community for years.  She testified that she knows gangs because she grew up in a gang infested area in Southern California where people were afraid in their neighborhoods but the City where she has been living is nothing like where she grew up. She does not see security bars on doors and windows in her West Sacramento neighborhood.  Likewise, as we traveled through the safety zone, we noted the lack of security bars, the fact that people’s garages are open, families walking around on the street.  I have been in dangerous areas in other cities, and this simply did not feel like an area of danger.

“I have never had problems in my community with gangs,” she said in a declaration. “I have not had any young person or adult bother me as it relates to gang issues or any other at the parks, schools, or even around some of the homes in our community. Most people that live in Broderick and Bryte know each other and have known each other many years.”

For 45-year-old Lydia Lisa Morales, Broderick Boy is not a term for a gang, it denotes a residence in an older portion of West Sacramento.  “Of course I’ve heard of the ‘Broderick Boys’ and I consider myself a ‘Broderick Girl,’” she said in her declaration.  “All that means to me is that I am from Broderick and grew up here. It doesn’t mean I am in a gang or have ever been in a gang. I have never had any problem with gangs.”

However former West Sacramento Police Detective Joe Villanueva who now works as a beat officer in Fairfield after spending time working for the Yolo County District Attorney’s office, sees a very different view of gangs than some of the residents.

At the time he began to work, he noted a large northern gang, the Broderick Boys, Nortenos who claimed the area of Broderick.  They formed in response to a black grant, the Bryte Street Crips.

“What I noticed about the Broderick Boys is they were pretty sophisticated in the sense that they’re well-organized structured, and there was just a lot of them,” Officer Joe Villanueva told the Vanguard.  He estimated their numbers to be 500 to 600 members over the years.  “This particular gang, the Broderick Boys, was fifty percent of the caseload for our investigation division.  There was only one guy monitoring these individuals that was me.” 

Officer Villanueva is used as a gang expert in Yolo County, often testifying in cases both as an expert and an officer that worked the streets in West Sacramento.  “There were a lot of gang cases.  I testified in over forty cases,” he said estimating that figure to be over a period of five to seven years.  “I’d say maybe half a dozen went to trial.  That includes prelims and the grand jury.”

“The most common things was guns, drugs, and then violent crime.  A lot of robberies,” he said.  “But even the shootings with gang crimes is very difficult with witness intimidation, no one wants to come forward and testify with gang cases.  It makes it really difficult for trying to solve gang crime, because of the fear and intimidation.  But a majority of the stuff that I dealt with was violent crime.”

Officer Villanueva told the Vanguard that they got cooperation in the community however in some of the old established neighborhoods dealing with families they were less willing to come forward and often claimed that things were being blown out of proportions by the police.

In his experience, the gang problem and the extent of the Broderick Boys organization is worse than even what they have in Fairfield.

However, Josh Kaizuka a lawyer in Sacramento who has advised on the Gang Injunction trial disagrees with Officer Villanueva’s assessment of the gang problem in West Sacramento.  “The main problem is that there isn’t this large organized gang that the DA’s office is proposing exists,” he told the Vanguard in an interview.

“The residents that we’ve talked to over 100 community members that we’ve talked to in West Sacramento says, what are they talking about?  What’s the DA’s office talking about?” he continued.

That is not to say there are not bad people in West Sacramento.  “Sure there’s bad apples out there, they’re not this large gang,” he continued. 

Rick Gore formerly worked as a District Attorney Investigator and often worked hand in hand with Joe Villanueva in West Sacramento.  Mr. Gore, worked in Yolo County for about thirteen years before he was fired off an angry and frustrated letter at the District Attorney’s office in early 2008.  He worked gang for a part of that time, prior to the first gang injunction. 

“The whole time I worked in Yolo County, I did cases in West Sacramento,” he told the Vanguard in an interview.  “I mainly worked with Joe Villanueva when he was a detective there.”

From his observation, West Sacramento definitely had gangs.  “West Sac definitely has some gang members, it borders Sacramento.  Sacramento has a broader base of different gangs.  So some of it is going to spill over or fluctuate to West Sac.  West Sac has their own gang members,” he said.  “West Sacramento has gangs, there’s gang members there, there’s gang activity.  Do I think it’s like in the 1940s where there were Mafia was running the streets and there were gun fights, that’s ridiculous.  There’s some gangs there that want to claim colors and have their groups and intimidate or whatever.”

Where he differs from the his former colleague though is with the extent of the Broderick Boys organization.  He does not agree with those who say there is no Broderick Boys gang. “I don’t agree with that,” he said.

However, he is not sure what that means.  “There’s plenty of people that I have contacted who say we’re Broderick, we’re in the Broderick Land.  Does that mean that they say that, that they wear a red shirt?  Does that mean some of them get a “B” tattooed on them and say I’m in Broderick, see my “B”?  Yeah.”

“But is there a structure in West Sacramento where there’s a leader of the Broderick Boys?” he asks rhetorically. “Nobody can point to who’s the leader.  Nobody can say this guy leads it, here’s his second in command.  They want to talk about this structure and they have lieutenants and gang members.”

“Gangs do have a who’s been around the longest , who’s the oldest, who has the most experience… sure there’s things like that, but I have never seen in Broderick anyone who has said this is the head Broderick guy.  He knows all of the members, who’s in charge, who’s his lieutenants, and who are his worker bees.  No one has ever told me that,” he continued.

“The gang structure as a whole, the way it comes…  have I ever seen that?  Absolutely not.  No one has ever told me that this is King Broderick and this is No.2 Broderick.  No one has ever told me that and to me if it was that big and that structured we would know that,” said Rick Gore.

Does that mean that the gang members in Broderick are a loose affiliation of kids that “wannabe” gang members?  He took issue with my description of them as kids, as some of them are out committing bad crimes, but for the most part he agreed.  “Is there some hardcore guys?  Sure.  Is there some guys who have been to prison?  Sure.  I think if you made a list of all confirmed gang members and all crimes they had, that they were convicted of, and you made a list you’d probably be surprised that at the bottom of the list would probably be a bunch of people who were stopped on a traffic stop with a red shirt and another banger who said I’m in a gang.  So now all of a sudden they’re in a gang.”

Does West Sacramento Need a Gang Injunction?

For Councilmember Oscar Villegas he sees the gang injunction as a prevention tool rather than simply an interdiction effort.  He told the Vanguard that he “would hate to see them abandon this tool.”  At first they overdid it a bit and were overbroad, but he argued that they have now fixed it and he sees it as a way for people to get out of a tough situation.

Lt. David Delaini of the West Sacramento Police Department argues, “The injunction is but one of many tools that we are utilizing in order to keep the public safe.”

“West Sacramento has changed a lot, it’s cleaned up a lot over the years,” Officer Villanueva told the Vanguard.  “They cleaned up a lot of the prostitution that was going on on West Capitol.”

west Sacramento was tough in the early days.  “The most common things was guns, drugs, and then violent crime.  A lot of robberies,” he said.  “But even the shootings with gang crimes is very difficult with witness intimidation, no one wants to come forward and testify with gang cases.  It makes it really difficult for trying to solve gang crime, because of the fear and intimidation.  But a majority of the stuff that I dealt with was violent crime.”

He said while West Sacramento has had a lot of shootings, for some reason there are not a lot of murders.  “That’s true, there’s not [a lot of murders], maybe one or two a year,” he said.  “But then you have to think that UC Davis [Medical Center] is right there and they save a lot of people.  So have we had a lot of shootings over there?  Yeah.  Have we had a lot of murders?  No.”

Officer Villanueva described how the gang injunction came to be.  “Jeff Reisig and I went to a gang conference down in Southern California where it was talked about and there was also an issue with one officer monitoring all of the gangs in the city.  Here’s this one gang that was established and was committing all of this crime to where it was fifty percent of our case load in investigations.  So we talked to some of the people in Southern California and it seemed like something we could do in our city.”

He said it would depend on different people’s views, some people think the gang problem is overblown and others think the gang injunction is needed.  “My argument through both the first and the second one and through the depositions and everything else is, regardless of what I say or anyone else says, look at the factual evidence.  Look at the constant crime that’s been consistent in that community.   That’s what you can look at and make your decision from there.  That’s one of the things with the Third Court of Appeals, they said the issue was the proof of service, but they said, the crime’s there and the history’s there.”

Rick Gore does not mince his words when talking about the need for the gang injunction.  “If you listen to [District Attorney Jeff] Reisig, you’d think it was the wild wild west in West Sacramento and everyone’s running around trying to kill everybody,” Mr. Gore said.  “I think it’s a city that has its issues and I don’t think it’s necessarily that unique.  I don’t think people walk around West Sacramento saying oh my god, I’m going to get taken over by a gang.  You don’t see them hanging out on a street corner in groups of ten or fifteen walking around doing intimidation or snatch and grabs.  You don’t see that type of intimidation crime all of the time.  You may see them wearing their colors, you may see a couple of them in the car.”

“The big issue that I have with this gang injunction besides the fact that after seeing it and being involved and watching the way that Reisig is using it as a political tool and it’s all about perception and how he’s tough on crime and to promote this really bad city in his Yolo County that he wants to clean up and make better,” Mr. Gore continued.

When it comes to a comparison, there is none between West Sacramento and Sacramento.  “I don’t think it’s nearly as busy as Sacramento, because we would work across both borders, Sacramento is much more busy than West Sac.”  WHile he saw his share of crimes from autotheft, to property crime, and of course drugs, he said “I didn’t see a lot of gang 211’s, I don’t think I ever went to a gang 211.”

A 211 is the California Penal Code designation for robbery, where someone goes and robs a store.  That’s a 211, taking property by force and fear.  So a gang 211 would be someone who does it,” he said at the direction or benefit of a criminal street gang. “Let’s say there’s a Norteno that works at 7/11, a Sureno is going to say let’s go rob this guy because he’s a Norteno.  To me that would be a gang 211 because they are doing it for a gang, against a gang or something.  But I don’t remember any violent crime like a 211 or a robbery.”

Rick Gore does not see much difference in the crime rates and gang problems between Wooland and West Sacramento.  “There’s gangs in Woodland,” he said.  “Woodland doesn’t have a gang injunction.  There’s just as many I would say gang members – working in both of those streets, it’s not like one’s a combat zone and one’s Hawaii.  They’re both related and I would say Sacramento is at least five times if not ten times worse.”

“I looked at it as an additional tool for law enforcement to help combat it,” he said.  “After seeing the way it’s used and the way it’s being portrayed and how it’s transformed, I don’t think a gang injunction is a good thing.  It’s a civil tool that’s being used politically.”

For Josh Kaizuka, he does not see the crime rate that necessitates the specific emphasis.  “That’s probably one of the most significant areas where I think we have a problem,” he told the Vanguard.

“Based on what the DA’s office has presented they can’t even show a correlation of the percentage of crimes in this three square mile area that is attributable to the supposed gang,” he continued.  “There is absolutely zero in statistics showing how many crimes occur in that area and of those crimes, what the percentage is that is attributable to any gang activity.”

Moreover, the statistics from the Department of Justice do not show a higher rate or crime or different fluctuations of crime in and out of the safety zone.  “There’s been Department of Justice statistics showing crime rates for serious crimes in the total of West Sacramento, the crime rates in West Sacramento as a whole, compared to other cities with crime rates, there’s not that much of a difference,” said Mr. Kaizuka.  “The spikes in crime, the decrease in crime goes along with averages of other cities in the US.  So I don’t see how the DA’s office has shown that there’s a higher percentage of crime, gang related crime, in that three square mile area being committed by members of the alleged Broderick Boys gang.”

But for Officer Joe Villanueva the impact of the gang injunction is obvious.  “It was amazing how it quieted things down in that you didn’t see stuff out there that was so blatant,” he said. 

“The guys that were getting arrested were tired of getting arrested so it prevented some crime at the same time it’s an intervention to the show the young kids that it’s not worth getting on this list,” he continued.

“It really quieted things down.  If you asked the guys that were in West Sacramento that worked the streets, they’ll tell you after the first one, how busy West Sac was, it just quieted down.  It was a huge impact with limited resources.  Even if we weren’t enforcing it, or enforcing it so much, just to have it there, it didn’t allow the gang members to think, I can be free to roam this area,” Officer Villanueva described.

He concluded, “If you think about it, the injunction itself only covers a certain amount of square miles in the city, however with the gangsters they were thinking it was the entire city.  So they were unable to roam freely and intimidate people.  They had to think a little bit before they went out and were doing this stuff.  Some of them just said this wasn’t worth it.”

However, Rick Gore feels like working on the gang unit, you tend to see gang as a larger problem than it really is.  “When me and Joe (Villanueva) were working it, we were on the front end where we really started combating it, so it was probably a lot more active,” Mr. Gore said.

“When you only have two guys, I think it’s easy to see the problem as worse or larger than it is, because that’s all you’re focused on,” he said.  He pointed out when he worked auto theft he say a huge number of cars stolen and obviously believed that was a larger problem.  Same with working on rape cases.  “So when you get in a specific law enforcement area that you’re working, it’s easy to think of this crime as being overwhelming and larger maybe than it is because it seems so large to you as that’s all you do.  I think what me and Joe were working it, it seemed larger than it actually was.”

Is West Sacramento Enforcing a Gang Injunction?

For those who believe we need the injunction, it would appear they would need to rest on Officer Villanueva’s view that it has a psychological impact on the mindset of gang members, because despite denials from the Officials in West Sacramento, there is no evidence the injunction which has been put back into place for nearly two years is even being enforced.

When the Vanguard filed a public records request, we discovered that while 26 people had been served and are subject to either the permanent or temporary gang injunction, however, from the period of January 2008 through June 2009, “no one has been arrested for violating the injunction.”

Josh Kaizuka told the Vanguard, “I personally haven’t heard that the West Sacramento Police Department is not enforcing the injunction.”

He continued, “I have spoken with community members who live in West Sacramento, and are involved in community efforts against the gang injunction and they have told me that they have not heard of anyone being served or anyone who has been arrested for violating the injunction since it was issued over a year ago.”

The Vanguard sat down with Sacramento Police Lt. David Delaini back in September of 2009.  “Yes, it’s in effect,” he told the Vanguard, “It’s out there.  People know it’s out there.  The crime rate is down.”

“For it to be effective, we don’t have to lock everyone up,” he continued.

Indeed as Councilmember Oscar Villegas put it, “It is a prevention tool rather than interdiction.”

Lt. Delaini said that while the Sacramento Police Department is not currently writing tickets, they view it as another tool, a way to start the education process early.  They see it as a balancing act in that no one wants to live under Martial Law.

Since that interview Lt. Delaini confirmed that the West Sacramento Police Department still has not arrested a single person in violation of the injunction.  However, he insists that they are still enforcing it.  “As for the enforcement aspect, we are enforcing the injunction in regards to those persons who fall under its jurisdiction,” he said.  “The injunction is but one of many tools that we are utilizing in order to keep the public safe.”

He emphasized, “We do not feel that the injunction is a punitive measure.  We would of course rather have those who are subject to the injunction comply with the order of the court.”

For Rick Gore, it seems simple, if they are not currently enforcing it, why use it?  “The gang injunction has been enforced for how long?” he asked.  “You won’t find one incident where they’ve used the gang injunction.  If they’ve had the gang injunction for x years now, why aren’t they using it?”

He continued, “Most cops don’t want to use it, it’s a civil issue, and it’s kind of an unknown area.  It hasn’t been challenged.”

Instead he argued for more conventional law enforcement approaches.  “All of the evidence of gangs and what they’ve done and everything is collected by cops doing their job without a gang injunction.  So how now can you say without the gang injunction we can’t do our job.  Everything you’ve done to get the stats for the gang injunction was done without the injunction.”

I’m not saying there’s not a gang problem, but the gang injunction, I haven’t seen it used.  I don’t know if cops would use it.  I have heard that cops are saying even if it gets enforced, they’re not going to use it.  How’s it helping?  If it’s that important, how’s it helping?” Mr. Gore said.

If they aren’t enforcing it…

While Officer Villanueva argues that it has had an impact on gang activity, many argue that the gang injunction itself is a problem for residents.  One of the big problems is that the process has been set up whereby people are guilty until proven innocent. 

The gang validation process is based on finding two or three factors out of 11.  It done at the street level.

“Basically there are guidelines that the department of justice in California has, there’s eleven guidelines.  Individuals who meet any of these two criteria can be considered a validate gang member,” Officer Villanueva told the Vanguard.

“First of all, it’s not a crime to be in a gang.  That’s not a crime, people can join gangs, that’s never been a crime.  The only time it’s a crime is if they engage in criminal activity for the benefit of that gang,” he pointed out. 

There’s nothing in the penal code that this is the guidelines that you have to use, he said, “This is just a recommendation.”   Some agencies use three criteria, some use two, he’s never heard of four.  The penal code says three or more engaging in criminal activity for the benefit of the gang, so you have to show there is a consistent pattern for this particular group. 

He said self-admission stands alone since who would do that.  Although Rick Gore said he felt like Gang Members often brag to try to portray themselves and their organization larger than it is.

“What I do know is that it’s up to the police to decide whether someone is or is not a gang, so you leave the court aside, the court’s not even involved,” Josh Kaizuka told the Vanguard. “It’s the street cops or maybe somebody in the police department whose going to say, well, based on my observance of two or three of these factors out of 11 factors, they’re going to sit there and say this person’s a gang member.  Or that person’s not a gang member.  It has nothing to do with any crimes they commit or anything else, but just because they’re hanging out with the wrong person or wearing the wrong colors.   That’s all that it’s going to take.”

“There’s a little card that we used to have, I haven’t done it in awhile, there was like seven or ten things, and if you could mark three, that was a way to validate,” Rick Gore explained.  “Some of the seven would be clothing, do they know the gang sign, do they have a gang monitor, are they wearing the same colors, do they know the number, do they affiliate with other gang members…  There’s all sorts of things that I can ask and if you say yes to three of them, then that’s how we know you’re a validated member.  I think those questions come down from DOJ in that’s what you need to ask.  Some cities say you need three to validate, some cities say you need five to validate.”

He continued, “As I said before it’s really tough to be accurate.  If you come to me with a red shirt and you have a “B” tattooed on you and you say you’re moniker is Billy-Bob, you know what I’ve got three things, I’m going to validate you.  Is that accurate?  I don’t know.  There has to be some standard but unfortunately when the ends start justifying the means, it’s almost like we’re making a gang problem so we can justify the injunction.  It’s not we need an injunction because of the gang problem.”

“The West Sac police department purportedly has some opt out program where they can go into the police department and say hey, I’m not a gang member,” Mr. Kaizuka continued.  “But why should anyone even have to do that if they weren’t a gang member in the first place?”

Furthermore he said, “If they get validated and their given a copy of the preliminary injunction and the police tell them that they can’t do these itemized things in West Sacramento, I guess they can go to court.  But how many normal people would know what to do to get into court and to petition the court to say hey, why is this being applied to me because I’m not a gang member?  As this process has shown, it’s not something that someone without an attorney can easily do.”

The process is set up to force those enjoined to prove they are not gang members.  “That’s a fair description of how this process is going,” Mr. Kaizuka continued.  “Even in criminal cases people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.  Here you’re presumed guilty until you prove yourself innocent.  That’s the way this gang injunction at least in West Sacramento is being applied.” 

According to Josh Kaizuka, the bigger problem that the residents of Broderick and Bryte face is the police themselves and their interactions with the community which has become strained further by the gang injunction.  “The only organized gang, as many of the residents have told us, or at least written in their declarations is, the only organized gang that represents a problem for them is the police,” Mr. Kaizuka said.

West Sacramento City Officials and police are aware of this perception and are trying to do something about it.  According to City Councilmember Oscar Villegas, the city and police are now doing the things that should have been done from the beginning – listening to the community and their concerns, going into classrooms, creating after school programs, having a teen center, and having the police sponsor events at the schools.  One program in particular that was successful in their mind was an ice cream social.

West Sacramento Police Lt. David Delaini told the Vanguard along these lines, “We have participated in clothing drives, conducted an ice cream social, along with other outreach endeavors.”

“For example, this year will be our second annual 3 on 3 basketball tournament with youth in the Broderick and Bryte communities  and we will also be hosting a family game night in that area in the near future,” he continued.  “Through these efforts, coupled with our commitment to work with the Broderick and Bryte Community Action Group, we hope to establish the best relations possible in this community which we serve.  I think it is also important to note that we have continued to reach out to the youth in these areas which such things as the G.R.E.A.T. program along with our efforts, in conjunction with the school district, to reduce truancy and keep kids in school.”

Brief Concluding Remarks

One of the critical questions about the injunction is whether the idea that people can be permanently enjoined without the requirement of a court trial has been brought up.  The fact that this injunction may not be enforced at the time and the impact of gang laws in general should not be lost on the public.

The District Attorneys office has gone to a lot of time and expense to prove the need for this injunction, and yet right now it does not appear that it is being enforced. 

The Vanguard will be following the Gang Injunction trial that begins this week.  In our extended look at the gang injunction, we will also look at gang activity overall in Yolo County and West Sacramento and also examine the impact of the injunction on those who have to deal with it everyday.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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