By Yelda Arghandiwal
The prosecution, one defense attorney and a witness sat in Department 7 at Yolo County Superior Court on November 16, 2016, wondering where the other defense attorney could possibly be. Everyone began to worry. The court was scheduled at 1:30PM, but it was 1:45PM, with no sign of the attorney. The case pending before the court was the People v. Javier Placido Moreno and Robert Torres Holguin.
Finally, Mr. Rod Beede made his entrance, with a bit of frustration from all the calls he was receiving asking about his whereabouts. What the prosecution didn’t know was he happened to be covering a different trial in Department 5 at the same time as this hearing in Department 7. It appeared to be a lack of communication from Mr. Beede, which kept his client and the attorneys and court waiting.
Finally, Mr. Beede was able to gather himself to defend Mr. Holguin.
Next, defense attorney Leslie Ramos called an expert witness to testify, Joshua Mason. Mr. Mason is an expert on street gangs and communities. In 2012 he started his organization, J Mason Consulting, to provide consulting services in the legal arena, and to academics and non-profits on gang culture issues. Since 2007, he has been helping those who have been influenced to become gang members, providing mentoring, counseling, and teaching in schools and juvenile facilities, mainly to focus on violence prevention and how gangs influence communities.
Joshua Mason had been involved in a gang when he was 10, and that continued throughout his adolescence. At 19 years of age, he was arrested for attempted murder and went straight to jail. He spent a few years in prison, then he was on parole. Mr. Mason said that “a few days before my release, the idea of coming home hit me. I asked myself, what am I going to do? I’m almost 30, I’ve been around enough. Then I made a choice to come home as an independent adult.” Mason is proud that he has broken every single paroling stereotype for 10 years, and is making things better. Joshua Mason uses his experience to help communities and kids make life better for themselves.
In this case, Joshua Mason was contacted by Ms. Ramos to provide his expert opinion on whether the defendant, Mr. Moreno, is an active gang member or not. The incident involved a contraband sale with an active gang member. Moreno is being charged for that involvement, and is accused of being an active gang member. The defense argues that Moreno was just the driver of the vehicle, and is not an active gang member – he was just the means of transportation.
Mr. Moreno helped the other defendant, Mr. Holguin, go to a location to pick up the contraband. Then Moreno took Holguin to the meet-up location to sell the contraband. Holguin is in police custody for actively selling the product, being an active gang member and having other strikes previously, and the defense hopes to have his charges reduced.
Ms. Ramos presented a hypothetical to Joshua Mason, relating to the incident of the contraband-selling scenario, to determine his expertise on the case. Mason said that the hypothetical does not provide enough evidence to determine that an individual picking up contraband and selling it to another gang member portrays gang activity.
Joshua Mason said that some former gang members have old tattoos of the gang they belonged in. After several years, the tattoos are still on their body, but that doesn’t determine the individual’s identity or explain what group the individual belongs to. Mason explained that, in many cases, a former gang member would have a tattoo of the gang he was involved with from about five years prior. Now, that same individual still has the tattoo, but he is no longer in the gang. “We can’t determine or identify someone by a tattoo,” Joshua Mason said.
Mr. Mason explained that he is aware of the gangs in the area, and has heard many stories, but he doesn’t believe the individual in the hypothetical given earlier would be a member of these gangs.
A picture of Moreno from a year ago was provided as evidence that shows him posing in a picture next to gang members. Also, a video was collected that showed Moreno holding hundreds of dollar bills and dancing while a group of men wearing red are in the background throwing up gang signs with their hands. Given this evidence, the prosecution in cross-examination raised a question to Joshua Mason: “In your opinion, you don’t think this signifies that he is an active gang member?”
Mason explained that a video like that can be a group of friends, families or colleagues on a special occasion of “get-together.” This video could have been made to just be funny, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate his involvement in a gang. He hasn’t been involved in any gang-related experiences or events, so Mason did not believe that Moreno is an active gang member.
Joshua Mason’s expertise helped defendant Javier Moreno, while the co-defendant, Robert Holguin, is still hoping that the court will lessen his charges. The court took a break for the day, and the case will reconvene at a later date.
