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OGDEN -- The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging efforts by the Weber County Sheriff's Office to declare an Ogden street gang a public nuisance.
Monday, the ACLU asked the Utah Supreme Court for an immediate review of the "gang injunction" entered by a judge last week. The organization says some people who were wrongly labeled as gang members and who have never been convicted of any crimes are having their civil rights taken away.
..this injunction criminalizes a wide range of otherwise legal and constitutionally-protected activity, for literally hundreds of people...
–Darcy Goddard, ACLU
On Sept. 27, 2nd District Court Judge Ernie Jones declared the 485-member Ogden Trece gang a public nuisance and granted the injunction, which prohibits the members of Ogden Trece from associating with other alleged members of Trece.
"This is the public, this is the city of Ogden and the police department saying we don't want you associating in public where normal people come and enjoy life; so we're restraining your activities," Ogden City Police Chief John Greiner said Sept. 28.
Lawyers with the ACLU say they sympathize with the desire of police to get a hold on gang problems.
"But if they're going to do that, I think they have to do it in a way that comports with due process, that protects people's First Amendment rights, that doesn't rely on the discretion of individual police officers -- which I think leads to a very significant risk of arbitrary enforcement and racial profiling," says Darcy Goddard, legal director of the ACLU of Utah.
Goddard says his organization has received half a dozen complaints from alleged members of Ogden Trece.
"[This includes] someone who was named in the injunction papers who is 81 years old," she says. That man claims he was never in the gang.
Goddard said the injunction prohibits behavior that would be legal for anyone else. She said people named can't have an open container of alcohol in public, non-restricted people can't own firearms, and they can't even be in the same room with anyone else named in the injunction, with few exceptions.
"You can be in the same room with someone if you're in school or if you're in church," Goddard explains, "but there are no exceptions for family members, for close friends or girlfriends."
In a statement, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith told KSL, "We filed an action to abate their nuisance activity, which includes a lot of graffiti and every type of street crime -- from assault and drug dealing, all the way up to murder. ... We've put what I would consider very reasonable restrictions on their activity."
Civil liberties attorneys don't see it that way.
"The idea that they should be able to go in and get a civil order with such scant evidence, and impose it against all of these people who have never been found to be gang members by any court, is just really disturbing," Goddard says.
Monday's request is essentially an emergency request, asking for immediate review by the Utah Supreme Court.
There is no word yet from the court about whether it will review the case, though we might expect to hear more in the coming weeks.
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Story compiled with contributions from John Daley and Paul Nelson.
