This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The ACLU of Utah requested Tuesday that all convictions of people charged with violating an injunction forbidding members of the Ogden Trece gang from associating with each other in public be thrown out.
The request — filed in 2nd District Court on behalf of lead plaintiff Daniel Lucero and others as a class action petition — is based on the Utah Supreme Court's decision last year to dissolve the injunction. The ACLU estimates that at least 50 defendants were convicted of injunction violations, which were class B misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.
Also Tuesday, a federal lawsuit filed against Weber County, Ogden City and several individuals by people who claim they are not Ogden Trece members but were served or affected by the injunction was dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart ruled the plaintiffs failed to allege sufficient grounds for suing the defendants.
The injunction stemmed from a 2010 lawsuit filed by Weber County that claimed the Ogden Trece gang was a public nuisance. Judge Ernie Jones agreed to issue the injunction, which prohibited identified gang members from associating with each other in public and possessing weapons or graffiti tools and set an 11 p.m. curfew, among other restrictions.
The injunction applied to activities in almost all of Ogden and to anyone served with it. It did not include a requirement that law enforcement officers prove an individual was a member of the gang, according to the ACLU. Instead, those served had to go to court to disprove they were a member.
After some of the people who were served challenged the injunction, the Utah Supreme Court threw it out, ruling in October 2013 that the county did not properly serve summons to members of the gang.
Five members of the gang were personally served with the summons and complaint, but the court ruled that the county never explained how those members were the equivalent of "officers" or "agents" of the organization, as required by law.
The high court did not rule on the constitutionality of the injunction.
The ACLU petition says that because the 2nd District Court had no power to issue the gang injunction in the first place, it is unconstitutional to allow the convictions to stand.
"We believe that many of the convictions of the gang injunction were for activities that were otherwise perfectly legal, like being out in Ogden after the injunction's 11 pm curfew," said attorney Randall Richards, who is working with the ACLU on the case. "It would be a grave injustice for people to have convictions on their records for simply exercising their constitutional rights."
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC