Show mM - $ Page 14 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday August 12 1998 New rules in gang cases raise civil liberties concern LOS ANGELES (AP) — The young man was clearly terrified Trapped on the witness stand like a caged animal he cowered and shielded his eyes to avoid seeing himself on a courtroom screen It was a police videotape and he was spilling out details of a murder he witnessed “It's not true" insisted Thol May a Cambodian gang member who was being asked in court to implicate fellow gang members in ihc killing of g actor llaing Ngor He had told his story to police but was now denying everything AnotlhT witness who once said he saw the defendants running Irom the scene also recanted Oscar-winnin- "I was not there" insisted Vircak Sarik In some cases such a turnaround would he disastrous But the prosecutor was unfared This was a gang case and gang cases operate in their own universe of legal rules The scourge of street violence is changing the way justice works in America's gang capital and some say the real victim is civil liberty For instance in 1995 the Cali- fornia Supreme Court ruled it was permissible to convict a gang member of murder based solely on identification by a witness even if that witness recanted in court or refused to rt testify IVcxiously such identification O would have been barred as hearsay and lawyers would have objected on grounds that the balking witness could not be cmss-exainin- Loyola University Law School Professor Laurie Lcvenson said that in the past decade 90 appellate decisions in gang prosecutions have gradually cnanged the law Weather Continued from Page The defendant Mikhail Markhasev was said to he a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang Chang had given a grand jury devastating testimony against Markhasev hut he refused to repeat it at the trial Jurors who ultimately convicted Markhasev of murdering Bill Cosby's son never heard the details “It's what happens all the time in gang cases especially gang murders" Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum said In his case the Haing Ngor murder every witness recanted previous statements But Hum would win three con- victions and long sentences through the use of videotaped statements and the word “gang" out-of-co- In both his opening statements and closing arguments Hum denounced the defendants as “crackhcad gang bangers" In the past such references might have been barred as prejudicial but not now The loosening of evidentiary requirements is essential to get gangsters off the streets prosecu- tors say Defense attorneys counter that many gang convictions come at the cost of fundamental defendant rights “It's what was predicted in science fiction of the 1930s and '40s'' said Deputy Public Defender Joy Wilensky who represented one of the Ngor defendants “We are becoming a punitive world with no rights for people" She said judges have so 13 snow melt collected over the frozen ground to create a shallow lake behind their house Viiginia Tony Hanson daughter of Tom and Marge Hanson of Superior Wis and Corey Karrcn son of Tom and Sally Karren of Smith-fiel- d was married Aug 1 1998 Legislators last year authorized funding after learning there were nearly 600 street gangs operating in California not including prison gangs In one case under the new law Ms Snyder managed to move a woman with eight children finding her a new home with ade- there to make it look OK" Michael Genelin who retired this year after heading the district attorney's hard-cor- e gang unit for 1 3 years says the law is responding to a gang crisis “It's changed in the passage of statutes which allow us more leeway to examine and protect witnesses It’s much easier now to get gang evidence in and to get gang experts in" he said “We can withhold for longer periods of time the addresses of witnesses Judges have been educated" The challenge said Genelin is balancing defendants' rights and witnesses' safety Favoring civil liberties for gang members is a tough position in a schools One glitch in the state relocation program has been human whose client Indra Lim was convicted and sentenced to 26 years to life in prison “Sometimes I think of getting out because I feel I'm just sitting quate bus transportation back Thai's what killed Ms Snyder's two witnesses in the case of Willie T Bogan shot by a drug dealer named Charles Lafayette in an argument over a $S rock of cocaine Lafayette was associated with the Bloods gang Gloria Lyons and Denise Jones saw everything Police found them in county jail serving time on unrelated charges They told what they knew but worried aloud about branded city considered “the center of “snitches" Theybeing knew their lives in crimes this gang country" were in says James McDougal an assis- tant city attorney working on gang abatement For prosecutors gang cases lake them down one of the scariest avenues of the law Death waits around every comer “It happens rarely'' said danger “The jargon is you're wearing a snitch jacket" Ms Snyder said “You may as well have a target on your back" She arranged to move the women to new neighborhoods when they got out of jail “Gloria was released first" Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Snyder “But it happens TWo of Ms Snyder recalled “She was executed three days my witnesses were executed in after her release from jail in an the street" It was that case among others alley only blocks away from the site where Willie T was killed that led Ms Snyder to lobby the Legis- She had gone back" lature for a witness relocation law Days later Denise Jones a — a measure which provides cocaine addict was released and funding for moving threatened testified in Lafayette's trial witnesses in gang cases out of the Jurors deadlocked uncomfortneighborhood where the crime able with the uncorroborated tesoccurred timony of an addict from the VanOidens that the wind that toppled old sheds and at least one big tree last April measured 39 miles per hour well below the unusual weather readings to Continued from Page WeatherFacts and the Salt Lake record 70 mph gale that the VanOidens have seen They can find out that this spring was the warmest and wettest since the couple started keeping track And looking at weather data an observer can marvel at the quirks of nature According to a newspaper clipping that Viiginia saved the 198 tornado was one of three spotted in Cache County since the early 1900s The State Climatology Office at Utah State University confirms that tornadoes are rare in this part of the world But just last week observers called into the office to report three funnel clouds — two in Superior Wis An open house is from 6-- 8 pm Thursday Aug 13 1998 at the home of Tom and Sally Karren 1 11 S 400 West Smithficld Friends and relatives are invited and nature Witnesses taken out of their neighborhoods usually go between Smithfield and Wedding Hanson-Karre- n restricted her in defending gang members that she feels powerless to put on a proper defense “There simply is no fairness anymore" said Ms Wilensky has photos of the rippling lake in a scrapbook next to a newspaper clipping about the closing of the Cache Junction depot Lewiston residents can learn Virginia has helped record a lot of lwiston's past collecting old phivtos and intcipreting them with the help of the minutes from city government Together Virginia and Dee remember many ways that the weather aflccted people's lives If the snow was deep farmers had a hard time getting their milk to the truck that would pick it up and take it away One winter in the 1940s the snow was so deep that Clarksion was snowbound for a week The roads just kept drifting in again They witnessed a rare tornado in Iewislon in 1987 In 1984 the 0 In the recent Ennis Cosby murder trial convict Michael Chang took the stand in prison garb refusing to testify under any circumstances because of fear of retribution behind bars Rich- mond and one near Mendon The Mendon funnel may have touched down The VanOidens phone in their Weather Bureau When the weather bureau first installed Doppler radar the couple helped verify whai the radar indicated so due people at the bureau were better able to interpret Doppler images Other than that it's Lewiston residents who benefit the most from their efforts They can check yesterday's precipitation before deciding whether to water the garden They can verify that yes yesterday really was a hot one And like the VanOrdens they can notice that they are often in one of the valley's coolest spots All that benefit comes from some privately-owne- d sophisticated equipment that the couple operates without pay Maybe there's a computer out now that's even more sophisticated than the one they have Dec said But what they have sure beats getting weather information from the moon UTAH 752-307- AP photo Indra Um 20 an aSeged member of toe Oriental Lazyboys a Chinatown abaal gang and hit attorney Joy Wlencky hear a guilty verdict teed in toe murder d actor Haing Ngor in a Lot Angetea courtroom April 16 1996 Oacar-winin- g A mistrial was declared Ms Jones returned to her old neighborhood and was gunned down on a busy street comer at niidmoming Lafayette is now serving 23 years to life At his retrial Ms Snyder won conviction after reading the testimony Jones Cache Junction depot Taxes Weather Bureau When the weather bureau first installed Lewiston residents can learn 13 Viiginia has helped record a lot of Lewiston's past collecting old photos and interpreting them with the help of the’ minutes from city government from the VanOrdens that the wind that toppled old sheds and at lent one big tree last April measured 39 miles per hour well below the record 70 mph gale that the VanOrdens have seen They can find oqt that this spring was the warmest sitd wetteit since t the couple started keeping track Arid lobking' at weather data Together Virginia and Dee an observer can marvel at the remember many ways that the quirks of nature According to a weather affected people's lives If newspaper clipping that Viiginia the snow was deep farmers had a saved the 1987 tornado was one hard time getting their milk to the of three spotted in Cache County truck that would pick it up and take it away One winter in the 1940s the snow was so deep that Clarkston was snowbound for a week The roads just kept drifting in again They witnessed a me tornado in Lewiston in 1987 In 1984 the since the early 1900s The State Climatology Office at Utah State University confirms that tornadoes are rare in this part of the world But just last week observers called into the office to report three funnel clouds — two snow melt collected over the frozen ground to create a shallow mond and one near Mendon The lake behind their house Viiginia has photos of the rippling lake in a scrapbook next to a newspaper clipping about the closing of the touched down The VanOrdens phone in their between Smithfield and Mendon funnel Rich- may have unusual weather readings o WeatherFacts and the Salt Lake of Denise i i Doppler radar the couple helped verify what the radar indicated so that people at the bureau were better able to interpret Doppler images Other than that it's Lewiston residents who benefit the most from their efforts They can chick yesterday's precipitation before deciding whether to water the garden They can verify that yes yesterday really was a hot one And like the VanOrdens they can notice that they are often in one of the valley's coolest spots All that benefit comes from some privately-owne- d sophisticated equipment that the couple operates without pay Maybe there’s a computer out now that's even more sophisticated than the one they have Dee said But what they have sure beats getting weather information from the moon i 2 WESTATES THEATRES Volunteer Please No Passes Or Discount Shoas Before 6pm $4 is Discount Day A a Slats $4 fAu American Heart Association - (2&cke 131 I K (vSJTm 3112 hMnrn £8 Mr i ABOUT MAETuu Miur AT IM 4 Mt Ml JMMrNMNTHWMMW£Mm ALL SEATS is 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