Opinion ID: 2373689
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: To Benefit the Gang

Text: The only evidence presented on the relationship of the offenses to the gang was the opinion of Detective Neail Holland, the police expert on gangs and gang culture, who, in response to a hypothetical question posed by the prosecutor, stated his opinion that such crimes would have been committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with the gang. Detective Holland's opinion was built on his vivid testimony about criminal street gangs in general and Southside Chiques in particular. He explained Southside Chiques favors attempted homicide, felony assault, auto theft, felony vandalism and drug trafficking. He also explained gang members commit violent crimes as a means of communicating to the community that the gang is a violent, aggressive gang that stops at nothing and does not care for anyone's humanity. We have upheld convictions where similar testimony supported the expert's opinion a crime was gang related. For example, in People v. Gardeley (1996) 14 Cal.4th 605 [59 Cal.Rptr.2d 356, 927 P.2d 713], a police expert after describing a gang's criminal activity, opined that a vicious attack on a stranger, such as the charged assault by gang members against the victim in that case, would be gang-related activity. The expert explained the crime was a `classic' example of gang-related activity, relating his knowledge that criminal street gangs rely on such violent assaults to frighten the residents of an area where the gang members sell drugs, thereby securing the gang's drug-dealing stronghold. ( Id. at p. 619.) By articulating a rational connection between the crime and the gang's activities, the expert's explanation supported his opinion, making it reasonable for the jury to conclude the attack was committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with the gang. ( Ibid. ) Detective Holland, by contrast, expressed no knowledge that sexual assault against a young female acquaintance presented a classic example of gang-related activity. Nor did he explain that Southside Chiques encouraged such crimes or relied on them to frighten or intimidate anyone. To the contrary. Although he explained a gang would benefit from a report of the crimes, because the report would elevate the gang's reputation to be a violent, aggressive gang that stops at nothing and does not care for anyone's humanity, he also stated that Latino gangs such as Southside Chiques disapprove of rape and crimes against children. Later, while agreeing with the prosecutor's suggestion that gang members might still commit such crimes, he explained they would do so for themselves or their personal interests, and are not going to come back and announce that they have committed a rape or promote it that it's a rape at all, you know, and they're going to claim that law enforcement and the district attorney's office is making stuff up, you know, to protect their position [in the gang], but these crimes still occur. No doubt these crimes still occur, and if reported they might result in a benefit to the gang as showing its members' willingness to commit violent assaults. Nevertheless, nowhere in the detective's testimony do I find any reason to conclude a sexual assault by members of a Latino gang, as here, would be committed for that reason. I also find nothing to aid the prosecution's case in the detective's testimony that [w]hen three gang members go out and commit a violent brutal attack on a victim, that's elevating their individual status, and they're receiving a benefit. Even aside from the point that these gang members, if asked, would according to the detective deny having committed rape to protect their position, his testimony explains only that a gang member might believe he, individually, will derive personal benefit from his crimes. And finally, I do not agree with the majority that the detective's testimony can reasonably be interpreted to mean that gang members would lose status only by being convicted of the crimes. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 64.) To the contrary, everything Detective Holland testified to strongly suggested gang members would lose status in the gang by being publicly identified as persons who had committed sexual assault crimes. In sum, Detective Holland stated a general rule for criminal street gangs: gangs commit violent crimes as a means of communicating their criminality to the community. He also stated an exception to that rule, that Latino gangs disapprove of rape and crimes against children, explaining that although individual members might commit such crimes despite the gang's disapproval, they would not report it for fear of losing status. Defendants' crimes fall under the exception. Detective Holland articulated no reason for concluding defendants' crimes were in any way committed for the benefit of Southside Chiques. The opinion of an expert can provide sufficient support for a factual finding, but the value of an expert's testimony lies not in the expert's ability to articulate the ultimate fact, but in the material from which the opinion is fashioned and the reasoning by which the expert progresses to his or her conclusion. ( People v. Lawley (2002) 27 Cal.4th 102, 132 [115 Cal.Rptr.2d 614, 38 P.3d 461].) A conviction in our system of justice, cannot be made to depend on whether or not the witnesses against [the defendant] correctly recite by rote a certain ritual formula. ( People v. Bassett (1968) 69 Cal.2d 122, 140 [70 Cal.Rptr. 193, 443 P.2d 777].) In my view, Detective Holland's opinion that the crimes were committed for the benefit of the gang was nothing but an affirmation of the phrase stated by the prosecution in its hypothetical, given without adequate explanation or supporting evidence. It therefore had no evidentiary value. And the record is devoid of other evidence suggesting the crimes were committed for the benefit of the gang. The crimes were committed privately, and the victim did not indicate defendants referred to the gang or to themselves as gang members, either as they were committing the crimes or afterwards, as they drove the victim home. Although after the victim reported the crimes some of her acquaintances warned her against pursuing the matter, there is no evidence defendants reported the crimes either to Southside Chiques or to the community at large. Accordingly, the evidence does not support a finding the crimes were committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.