Alleged gang member named in the Fruitvale gang injunction arrested during hearing
on March 23, 2011
Just as the hearing for the proposed Fruitvale gang injunction got underway on Tuesday, police officers entered the court and arrested Javier Quintero—one of the 40 alleged Norteño gang members named in the injunction—for a parole violation. Quintero was the first defendant to testify in the hearing, which began in mid-February, and has not missed a single day of watching the proceedings.
Defense attorneys had put Quintero on the stand early in the hearing process, along with another alleged gang member, Abel Manzo, because they believe the Oakland City Attorney’s office has the weakest case against these two men. Throughout the course of the hearing, the defense has tried to show that Quintero and Manzo are not active gang members and only have non-violent criminal records. The prosecution has argued that although they’re not explicitly involved in violent crimes, both men have strong ties to the Norteño gang and are active members.
Shortly after testimony began on Tuesday, parole agents entered the courtroom, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman called a recess and within moments Quintero was handcuffed and escorted out.
Defense attorney Yolanda Huang told the judge that the defense was extremely dismayed by the arrest of Quintero during courtroom proceedings. “This drama of coming to court and having him hauled out of court in handcuffs,” shows continued harassment and intimidation against the alleged gang members, she said to the judge angrily, calling it “a public spectacle made of my clients.” Huang also told the judge she believed the prosecution knew about the arrest ahead of time.
Prosecuting attorney Tricia Hynes from the Meyers Nave law firm, which is representing the Oakland City Attorney’s office, told the judge her firm had no knowledge of the arrest beforehand. “We learned Mr. Quintero was going to be arrested as we walked into court this afternoon,” she said. Hynes then said she wished the defense attorneys had asked them first about the prosecution’s involvement “before our characters are smeared through the mud.”
Outside the courtroom, Alex Katz, spokesman for the City Attorney’s office, said that his office knew nothing about the arrest and that it was a matter involving the parole department, not the City Attorney’s Office.
The details of Quintero’s alleged parole violation were not given at the time of his arrest in the courtroom, but moments after Quintero’s arrest City Attorney John Russo sent out a message on Twitter reading: “Gang injunction ‘star’ defndnt found last nite in car w drugs & gang symbols. Last wk he testified under oath that he knew nothing re. Gangs.”
In an interview outside of court on Tuesday, Huang said she was unaware of Russo’s Twitter message but she believes Quintero was arrested due to an incident she witnessed on Friday, March 18. She said she was meeting Quintero and another alleged gang member to discuss their court cases and as she drove onto Quintero’s block she saw him handcuffed next to a car with its doors open and trunk popped. “What the officers told me when they detained Javier was the music was too loud,” she said.
According to Huang, the officers searched the car, which did not belong to Quintero, and found a red rag and some gang-related graffiti on a stereo box. Then they did a parole search of Quintero’s home and found a red blanket on his bed, a red pen and red tape on his dresser. Red is a known Norteño gang color. “They can violate your parole if you have shoes with red lining,” Huang said. “How many colors will be left? Soon we’ll all be wearing see-through plastic.”
Huang said that the Oakland Police Department should have notified her and the other defense attorneys that they were planning to carry out the arrest during the court hearing. She said that Quintero is not difficult to locate she said because he wears a GPS monitor on his ankle. “The police chose not to effect an arrest from Friday to today,” Huang said. “It’s to make the grandstanding statement that these are criminals.”
Before the interruption for Quintero’s arrest, Tuesday’s hearing had started with the prosecution questioning one of Quintero and Manzo’s probation officers, Dalen Randa. Officer Randa’s testimony was not completed by the end of the day and will be continued during the second week of April. The prosecution will be calling two more witnesses to testify in this preliminary hearing for the proposed Fruitvale gang injunction on Monday, April 4 at 9:30 am at the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland.
Photo: Defense attorney Yolanda Huang with Esmeralda Quintero, Javier Quintero’s sister.
14 Comments
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
Maybe defense attorney Huang (and the rest of the defense team) shouldve stayed in Mr Quintero’s neighborhood for a bit and see how much she supports these alleged gang bangers then. Though I must say, arresting him in the middle of court discussions doesnt seem quite right but oh well.
[…] Oakland North blog has the story of a litigant against the Fruitvale gang injunction who was hauled out of court and arrested for a […]
Since when is violating your parole, and then being arrested count as “harassment and intimidation”? Really, is parole violation not a crime anymore? “Oh, I just didn’t want to go back to jail…”
I strongly believe the incident that took place with mr Quientera is the perfect example for the harrasment these eleged gang members are receiving from these crooked cops. The procecuters will set these eleged gang members up to the highest extent for them to get arrested. They want the judge to get the impression that they are doing acts of a criminal. They want the defendants to be locked up to not have the chance to fight this judgement. Its totally unconstitutional and these procecuters are crooked.
Is this blog changing it’s name to “Rumor Mill North”?
what 🙂
i have lots of red stuff around my house, i better paint it all green.
The Author of this blog gives a lot of time sharing unsubstantiated speculation from the gang member’s lawyer about why her client was arrested. This is reported in such detail that the author seems to take it at face value fact, as do some of the guest comments.
Hence my call for this blog to b called “Rumor Mill North”. Again, most of this Blog post is based on unsubstantiated speculation.
The arrest was NOT because the Police “found a red rag” or “to make the grandstanding statement that these are criminals.” but because Quintero violated his Parole by being with another Gang Member while going to meet their lawyer. Both have prior convictions in a Court of Law, and they violated this condition of their Parole.
By placing rumor and half-truths from one side in this case, without even waiting for facts or reports to be released from the other side, the author shows their bias, or at least lack of Journalistic integrity.
Dara Kerr and Oakland North should know better. Unless, that is, integrity and facts are not what matters to them. Better to start with an Opinion, and tailor the facts to meet them?
Note further that violation of Parole is not a choice by OPD: it is State Law. Also Quintero knows his Parole terms and what constitutes a violation.
Importantly, as Quintero’s lawyer, Huang should have known it was a violation of her clents’ Parole. She did a real disservice to her client by structuring a meeting that lead to his arrest. She shouldn’t be mad at Police. She should be mad at herself.
[…] Freedman said he will focus on the two alleged gang members who have been called as witnesses — Javier Quintero and Abel Manzo. There are 38 other alleged gang members named in the injunction, and the judge said […]
How can it be à violation of jour parol to meet up with jour lawyer? It’s unfortunate they had the same lawyer however once this was clear the police and prosecutor shouldn’t proced any further. You could bump to any known criminal any moment if you decide you don’t want to be a prisoner in your own home and you go outside. Further the risk of bumping into known criminals
The risk of bumping into known criminals is larger when meeting a lawyer you boath share, visit a law firm, police station or even an AA/NA meeting that the court is forcing you to. If they start to abuse the parole rules this literally. They just need to wait outside a AA meeting and arrest everybody that is on parole. It takes just 2 people on parole on that meeting and to eachother
To eachother you are boath known criminal offenders. Hell they don’t even need to wait since they can bring two parolees on any suspicion to a police station and make them sit in the same cell. Not sure if they need to have a conversation, even if they do it’s pretty logical one of them Will slip and say anything out of boredom if they leave them alone for an hour or so. Most likely a few minutes are enough. So following the rules to the letter is totally retarded not knowing the situation. Once the prosecutor knew they wasn’t ploting crimes the prosecutor shouldn’t proced any further. I believe it’s an evil an imoral act to punish people just because you can knowing they didn’t do anything wrong. With police and prosecutors like that more and more inocent will get sentenced to pay for other peoples crime just so the statistics looks
Just so the statistics looks great and the people involved climb the carrer ladder sacrificing inocents that most likely don’t even survive in jail. Being inocent is mutch worst then being guilty. You can’t even get out on parole since they are forcing you to lie and make up a confesion based on their false theory. Prosecutors try to make murder one out of a text book self defence. Your luck how you look and the prosecutors and police ambition is the things that can change freedom into a needle. If à masked robber is someone you know they make à rediculous sugestion that you knew who he was or even that it’s your mask. If you bought anything similar for skiing with a credit card ten years ago they make it belivable to a jury and you get the needle for murder one. À prosecutor is like a car dealer. The only difference is your not shaving of dollars on the price, he is shaving of years of your life. Always trying to Prosecute the biggest crime, even when it’s obvious it’s an accident or self defence. A cop gets self defence in 49 cases out of 50. A ordinary citizen who isn’t wealthy or important enough manages to get out of the mess without a trail 1 out of 10 times. If you are previous offender self deffence doesn’t exist. Your right to deffend your life has expired. You most likely get the needle or life even if you fend of a robber by going for his Gun and he is accidentelly killed with his own gun. That is why even innocent people that have done time have no other choice then to start a life of crime. Trying to be honest fails sooner or later. Once convicted it’s like dominos no matter what you do, honest or not, your Word means dick once convicted, the risk of being that again is 15 Times greater inocent or not, whit statistic like that you should take your chances, if you score big you can atleast hire a better lawyer have money when you get out. Better getting a second strike for something big and not for the cop arresting you makes up that you resisted arrested for what ever made up reason. Cops love the 3. Strikes law they know they can bully you and you can’t do anything. Once convicted your only option is to lock yourself inside your home and never get out. The cops can still find you and make up charges. So better they forget you exist. The only way to get justice in this fu..ed up world is to acctually be guilty and the bad person the prosecutor paints you as. Most people aren’t bad or evil just unlucky even criminals. However I am not sure what cops and prosecutors have for excuse. If hell existed they Will meet there. They let the guilty go free knowing they did it just because there is a spelling error on a warrent and convict innocent to the harsest degre of the law. They use only evidence and witness statments that fit their picture. It shouldn’t matter it’s a junkie or a prostitute. They have eyes and ears like everyone else. As long the witness has no reason to lie it should be considered. Police are people to but their word has more value. If a cop lies and you tell the truth then everything you say is automaticly a lie. Even I thought a cop would’t lie in court. I learned the hard way. Trailed for My first offence a cop was my allibi. I was totally calm since I couldn’t been in 2 places at the same time. And a cop is the best allibi ever. I couldn’t be more wrong. If i lied about My allibi he would know and he had prof. Telling the truth made me look like a lier. It didn’t matter his story was fictional and what he did was something a cop wouldn’t do ever and still he insisted it was what he did. He Waited to hear My story and made up his as he went along, because of that his story was inconsistent. He used the truth story but changed some important facts. Like the amount of time I had to sit in his car and an instrumental screwdriver that I had in My pocket that would bend if the wind blew at it became a burglary kit screwdriver, one of those big screwdrivers that would destroy the whole door. The door was forced open and it was a secure door partly made out of steel. He had to make it bigger to make sense.
We were drinking bear on a parking lot and some people thought we would steal a car. The police arrived the bear were almost empty. We weren’t that drunk either so they had nothing. they looked trough our pockets and it was my friend who had the mini watch screwdriver in his pocket, 15 years now hard to remember the screwdriver was a joke so he let him keep it. Cops story was I had it. The people that implicated me made a deal for themselves, they knew me but not the friend I was with, they still managed to point out the friend the cops saw me with, drinking bear. I suppose cops pointed him out to them before the trail. The place that got robbed had guards and it was robbed on their break. Very time specific. It was the same time the cops had us in the backseat of the policecar while the checked the whole parking lot for evidence. It took more then one hour maybe 1.5 before the let us leave so the time window was locked. The cop Said he let us go after 5 minutes and that the screwdriver was gigantic. I know the cops keep things like this as evidence, in case it was used for something illegal. Since I Easy get headaches and I am very light sensetive I always used dark sunglasses even at night since street lamps gave me headache. Because of that I am Easy to spot and look suspicious. I am the ideal scapegoat. They Said they shower 10 pictures and all the suspects picked me at the trail. What they forgot to say was that they took a polaroid of me while I had sunglasses on. I am quite certain the other 9 people didn’t. I am quite sure it was because of the glasses people thought we would steal their car that night to. The cops have all their time accounted so he couldn’t have made a mistake, he most have changed their raport or maybe they believed him without seing it. Don’t remember any other evidence then lies. Nothing forensic, although they found dna, shoeprints and even fingerprints, nothing mine or the friends I was talking about earlier. Just the testimony of people who got deals and the cop crushing my allibi. I spoke for my friend and managed get him of, I warrantied and swore on my dads grave he was not a criminal. I Said his only crime was to drink a bear with me when cops arrived. The cop knew I didn’t do it, it was impossible. however he shaved of more then one hour of My allibi and enlarged the screwdriver a thousand times. Still saying he let us walk away with a burglary tool in the middle of the night sound unrealistic. However either the judge or the jury seemed to know nothing about police procedure. They believed Every word. I looked suspicious however I didn’t steal a candy before going to jail. Since i never gave up insisting that i was innocent I had to be in jail the whole sentence. Since everybody got à deal I had to pay for. I was jailed 10 years, number two got 3 years and was out in 2. That was the Guy who got caught selling the stolen computers. Onfortunally he sold the most of them and gave the money to the guy I did the time for. I was also the only one with means to pay the money back since i got a great deal of money when grandmother died. They took everything and every penny was honest and taxed. 10 years later i had no choice but to become criminal. However I was careful not to hurt ordinary people. I couldn’t get a job and didn’t bother to finish My education, what was the meaning to do that? I would never get a well paid job ever. I was during My whole educationg among the top 4 in My class. Well I learned how to fight in jail but they did kick out the most of My knowledge from My head. I was lucky when I got out, never been in jail since. I was great at being criminal. I always had money but after jail I was broke. I wasn’t gready as soon I got the money back plus some for the years inside I quit. The state owed me 10 long painful years. My looks helped me in jail. The same thing that got me jailed helped to keep me safe. Nobody on the inside believed in my inocence either, got respect and didn’t get raped once. However every fish wanted to kick My ass to prove something. I have cash and everything now but I still want to die no medication or drugs help. My life feels like shit with no reason. I have broken the law to get payback. I believe I have done crime for à ten years sentence. I still feel like I am à prisoner. I never go outside. Only if I need medical assistance. I believe i am à god person with à morall compass, before this I would’t ever take à life. Right now it feels the only thing that can repair me is to Kill al the people responsible, or any prosecutor or cop would make My life possible. There is no justice anywhere. Everybody is satisfied with the system when it’s not them that are the accused. If you got half a brain you can use the system, the cops Will help you hang any innocent person, he should look dangerous so the people are happy. We live in year 2011 and we still decide peoples guilt buy how they look. Psychopats could look like the nicest guy and a vegetarian could look like someone who eaten their neighbour. To be fair nobody should know who is the accused. How he looks, his name race nationality, if he is rich or poor, even if it’s à mayor or president or judge shouldn’t matter. À judge isuing à warrent shouldn’t know who it is, evidence should be enough. They say everybody is equal in the eyes of the law but it couldn’t be more wrong. To be fair it shouldn’t matter who you are but what you have done. It’s still like an inquisition 500 years ago however more modern. Some people you need more evidence to question then others to convict. It’s unfair. They should arrest dangerous people however noone who made comtact with him should be aloud to decide their fate. A jury is fair because it could be your son, daughter, friend, father or any other person. Evidence should speak for itself. And asking à witness if he see the accused in the court room is rediculous. By then he have seen houndred of pictures of him, on the tv internet and papers, the cops aren’T shy showing pictures or even ocasionally help them remember. I hope the Incas were right about 2012 and we all go to hell or similar. Justice is à joke…