OGDEN -- The Utah Supreme Court is being asked to consider an appeal from a Trece gang member convicted under Ogden's 11-month-old injunction.
The injunction, in place since last September, against Ogden's oldest street gang bans its estimated 350 members from associating with each other publicly and being in the vicinity of guns, drugs or alcohol, and sets an 11 p.m. curfew.
Used commonly in California for decades, and less so in a handful of other states, the injunction is a first for Utah.
The gang injunction, since it was enacted, has been argued in numerous court hearings on constitutional grounds, including a brief session before the Utah Supreme Court last fall, and has survived intact.
The appeal filed last week by Ogden lawyer Mike Studebaker for client Isaac Rader is the first challenge of an actual conviction under the ordinance to reach the high court.
It makes similar arguments pressed by the Utah Chapter of the ACLU and Trece lawyers in previous hearings, such as the injunction being unconstitutionally vague.
"Mr. Rader is regulated in activities (1) in any place accessible to the public; (2) relating to annoying, provoking, etc., behavior; (3) being in public view. ... These vague terms do not put Mr. Rader on notice to what is an illegal activity because they are terms that can vary too much," reads the appeal.
Rader, now 19, in November last year was fined $757.89 for failure to abate, as the charge is generally referred to for violating provisions of the injunction. Rader has been arrested twice for violating the injunction, Oct. 7 and Nov. 13, according to court records, the latter including a charge of minor in possession of alcohol.
Studebaker has already pressed an appeal, unsuccessfully, of the Ogden Justice Court conviction in 2nd District Court. Two hours of testimony were heard April 11 from nine police officers with dealings with Rader going back to 2007, mostly for crimes prosecuted in juvenile court. Judge Scott Hadley upheld the justice court conviction.
The Aug. 22 filing with the Utah Supreme Court follows a refusal from the Utah Court of Appeals to even hear Rader's appeal.
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