Nation Business-Mchenry County Sues Alleged Latin Kings Gang Members

McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi and the City of Harvard filed the lawsuit earlier this month against five men they say are Latin King members. The lawsuit would bar the alleged gang members from associating with each other in public, among other things.
Harvard “is kind of the epicenter of gang violence,” Bianchi said. “We don’t want to wait until someone gets seriously injured. It’s time to target the people in an effort to target the gang.”
The lawsuit stems from the 1993 Illinois Street Gang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act, which allows prosecutors to pursue civil cases — including monetary damages — against gang members. Similar initiatives have taken place in Kane, Boone and DuPage counties.


Harvard residents Antonio M. Figueroa, Alfredo Garcia-Castillo, Justin Pena, Genaro Pena, and Spencer M.L. Ortiz are named as defendants along with “other unnamed Latin King members,” according to the lawsuit. The men are due in court June 15.
Prosecutors said the men, including those unnamed, engaged in a pattern of gang-related activity between 2000 and 2010. For example, Garcia-Castillo was convicted last year of aggravated battery after striking a man in the chest with a metal pipe.
The lawsuit states that the gang members also “committed forcible felonies, felonies, criminal defacement and damage to property and other criminal offense against others” during that same time period.
Gang-related issues have been ongoing in Harvard for the past several years, according to Donna Kelly, chief of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Civil Division. She previously served as the special prosecutor in cases against at least three of the men named in the lawsuit.
These men “continue to be a menace to the City of Harvard,” she said. “This doesn’t replace the criminal justice system, it’s just another avenue to assist prosecutors in trying to thwart gang violence.”
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction that would prevent gang members from “standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering, or appearing anywhere in public view with any other defendant or known Latin King gang member.”
It also would prohibit them from having anything that could be used as a weapon outside of home or work. They would be prohibited from having anything that could be used to create gang-related graffiti, throwing gang signs, or displaying tattoos or other markings pertaining to a gang, according to court records.
Other defendants from throughout the county could be added to the lawsuit if they commit two gang-related criminal offenses, including a forcible felony, within a five-year period.
“This is an effort to discourage recruitment and at the same time keep the community safe,” Bianchi said. “Gangs in McHenry County are enough of a problem to warrant this type of lawsuit.”
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 10, also seeks more than $50,000 for the City of Harvard for “the damages, impairment and harm proximity caused by the acts of the Latin Kings and any of the named and unnamed defendants.”
The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Elgin Police Department Gang Unit sued about 70 gang members in fall 2010. Four arrests have been made this month in connection to the lawsuit.
 @chicagotribune