Rapper '40 Glocc's' image considered in Colton gang injunction trial

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

Lawrence White's image as street-hardened rapper has served him well, but it remains a point of contention in the trial to determine his inclusion in a gang injunction in his native Colton.

In closing briefs filed late last month, the San Bernardino County district attorney's office argues that White -- as "40 Glocc" -- consistently flaunts his membership in Colton City Crips, supporting police and surveillance evidence showing his top status in the gang.

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, etc., it's a duck," wrote Lead Deputy District Attorney Mark Vos.

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A civil court judge is expected to rule in coming weeks if White, 34, is subject to the terms that have already barred several dozen people from congregating in and around Arbor Terrace Apartments at Rancho Avenue and Mill Street, an area dubbed "The Zoo."

During a two-week trial in late May, prosecutors seeking the order presented evidence of the rapper, who has associated with star artists such as 50 Cent, loitering at the complex at which he no longer lives, filming videos and being seen with people who were dealing drugs.

They cited a 1996 incident when White was suspected of participating in a gun battle with rival gang members, but never charged, and contacts with Colton police where he reportedly admitted Colton City Crips membership and showed a "C.C.C." tattoo on his chest.

But the defense counters that White's years-old police contacts are either not relevant to the civil proceedings or the facts are in dispute.

Attorney Thomas Brackey called a witness who testified White does not have any gang tattoos is no longer an active member.

As for 40 Glocc's videos, which feature handguns and gang signs, Brackey wrote it's all pure entertainment not applicable as evidence.

Even so-called threats White made to chart-topping rapper Lil' Wayne were really "a promotional device," he noted.

A Colton police gang officer had testified that 40 Glocc's online videos supported his opinion that White is a gang member, but Brackey wrote that the expert witness was confusing fact and fiction.

"Surely it is unreasonable for anyone to conclude -- let alone an experienced police officer -- that a person is an active gang member because he 'plays one on TV' or on the Internet, in this case," Brackey wrote.

Since the injunction was temporarily approved in late 2008, authorities said Arbor Terrace has returned to being safe for tenants and children, something they said White would undermine if allowed to visit and film profane videos there.

"White loiters like his gang -- in the places they loiter, he trespasses like them -- he was caught on surveillance video in their presence," Vos wrote. "He talks their talk, promotes them, wears the Colton beanie, throws up their hand signs, features them in his rap videos."

The prosecutor emphasized in his closing argument that he was not looking to deny White's free speech rights to make rap videos mentioning Colton City Crips -- but to keep him from being on Arbor Terrace grounds while doing so.

Brackey, however, argued White was not trespassing because an apartment manager nor police ever asked him to leave.

He added that his client's free speech cannot be used to keep him out.

"The First Amendment guarantees White the right to speak freely about the Colton City Crips, Arbor Terrace Apartments and ... his upbringing and beliefs, whether fiction or nonfiction," he wrote, "without subjecting himself to the government-imposed restraints of a gang abatement injunction.."