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Two people are suing Weber County and Ogden city in federal court, claiming that a now-defunct gang injunction violated their civil rights.
On Friday, Daniel Joseph Lucero and Leland Kim McCubbin, Jr. filed lawsuits in the U.S. District Court of Utah against Weber County Attorney Christopher Allred, the county and Ogden.
The gang injunction forbid Ogden Trece gang members from associating with each other in public and set a curfew, among other restrictions aimed at curbing what Ogden police and the county attorney's office contended was a gang responsible for much of the violent crime and vandalism in Ogden.
But Lucero is not a Trece gang member and McCubbins wasn't at the time that Ogden was enforcing the injunction, yet law enforcement still served them with it, according to their respective lawsuits.
"This case is about an overzealous use of government power by county and city government and its officials," Lucero and McCubbin's lawsuits read. The lawsuits add that they are suing "to remind officials that the ends do not always justify the means."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Lucero and McCubbins with defense attorney Randall Richards, estimates that at least 50 people were convicted of violating the injunction in the three-year period that it was enforced in Ogden. A conviction was punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.
The Utah Supreme Court threw out the injunction two years ago because the county and city failed to properly serve high-ranking "agents" in Ogden Trece.
Lucero was not a Trece gang member, but law enforcement told him that they believed he was because he had relatives who law enforcement identified as members, according to Lucero's lawsuit. Officers also thought his nickname "Fat Boy" was a gang moniker, when it was actually just a term of endearment used by his family and friends, the lawsuit adds.
Lucero was served with the injunction in fall 2010, and he was charged with violating it in 2012. The ACLU tried before to overturn the criminal convictions against Lucero, but a judge threw out that lawsuit in August because of a missed deadline.
As for McCubbin, he left the gang in 2008, according to his lawsuit. But in 2011, the county served McCubbin with the injunction, even though he was in Utah State Prison's restrictive housing "in part because prison officials knew that he had left the Trece, which raised security concerns for him."
When McCubbins was released from prison later that year and returned to his home and family in Ogden, he was still under the restrictions of the injunction. He was charged twice with violating the injunction in December 2011, in part both times because he was in public after 11 p.m., his lawsuit adds.
A few months later, after McCubbins had served jail time, the court determined he wasn't a Trece gang member and released him. His convictions were later thrown out, too.
Both Lucero and McCubbins seek monetary damages, an award of attorney fees and court costs, and a declaration that the injunction violated their rights.
In June, Allred said he intends to bring the injunction back once his office figures out how to serve notice on gang members in a way that complies with the Utah Supreme Court ruling. He said then that the Utah Supreme Court overturned the injunction on a "very narrow and technical issue," but did not address whether the injunction was constitutional.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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