Shoshana Walter/The Bay Citizen

Gang injunction defendants gather in the courtroom after Feb. 23 hearing

Is 25-year-old Abel Manzo a hard-working, caring barber with a distant criminal past, or a dangerous gang member likely to harm again?

That all depends on who you ask.

Attorneys representing Manzo and those representing Oakland painted opposite pictures of him during the evidentiary hearing yesterday for a proposed gang injunction in the city's Fruitvale district. The hearing concluded with testimony from Manzo, the second defendant attorneys originally asked to be removed from the injunction list.

The preliminary injunction would impose restrictions, including a 10 p.m. curefew, on alleged members of the Norteno gang within a 450-block safety zone in Fruitvale.

At the hearing, Manzo, who co-owns and operates a barbershop in Oakland, denied ever being a member of the Norteno gang and said his most recent probation violations occurred as the result of a harassing probation officer, not major, gang-related indiscretions. He said he owns a house and has a nearly one-year-old daughter with his fiancée, previously his girlfriend of 10 years. He also said he did community service by offering free haircuts at a local youth center.

But during cross-examination, the city’s attorneys painted a different portrait of Manzo.

Meyers Nave attorney Britt Strottman raised questions about Manzo’s credibility by showing he had lied or failed to mention some details about his past, including that his community service was court-ordered and that his fiancée actually owns their home. Strottman said Manzo had attended the funeral of a Norteno gang member, which became the scene of a shooting. But Manzo said he had gone to the funeral to pay his respects to the young man’s mother, who had once helped him get a job at Goodwill.

Strottman said Manzo’s father and brother were Nortenos, but Manzo denied even knowing the Norteno street gang exists.

Strottman also showed Manzo a photograph of himself wearing a red T-shirt marked with “E. 15^th.”

“Isn’t it true that red represents loyalty to the Nortenos?” she asked.

“No.”

"And isn’t it true that E. 15^th is associated with the gang the Nortenos?”

“No, that belongs to the city of Oakland," he said, causing laughter in the courtroom.

Manzo was convicted of felony sale of marijuana in 2004 and repeatedly violated his five-year probation, which included gang-related restrictions, after a series of non-violent offenses. He was also the alleged target of a shooting in 2008 and was accused of beating his girlfriend (a record that invited displeased audience members to heckle Strottman). Manzo said police lied about the incident.

Defense attorney Jose Fuentes questioned the relevance of the domestic violence allegations to Manzo’s alleged status as a gang member, but Judge Robert Freedman allowed the line of questioning. Fuentes also objected to questions about the shooting.

“They issue injunctions for victims nowadays?” he asked, prompting applause from the audience. A bailiff promptly ordered silence.

Since the proposed injunction was filed, the city attorney’s office says at least 13 individuals named in the injunction have been arrested or convicted of a crime. But defense attorneys say 17 of the defendants have not been arrested in the past two years, qualifying them for the city attorney’s opt-out rule, which states that a defendant may be exempt from the injunction if he can prove he has not violated the injunction, nor been criminally active or associated with a gang, for at least two years. 

Defense attorneys said they’d like each defendant to have the opportunity Manzo had to provide testimony. But with the city’s attorneys and Freedman calling for a quick conclusion, additional testimony from many more defendants doesn’t seem likely.

This week’s hearing concluded with Manzo describing the impact the injunction could have on his life.

“I don’t belong to no gang. I’m a barber, I deal with all kinds of people,” he said. “It’s making me look like someone I’m not. A kid’s gonna say, ‘Look Ma, that’s my barber on the news.’ That puts my life in danger.”

The hearing continues next Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Alameda County Superior Court, 1225 Fallon St. in Oakland.