Ink Is A Link For Jail Gangs

By Mike Wells
09/27/07

TAMPA - A spider web tattoo covered his left elbow and "Mi Vida Loca" stretched down his right calf in 3-inch letters.

Typical prison tattoos, but hardly proof this 19-year-old man belongs to a gang, Hillsborough County sheriff's Cpl. Dawn Bryant noted.

It's Bryant's job to help find out. Throughout her shift she interviews inmates, filling out a "Gang Members Questionnaire" and taking photos of tattoos as a member of the sheriff's Security Threat Awareness Team, or Stat.

The sheriff's office hopes soon to arm deputies and detectives on the street with the histories and tattoo photos that the team has collected in its computer database. So far, about 1,140 inmates have been documented.

The 20-member unit formed in 1997 under a different name and was revamped in 2005 after Sheriff David Gee was elected. He campaigned targeting gang-related crime. Members say the unit's primary goal is to ensure the safety and security of the jail facilities, but there have been dividends on the outside, too.

They've caught gang members recruiting, intercepted messages in the mail and translated an encrypted death threat against the reputed leader of Florida's branch of the Almighty Latin Kings.

In August, a suspect awaiting trial in connection with the death of a homeless man absconded from house arrest. Investigators used photos the Stat unit provided of Travis J. Riley Jr.'s three-point crown tattoo - typically worn by members of the Latin Kings - to positively identify him when he was found in Osceola County, officials said.

Maj. Paul Davis, chief of the sheriff's major crimes unit, said Stat members have helped detectives identify many gang members.

"That's a lot of people," Davis said. "It's an invaluable tool."

More Than 210 Gangsters
To be classified as a certified gang member, a person must meet at least two of eight state-defined criteria, including self-identifying as a gang member. Mere membership in a gang is not illegal, but prosecutors can use it to ask for enhanced penalties.

There are more than 210 certified gang members currently housed in Hillsborough's two jails. Detention deputies can access the database to see what gangs they belong to and their discipline history while in custody. Keeping rival gang members apart helps avoid potential violence.

The Stat unit shares gang information with law enforcement on a case-by-case basis and at monthly meetings with the regional anti-gang task force.

Last week, chief jail administrator Col. David Parrish told the sheriff's other top administrators about a plan to upload the unit's database to CopLink, data-sharing software police use to look up suspect records.

If implemented, patrol officers and detectives would have up-to-date information about known and suspected gang members. Parrish requested the sheriff's computer technology staff develop a way to implement the idea within the next year.

"The information's there," Parrish said. "We just need to take advantage of it. The Stat team is just exactly what we need."

The unit is a tremendous liaison for getting information from gang members to law enforcement on the streets, he said.

The database information is regularly sent to the Florida Gang Investigators Association. The association is collecting similar data from law enforcement agencies statewide to use in gang investigations, said Grady Jordan, a detective with the Leon County Sheriff's Office and intelligence director with FGIA.

Hillsborough is one of the few counties with a jail anti-gang unit, he said.

"It is a manpower and a staffing budget issue," Jordan said.

Mi Vida Loca
Bryant's first question to the 19-year-old Mexican-born teen was fairly simple: "Who do you run with?"

Ricardo Juarez shook his head.

"I don't run with nobody," he said. "I'm not in a gang."

Juarez told her he drew the tattoos. He wants to be an artist.

Tampa police arrested him on a warrant for having a driver's license with an altered birth date. The arrest violated his probation on a grand theft conviction handed down just three days earlier.

Bryant complimented Juarez on the detail in a cross and rosary tattooed on his left wrist and an Aztec sun with a face etched above his heart.

"What about your leg? Can you show me?"

The teen pulls up the right leg of his baggy denim shorts and turns his right leg outward.

"Mi vida loca!" Bryant said, smiling.

"'My crazy life,' yeah, everybody knows that one," the teen said.

"You have the three dots?"

"No. That's bad," he said, chuckling.

She pulled out a digital camera and began taking photos of his handiwork.

The three dots would have more strongly signified his belonging to a gang like the Latin Kings, she said.

Bryant also questioned a self-described "retired" member of the 7th Street Thugs, Charles "Man" Fowler, 28.

Having been returned to Orient Road Jail for the eighth time in three years, Fowler at first appeared annoyed at Bryant's questions. She explained her purpose was to protect him from rival gangs.

He relaxed and told her about the Thugs, a Haines City gang that formed in 1992, primarily selling drugs and stealing cars.

"How did it get started?" Bryan said, as she took a photo of his "Feel My Pain" tattoo on his left shoulder.

"I kicked it off," he said, meaning he was a founder.

The gang fell apart in 1999 when its 15 members "grew up," he said.

Bryant persuaded Fowler to sign the questionnaire the Stat unit uses to document a gang member's history.

Younger gang members often freely attest to membership because they see it as something to be proud of, she said. Older ones like Fowler generally won't sign the form.

'Snapshot' Is Telling
Each member of the Stat team joined for personal reasons. Detention Deputy Jose Hernandez said he was interested in reaching out to Hispanic youth in hopes of turning their lives around. Jail operations manager Chuck Westbrook has an interest in keeping track of white supremacists.

About 5 percent of Hillsborough's 4,200 inmates are known gang members. The sheriff's office suspects another 10 percent could be gang members who weren't documented. Federal prisons have recently shown gang populations of 15 percent.

A "snapshot" report of gang members in Hillsborough's jails prepared on Sept. 7 showed 38 Latin Kings members in custody, making it the biggest of the 23 locally active gangs with members in jail. Many of them arrived after a large-scale raid on a gang leadership meeting in August 2006.

Housing them separately was a "logistical nightmare," Westbrook said.

More than half of the gang members in Hillsborough's jails are black. Hispanics account for 36 percent of known gang members in jail and whites make up 12 percent. Most were arrested for violent or drug-related felonies.

Gang members don't stop being a danger with a trip to jail, though, Westbrook said.

"When they get here, the gang activity doesn't stop," he said. "It's just the structure that changes."

They pass messages, bring in contraband and continue recruiting from a fresh pool of potential members.

Kill 'King Lugo'
In April, former inmate Jacky Rogers, 22, scrawled an encrypted message to members of the Folk Nation gang on his cell wall.

Hernandez said it translated to: "Whoever kills King Lugo shall be a six-star general."

Authorities think the threat concerned Latin Kings leader Michael Lugo, 29, in custody on state charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated battery and a federal charge of racketeering. Folk Nation uses a six-point star in its symbolism and messages.

Rogers has several three-point crown gang tattoos on his arms, chest and stomach, according to Florida Department of Corrections records. These signify membership with Folk Nation.

His message was written in an isolation cell and was never seen by other inmates, officials said. No charges were filed because Rogers was about to be transferred to state prison eight days later on theft and burglary convictions.

"They threaten each other all the time," Hernandez said. "What was unique about this case was that his threat was out of view."

Lugo first learned of the threat four months later through his attorney, DeAnn Athan, after she was contacted by the Tribune for comment.

"It's always good to know you need to watch your back if you indeed need to watch your back," she said. "Their obligation is to make him safe. If they did that, then they may not have to tell him" about it.

His brother Chris Lugo issued a statement on behalf of the family:

"I'm absolutely appalled that officers did not inform Michael about this threat, and even more so that no corrective or preventative actions/measures have been taken," Chris Lugo said.

The members of the Stat unit said they did their jobs. Rogers' threat was intercepted and his code was decrypted, possibly preventing an act of violence.

The work they do is vital, Parrish said, not only to keep the jails safe but also the streets.

"The jail - what a laboratory to battle crime!" he said.