Facing Gang Charges in Riverside County?

Most people arrested in a gang case are booked and held until they post bail or see a judge. Some people arrested for a misdemeanor are released with a written promise to appear instead (PC 853.6). If you stay in custody, you must be brought to court for arraignment, usually within 48 hours, not counting Sundays and holidays. At arraignment, the judge reads the charges, takes your plea and rules on bail or release. When a gang allegation is filed, prosecutors often ask for higher bail and strict release conditions, such as staying away from certain people or places. The prosecutor can also add a gang allegation later, even if it was not in the first complaint. The sooner we’re involved, the sooner we can start working on your case.

There are two main kinds. Active participation in a criminal street gang (PC 186.22(a)) is a separate crime: actively taking part in a gang, knowing its members engage in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and willfully helping felony conduct by its members. That felony conduct must involve at least two gang members, and one of them can be you, so a gang member who commits a crime alone is not guilty of active participation (People v. Rodriguez (2012) 55 Cal.4th 1125). You don’t have to be a formal member (PC 186.22(j)). A gang enhancement (PC 186.22(b)) is an allegation added to another felony, claiming you committed it for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a gang, intending to help gang members’ criminal conduct. A misdemeanor charged with a gang allegation can be punished as a felony (PC 186.22(d)).

Since January 1, 2022, Assembly Bill 333 has made gang allegations harder to prove. It requires:

• A gang: an ongoing, organized group of three or more people with a common name or sign, with listed crimes as a primary activity, whose members collectively engage in a pattern of gang crimes
• A pattern: at least two qualifying crimes, on separate occasions or by two or more members, the last within three years of the one before it and of the current offense
• Those crimes commonly benefited the gang in a way that was more than reputational
• The current offense can’t be used to prove the pattern
• For the enhancement, a benefit to the gang beyond reputation, such as money, retaliation, targeting a rival or silencing a witness

It depends on the charges. Active participation (PC 186.22(a)) can be a misdemeanor with up to one year in county jail, or a felony with 16 months, two or three years in prison. A gang enhancement adds a consecutive term: two, three or four years for most felonies, five years for a serious felony and 10 years for a violent felony (PC 186.22(b)). Some crimes, such as carjacking or home invasion robbery, become life sentences. In certain serious cases, such as murder, attempted murder, robbery or carjacking, firearm enhancements of 10, 20 or 25 years to life can apply to you if another participant used or fired a gun, even if you never had the gun, once the gang allegation is proved (PC 12022.53(e)). When that happens, the separate gang enhancement can’t also be added unless you personally used or fired a gun. Judges can dismiss these enhancements in some cases (PC 12022.53(h)).

Yes, if the gang allegation is found true or admitted on a felony. Any felony that is also a felony violation of the gang statute is a serious felony under the Three Strikes law (PC 1192.7(c)(28)). So a true gang enhancement or a felony active participation conviction turns even a non-strike felony, such as possessing a gun, into a strike (People v. Briceno (2004) 34 Cal.4th 451). If the gang allegation is dismissed or found not true, the allegation itself does not make the case a strike. It stays on your record for future cases. A gang conviction can also require you to register with local police within 10 days of release (PC 186.30). If an older conviction counts as a strike only because of a gang finding, the prosecution must now prove it meets today’s stricter AB 333 rules (People v. Fletcher (2025) 18 Cal.5th 576). An older conviction for a crime that is a strike on its own, such as robbery, still counts.

Adult gang cases, felony and misdemeanor, are heard at one of five criminal courthouses, usually the one for the region where the arrest happened: the Riverside Hall of Justice for the western county, including Riverside, Corona, Norco, Jurupa Valley, Eastvale and Moreno Valley; the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta for the southwest, including Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Wildomar; the Banning Justice Center for the Pass area, including Banning and Beaumont; the Larson Justice Center in Indio for the Coachella Valley, including Palm Springs; and the Blythe courthouse for the Blythe area. Cases from Hemet, San Jacinto, Perris and Menifee can be heard at different courthouses, and any case can be moved. Your first court date and courthouse are on your bail or release paperwork, and if you are in custody you will be brought to court. Cases against people under 18 usually go to juvenile court instead.

Yes. Since 2022, if the defense asks, a gang enhancement must be tried in a separate phase. The jury first decides whether you committed the crime, and evidence offered only to prove the gang allegation waits until later (PC 1109). Gang evidence that is relevant to the crime itself, such as motive, can still be used in the first phase (People v. Burgos (2024) 16 Cal.5th 1). An active participation charge must be tried separately from counts that don’t otherwise require gang evidence. This matters because gang evidence, such as photos, tattoos, field interview cards and expert opinions, can unfairly sway jurors on the main charge. A gang expert also can’t simply repeat secondhand, case-specific statements as true (People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665).

CalGang is a shared database police use to list suspected gang members and associates. Before adding you to a shared gang database, a local agency generally must notify you in writing. You, a minor’s parent, or a lawyer can ask an agency whether you are listed, and the agency that listed you must usually tell you why. You can contest the listing in writing. If the agency refuses or doesn’t answer within 30 days, you have 90 days to ask a court to order you removed (PC 186.34, 186.35). A gang injunction is a civil court order limiting what named people can do in an area, and violating one is a misdemeanor (PC 166(a)(9)).

No. Politely decline to answer questions and ask for a lawyer. In gang cases, officers often ask about nicknames, tattoos, friends and neighborhoods, and your answers can be used to claim gang membership. Be careful with social media posts, photos and videos, which prosecutors often use as gang evidence. Don’t contact the alleged victim or witnesses, and don’t discuss the case by text, email, social media or jail phone calls. All of it can be recorded and used.

It depends on the evidence. Common defenses include:

• You were only present, or you were not the person involved
• The group doesn’t meet the legal definition of a criminal street gang
• The prosecution can’t prove the required pattern of qualifying crimes
• Any benefit to the gang was only reputational
• The gang expert relies on hearsay, or rap lyrics and other creative work are being used unfairly (Evidence Code 352.2)
• Racial bias, or charging people of your race more harshly than others in similar cases, which the Racial Justice Act prohibits (PC 745)
• Evidence found in an illegal search

We review the police report, field interview cards, social media evidence, the gang expert’s sources, body camera video and witness statements to find the weaknesses in the case.

Sometimes. Depending on the evidence, a gang allegation may be dismissed, found not true or dropped as part of a plea, even when the underlying charge goes forward. A judge can strike the extra punishment for a gang enhancement in an unusual case (PC 186.22(h)), and a felony active participation charge can sometimes be reduced to a misdemeanor (PC 17(b)). If you complete probation, you may be able to have the conviction dismissed under PC 1203.4, but a gang-related strike can still be used in a later case. You can also ask to be removed from a gang database (PC 186.34). For non-citizens, a gang conviction can carry serious immigration consequences, so talk to us before entering any plea.

Many gang investigations come from the Riverside County Regional Gang Task Force, which brings together sheriff’s deputies, city police officers, probation officers, federal agents and prosecutors across six regions of the county, or from a city police department’s gang unit. The District Attorney’s Gang Unit generally prosecutes the cases, and the same prosecutor usually handles a case from arraignment through trial. The prosecution’s gang expert is often an officer from one of these units, relying on field interview cards, reports and earlier cases, so we look at each of those sources early.

Most cases against people under 18 stay in juvenile court, which sits at the Riverside Juvenile Courthouse, the Southwest Juvenile Courthouse in Murrieta and the Larson Justice Center in Indio. A gang allegation can be filed in a juvenile case too, and a gang finding can require gang registration (PC 186.30). Prosecutors can ask to transfer a case to adult court mainly when the minor was 16 or 17 and a felony is alleged (Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) 707), and the judge can transfer it only after a hearing and a finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that the minor can’t be rehabilitated in juvenile court. Before police question a youth 17 or younger in custody, the youth must first talk with a lawyer, and the youth can’t give up this right (WIC 625.6). Many juvenile records can be sealed later, often automatically after successful probation (WIC 786). Serious violent offenses, including violent felonies with a gang finding, are not sealed automatically, but some can be sealed later by asking the court (WIC 781).