FRESNO, CA – A prosecutor has refiled charges of aggravated mayhem against two men accused of tattooing a gang sign on a 7-year-old boy, raising the possibility again that they could face life in prison if convicted.

The Fresno County district attorney’s filing Friday came two weeks after a judge ruled that Enrique Gonzalez and Travis Gorman should face the lesser charge of cruel and inhumane treatment of a child, rather than aggravated mayhem, a charge usually associated with disfiguring beatings, shootings and stabbings.

A prosecutor has refiled charges of aggravated mayhem against two men accused of tattooing a gang sign on a 7-year-old boy, raising the possibility again that they could face life in prison if convicted.

The Fresno County district attorney’s filing Friday came two weeks after a judge ruled that Enrique Gonzalez and Travis Gorman should face the lesser charge of cruel and inhumane treatment of a child, rather than aggravated mayhem, a charge usually associated with disfiguring beatings, shootings and stabbings.

Prosecutors say Gonzalez, 27, held his son down against his will while Gorman, 21, inked a quarter-sized gang insignia on the boy’s hip.

A judge on Friday dismissed charges of aggravated mayhem against two Fresno men who are accused of inking a gang tattoo on a 7-year-old boy, sparing them possible life sentences.

But Enrique Gonzalez, 27, the boy’s father, and Travis Gorman, 21, will be arraigned in court Oct. 16 on lesser charges of willful cruelty to a child with a gang enhancement that could carry prison terms of nearly eight years.

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hilary Chittick said there is not enough evidence to support the aggravated mayhem charge against Gonzalez and Gorman, who allegedly held the boy down and inked a Bulldog gang insignia — a dog paw — on his right hip in April.

A prosecutor has refiled charges of aggravated mayhem against two men accused of tattooing a gang sign on a 7-year-old boy.

Friday’s filing by the Fresno County district attorney’s office is in spite of a judge’s ruling that Enrique Gonzalez and Travis Gorman should face the lesser charge of cruel and inhumane treatment of a child.

Each has pleaded not guilty to that charge and faces up to eight years in prison. Aggravated mayhem carries a possible life sentence.

Enrique Gonzalez wanted his 7-year-old son to have a gang tattoo, like the many that adorn his own body. About that there is no dispute.

The question that Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hilary Chittick says she will decide today is whether placing a tattoo on a minor is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of the potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, or is it something less?

Are there other procedures children routinely undergo that are decidedly more painful and permanent?

The move comes less than two weeks after a judge said there was insufficient evidence to try Enrique Gonzalez, 27, the boy’s father, and Travis Gorman, 21, on the charges — and it has infuriated their attorneys.

The refiled charges carry possible life sentences.

“The DA’s going to ignore the courts and proceed to a public lynching,” said attorney Manuel Nieto, who is representing Gorman.

Attorney Douglas Foster, who is representing Gonzalez, said he recalled this happening just one other time in his legal career.

“I’m not surprised,” he said of the move. “I’m offended.”

District Attorney Elizabeth Egan declined to comment directly on the case, but she said her office files charges “that are supported by evidence introduced at the preliminary hearing.”

Authorities say that earlier this year, Gonzalez held his son down against his will and Gorman inked a quarter-sized Bulldog gang insignia — a dog paw — on the boy’s right hip.

At a preliminary hearing this month, prosecutors argued that the tattoo was an injury that met the legal definition of aggravated mayhem.

The law says aggravated mayhem is intentionally causing permanent disability or disfigurement to a person with extreme indifference to their physical or psychological well-being.

But Foster said most cases of aggravated mayhem involve mutilation and wounds that require surgery.

Local defense attorney Jeff Hammerschmidt agreed.

Hammerschmidt, a former deputy district attorney who is not involved in this case, said the action by the District Attorney’s Office is rare — “and somewhat disrespectful to the judge who issued the order.”

“While it is truly despicable that a father would tattoo his young son with a gang symbol, it’s stretching the law to charge aggravated mayhem in this case,” Hammerschmidt said.

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hilary Chittick ruled there was not enough evidence to support the aggravated mayhem charges against Gonzalez and Gorman.

She did, however, order the two men to stand trial on lesser charges of willful cruelty to a child with a gang enhancement.

Each man could face a prison term of nearly eight years on that charge.

On Friday, attorneys for both men entered not guilty pleas to the lesser charges, and Fresno County Superior Court Judge Rosendo Peña set a Dec. 10 hearing on those charges.

But Foster and Nieto also must prepare a motion on the refiled aggravated mayhem charge and seek a hearing.

No new evidence will be introduced, but Foster said he and Nieto face the task of showing why Chittick was right to dismiss the aggravated mayhem charge.

The argument will be made mostly in court filings and between attorneys. No witnesses will be called during the hearing. No hearing date has been set.

Source : Fresno Bee

FRESNO, CA – In a bizarre incident, a man was looking at a life sentence for having a quarter-sized gang sign tattooed on his 7-year-old son’s hip. However he was relieved to learn that the judge thought that the act was not aggravated mayhem, a charge normally reserved for crippling attacks.

Instead of a life term, Enrique Gonzalez and his friend Travis Gorman will face the lesser charge of cruel and inhumane treatment of a child, in which they might get up to seven years in prison.

“Hallelujah,” said Gorman’s mother-in-law, Alisa Quillen, whose says her own numerous tattoos tell the “story of my life.”

According to court records, during preliminary hearing testimony Monday, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hillary Chittick questioned whether a small tattoo is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of a potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, then asked to think it over.

The defendants were not charged with the one major crime that defense attorneys thought that they deserved, which is making a tattoo on a child under 18, which in California is a big misdemeanor that carries a six-month sentence.

On Friday, Chittick, a former public defender, questioned Lacy over the legal definition of mayhem and whether a small tattoo, which is being removed, meets the test.

“Say I’m stabbed with a pencil and I have a mark on my hand, is it your contention that anything that creates a visible, permanent injury constitutes mayhem?” she asked.

“It shows this case isn’t about justice,” said Public Defender Manuel Nieto. “It’s about the DA’s ego.”

“Mr. Gonzalez recognizes he could have made a different choice,” Foster said. “As a parent myself, I realize you have to make hard decisions no matter how badly your kid wants something.”

Source : Thai Indian News

SPRINGFIELD, OH – Burglars broke into a tattoo parlor Tuesday, Oct. 6, allegedly taking anything of value — even stealing from a frame on the wall the first dollar the owner earned.

The break-in happened between 9:30 and 10 p.m. at Tattoos By Nate, 562 E. Main St.

Two men were arrested on charges connected to the incident. Jonathan M. Keeton, 22, of 1612 Woodward Ave., and Keith V. Ramey, 40, of 106 N. Greenmount Ave., were each charged with breaking and entering and aggravated robbery.

Police were investigating a separate incident in which a man was robbed on West High Street Tuesday when they obtained information that led them to Ramey’s residence, said Lt. Jim Hutchins, Springfield Police Division.

“They (officers) found property from the burglary at Nate’s,” said Hutchins.

The tattoo parlor’s owner, Nathan Roberts, 32, said he was cleaned out during the break-in.

“(The burglars) busted the frame on the wall with my license in it and took the first dollar I earned at my business,” said Roberts.

Roberts said he is missing tattoo machines, cell phones and computer equipment.

“I started with nothing and I’ve worked every day to get what I had,” he said. “It really gets to you…you feel really violated.”

The business is closed and may reopen in another week, said Roberts.

A third man was arrested, accused of helping Ramey and Keeton with the High Street robbery.

Daniel J. Miller, 34, of 106 N. Greenmount, was arrested on a charge of complicity to aggravated robbery.

All three men were taken to the Clark County Jail.

Source : Springfield News Sun

AURORA, CO – While his two friends distracted a tattoo artist, Marquise Irvin snuck up behind the man and shot him twice, according to an arrest affidavit filed against one of the four people arrested in connection with the December slaying.

Irvin, 24, along with Kenneth Jefferson, 21, and Oladayo Ayo, 27, have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the December slaying of Oscar Mendez at an apartment near East 13th Avenue and Chambers Road. All three are behind bars awaiting trial.

Temeka Portis, 25, has been charged with being an accessory to murder and is free on $10,000 bond.

Police announced the arrests of the four suspects early this month.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Portis, Irvin shot Mendez after a dispute involving a tattoo Mendez gave him Dec. 13 at Irvin’s apartment.

The accounts from the defendants as well as Mendez’s friends vary as to what exactly the dispute was about, but each witness police interviewed said the dispute started after Mendez gave Irvin the tattoo, which depicted a cross with a ribbon on it.

According to Irvin’s account, he planned to pay Mendez $180 for tattoo, money he said he planned to earn by selling crack cocaine.

Irvin said that while Mendez tattooed him, Mendez’s friends were in the apartment “drunk and acting stupid.” Mendez asked Irvin to give his friends a $20 piece of crack so they would go outside and smoke it.

A few minutes later, Mendez stepped outside the apartment to smoke a cigarette with his friends and when he returned, he was angry with Irvin.

Mendez later accused Irvin of giving his friends bad crack and refused to finish the tattoo.

Irvin said Mendez and his friend then pulled out knives and slashed Irvin’s hand, causing it to bleed profusely. Irvin told police that because he takes a blood thinner and because he was high on ecstasy that night, he passed out because of the bleeding.

Irvin told police it was either Jefferson or Ayo who later killed Mendez.

While Irvin, Richardson and Portis told police Mendez and his friends attacked Irvin with a knife, Mendez’s friends never mention a knife attack in their interviews with police.

Mendez’s friends told police that the argument started because Irvin refused to pay for the tattoo.

One of Mendez’s friends told police that after the fight over the tattoo, Irvin, Ayo and Richardson went to Mendez’s apartment, which is near Irvin’s apartment.

The three were upset about the earlier fight and were looking for Mendez, the friend said.

Jefferson and Ayo confronted Mendez and his friends in a hallway, the friend said, while Irvin approached from behind. The friend said he saw Irvin’s reflection in a window but by time he saw him, it was too late and Irvin shot Mendez.

Irvin is serving a five-year sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections’ Crowley County Correctional facility on drug and assault charges, according to state records.

Irvin was sentenced to DOC on Sept. 28, just a few days before Aurora police charged him in connection with Mendez’s slaying.

Irvin, Jefferson and Ayo have been charged with first-degree murder and second-degree burglary, police said. They are each due in court later this month.

Jefferson and Ayo are being held in the Arapahoe County Jail without bond. Portis has been charged with being an accessory to first-degree murder and being an accessory to second-degree burglary.

Source : The Aurora Sentinel

FRESNO, CA – Enrique Gonzalez wanted his 7-year-old son to have a gang tattoo, like the many that adorn his own body. About that there is no dispute.

The question that a judge says she will decide Friday is whether placing a tattoo on a minor is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of the potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, or is it something less?

Are there other procedures children routinely undergo that are decidedly more painful and permanent?

The tattooing case became international news in April, not just for the quarter-size dog paw print on the right hip of the young boy, but for what the paw represented: Fresno’s most notorious criminal street gang, the Bulldogs.

Gonzalez and fellow gang member Travis Gorman were arrested on charges that also include street terrorism with enhancements related to gang activity. Placing the gang tattoo on the child, prosecutors allege, is a recruitment tool that furthers the gang’s criminal enterprise.

For three years, the Fresno police have been engaged in tactical warfare with the Bulldogs, sweeping through neighborhoods and calling the media to announce arrests. The resulting stories make the Bulldogs as infamous as the town’s original Bulldogs—the mascot and moniker of California State University, Fresno—are beloved.

Nothing, however, has garnered as much widespread publicity in recent years as a father, his son and the paw print tattoo.

“I had mothers calling me from Australia wanting to get this guy,” said Det. Jesse Ruelas, who investigated the case.

Law enforcement officials threw the book at Gonzalez and Gorman.

But testimony at the preliminary hearing this week to establish which charges the evidence supports gave pause to Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hillary Chittick.

A defense attorney, seeking to undermine the potential mayhem charge, raised the issue of a painful, irreversible, and increasingly controversial medical procedure with the boy’s pediatrician, a witness for the prosecution.

“Which is more painful, circumcision or a tattoo?” asked public defender Manuel Nieto about the practice performed on a decreasing number of newborn boys.

“I would guess the circumcision,” Dr. Carmela Sosa responded.

“Do you recommend it to your patients?”

“There may be medical reasons that develop, but not on a routine baby.”

For decades many mothers have pierced the ears of their infant babies, a practice Sosa said also is painful. And in some cultures the tattoo has been a symbolic rite of passage, given to children as protection from the gods or to identify membership in a clan or social group.

It is a misdemeanor in California to tattoo anyone under the age of 18. But prosecutor William Lacy conferred with gang investigators before applying the more sinister charge of aggravated mayhem, which California statutes describe as “extreme indifference to the physical or psychological well-being of another person” that intentionally causes disfigurement “unlawfully and maliciously.”

Conviction means life in prison with the possibility of parole.

“It seems to the court,” Judge Chittick said as she asked Monday for a few days to think, “that mayhem requires a certain level of bodily injury, and I’m not sure a quarter-sized tattoo meets that.”

Disfigurement doesn’t have to be permanent to qualify as mayhem, says law professor Laurie Levenson, director of the Center for Ethical Advocacy at Loyola Law School. Gonzalez could argue that he didn’t intend to harm his son, she said, but that won’t necessarily take the life sentence off the table either.

“It’s an interesting issue,” Levenson said. “I don’t think kids belong to their parents. You can give a child the haircut you want him to have, but you can’t permanently disfigure a child.”

Gonzalez granted his son’s request for the tattoo because the son begged “I want to be like you,” the defense says. But the prosecution says Gonzalez held the boy down while Gorman forcibly applied it.

Either way, says Levenson, “I don’t know if children can readily give permission for a tattoo.”

In court this week Gonzalez’ estranged wife, Tequisha Oloizia, testified that her son suddenly refused to change clothes in front of her after he returned from an Easter break visit with his father. “I thought it was a boy thing,” she said.

A few weeks later, as he lay stretching in his pajamas, she saw a black mark on her son’s hip.

Gonzalez told her the tattoo was “the result of a misunderstanding” and promised to have it covered with flesh-colored ink, she said.

Instead, this month the boy began laser removal at a local doctor’s office, performed after a topical application of painkiller and a local injection of lidocaine.

Souce : Mercury News

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Illegal tattoo parties have been raided in the city’s Frankford section, part of a growing trend in the Delaware Valley.

Investigators say the parties could pose a potential health risk and they’re being advertised on the Internet, reported Fox 29’s Dave Schratwieser.

Police, health inspectors and investigators from Licenses and Inspection have broken up four unlicensed tattoo parties in the past month, including three this weekend. Making matters worse, the customers who are getting inked are underage.

“16-years-old, 17-years-old, sometimes even younger than that, 14-years-old,” says Kevin Daly, chief of L&I’s Nuisance Task Force.

In Pennsylvania, the law states that you must be 18 or older to get a tattoo. Otherwise, you have to have written permission from a parent or guardian who must be present.

On Saturday, police shut down a seafood and soul food restaurant in Frankford after they found ads for a tattoo party online. That came after they found posters advertising free tattoo parties posted all over the city.

“The one we did Saturday night was craigslist, the one we did on Parkside Avenue at the beginning of the month, they had put posters that were scattered all over the city,” says Daly. “Fairmount Park, throughout the city. ‘Free tattoos, tattooing available, tattoo parties.’ There’s no sanitary conditions or a controlled environment.”

None of the four places that were shut down were licensed.

Police say they will continue to respond to complaints.

Source : My Fox Philly

RUTLAND, VT – Rutland City Police said Tuesday they have arrested a burglar who temporarily put a local tattoo shop out of business.

Jesse Davis, 19, of Post Road in Rutland, is charged with burglary, unlawful mischief and possesion of stolen property, according to police.

Police said Davis confessed to breaking a back window at Walker Tattoo on Wales Street last week and removing tattoo guns, ink bottles, knives, swords, machettes and other goods.

Police said they inventoried the goods — recovered from three different locations, and returned them to the shop so it could resume business.

Davis allegedly told police he acted alone to support a drug habit.

Source : Rutland Herald

San Francisco prosecutors won a skirmish Monday in a legal war over a tell-tale gang tattoo on a man accused of perjury for denying he was in a gang.

In July, prosecutors took the unusual step of filing 17 perjury charges against Marvin Medina, who denied on the stand that he was part of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang.

The evidence? Well, you might say, it was beyond a reasonable doubt.

The charges were filed after prosecutor Harry Dorfman asked Medina to take off his shirt in court. The occasion was a preliminary hearing for alleged MS-13 member Edwin Ramos, who is accused of killing a father and his two sons in June 2008.

Dorfman was trying to show that Ramos killed Tony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew in misguided retaliation for the wounding earlier that day of Medina. The prosecution’s theory is that Ramos mistook the Bolognas for rival gang members.

Medina, however, was insisting on the stand that he had no part in MS-13 — although a former girlfriend had testified he had a giant tattoo of “MS” emblazoned on his back.

Medina managed to avoid taking off his shirt — but abruptly acknowledged that he had once been part of the gang.

Dorfman, fearing Medina would not come back to the stand now that he had been exposed, as it were, filed perjury and gang charges against him.

Medina was sent to jail to await trial. He promptly exercised his right against self-incrimination and refused to be cross-examined by Ramos’ defense team.

Without cross-examination, the judge threw out Medina’s account of having been shot the day the Bolognas were killed.

Ultimately, Ramos was ordered to stand trial in the three killings anyway. Medina, meanwhile,is expected to go to trial soon on the perjury charges. That’s because Judge Wallace Douglass heard arguments Monday in a key issue in the case and ruled in the favor of the prosecution.

The question was whether Medina could legally be charged with perjury, because prosecutors managed to make a case against Ramos without his testimony. To win a perjury conviction, prosecutors must prove that the defendant lied about a matter that is legally material to a case.

Medina’s lawyers argued that his alleged lies couldn’t have been too important, because Ramos was ordered to stand trial even without Medina’s account being admitted into evidence.

Douglass found that the statements could be indeed be material even if the testimony was not admitted.

If convicted, Medina could face five years behind bars. Or, he could tell the truth, whatever that is, and testify in Ramos’ murder trial.

“There’s a price to pay for perjury,” Dorfman said.

Source : SF Gate

DAVIDSON COUNTY, NC – Davidson County Sheriff’s Office Detectives received information from the Davidson County Department of Health that a 17 year old had gotten a staph infection from an infected tattoo on his arm. They reported the the incident on September 10.

After further investigation, detectives discovered that between August 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009, the 17 year old had gotten the tattoo at an unlicensed location on Sherwood Drive in Lexington. Investigators are alleging that during those dates, Christopher Reid and Reanna Reid of Peacock Ave.tattooed the teenager out of their prior residence on Sherwood Drive in Lexington.

Christopher and his wife Reanna were arrested and charged with one count each of tattooing without a permit and one count each of unlawful tattooing for tattooing the juvenile. Both were served the warrants without incident and received $5,000.00 unsecured bonds at the magistrates office and were released.

Source : Dig Triad

FALLBROOK  – The owner of a tattoo parlor and body-piercing shop and two other people were arrested Tuesday on various drug charges, a sheriff’s sergeant said.

After receiving a tip that people were using drugs there, deputies entered Main Street Tattoo and Got Holes Body Piercing at 334 and 336 Main St. about 3 p.m., Sgt. Joe Montion said.

There they conducted a probation search of 29-year-old Desiree Najera of Encinitas, the sergeant said. She was found with half an ounce of meth, half an ounce of heroin, syringes and a digital scale, Montion said.

Another person in the business, Shawn Orr, 27, of Oceanside, dropped a small packet of heroin when deputies entered the business, Montion said. He was arrested.

The owner of the shops, Kraig Santo, 49, of Fallbrook, left the business through a back door when deputies arrived but was later found at a nearby apartment, Montion said. Santo was allegedly found with meth and drug paraphernalia. The three were booked into Vista jail on suspicion of various drug offenses, Montion said.

Source : North County Times