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Name: In re Cabrera
Case #: F059511
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 5 DCA
Opinion Date: 09/08/2011
Subsequent History: Rev. granted 12/14/11 (S197283)
Summary

Photocopied artwork by a validated gang member is insufficient to validate the possessor as a member of the same gang. California Code of Regulations, title 15, section 3378, subdivision (c)(4) requires a “direct link to a current or former validated gang member or associate of the gang” to validate a state prison inmate as a member of the gang. A search of Cabrera’s personal property produced photocopies of drawings which were the claimed evidence of his association with EME because the drawings were done by validated members and one incorporated EME symbols into the drawings of a warrior. He was placed in administrative segregation where he was ineligible to earn conduct credits. Cabrera had been involved in the hobby craft program for three years and possessed a large quantity of drawings. He denied knowing that the artwork contained gang symbols and that they were obscure symbols that held no special significance for him. The requirement of “some evidence” of a direct link, meaning a connection without interruption or an intervening agency, between the inmate and the gang member, was not met in these particular circumstances.