Salazar v. Superior Court

In Salazar v. Superior Court (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 840, the Court granted a writ of prohibition pursuant to Penal Code section 999 after the trial court denied the defendant's Penal Code section 995 motion to set aside a criminal street gang allegation. We concluded that the preliminary hearing produced "a total absence of evidence demonstrating the existence of a criminal street gang." ( Id. at p. 846.) Although during the incident, the words "Vagos" and "SEM" had been uttered, we found that this, at most, "implies that there is a group known as 'Vagos' or 'SEM.' " (Ibid.) There was no evidence to connect the defendant "to such a group" and no evidence to "suggest that members of a group known as 'Vagos' or 'SEM' individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity. " (Ibid.)