A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO STANDARDIZE CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMINAL GANG MEMBERSHIP and activity and to amend the current gang nuisance abatement act.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑50.16 is repealed.
SECTION 2.  The title for Article 13A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes reads as rewritten:
"North Carolina Criminal Gang Suppression Act."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 14‑50.15 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑50.15.  Short title.
This Article shall be known and may be cited as the "North Carolina Criminal Gang Suppression Act."
SECTION 4.  Article 13A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 14‑50.16A.  Criminal gang activity.
Definitions. – The following definitions apply in this Article:
(1)	Criminal gang. – Any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, that (i) has as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts and (ii) shares a common name, identification, signs, symbols, tattoos, graffiti, attire, or other distinguishing characteristics, including common activities, customs, or behaviors. The term shall not include three or more persons associated in fact, whether formal or informal, who are not engaged in criminal gang activity.
(2)	Criminal gang activity. – The commission of, attempted commission of, or solicitation, coercion, or intimidation of another person to commit (i) any offense under Article 5 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes or (ii) any offense under Chapter 14 of the General Statutes except Article 9, 22A, 40, 46, or 59 thereof, and further excepting G.S. 14‑82, 14‑145, 14‑183, 14‑184, 14‑186, 14‑190.9, 14‑247, 14‑248, or 14‑313 thereof, and either of the following conditions is met:
a.	The offense is committed with the intent to benefit, promote, or further the interests of a criminal gang or for the purposes of increasing a person's own standing or position within a criminal gang.
b.	The participants in the offense are identified as criminal gang members acting individually or collectively to further any criminal purpose of a criminal gang.
(3)	Criminal gang leader or organizer. – Any criminal gang member who acts in any position of management with regard to the criminal gang and who meets two or more of the following criteria:
a.	Exercises decision‑making authority over matters regarding a criminal gang.
b.	Participates in the direction, planning, organizing, or commission of criminal gang activity.
c.	Recruits other gang members.
d.	Receives a larger portion of the proceeds of criminal gang activity.
e.	Exercises control and authority over other criminal gang members.
(4)	Criminal gang member. – Any person who meets three or more of the following criteria:
a.	The person admits to being a member of a criminal gang.
b.	The person is identified as a criminal gang member by a reliable source, including a parent or a guardian.
c.	The person has been previously involved in criminal gang activity.
d.	The person has adopted symbols, hand signs, or graffiti associated with a criminal gang.
e.	The person has adopted the display of colors or the style of dress associated with a criminal gang.
f.	The person is in possession of or linked to a criminal gang by physical evidence, including photographs, ledgers, rosters, written or electronic communications, or membership documents.
g.	The person has tattoos or markings associated with a criminal gang.
h.	The person has adopted language or terminology associated with a criminal gang.
i.	The person appears in any form of social media to promote a criminal gang."
SECTION 5.  Article 13B of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes reads as rewritten:
"Article 13B.
"North Carolina Criminal Gang Nuisance Abatement Act.
"§ 14‑50.41.  Short title.
This Article shall be known and may be cited as the "North Carolina Criminal Gang Nuisance Abatement Act."
"§ 14‑50.42.  Real property used by criminal street gangs declared a public nuisance: abatement.
(a)	Public Nuisance. – Any real property that is erected, established, maintained, owned, leased, or used by any criminal gang for the purpose of conducting criminal gang activity, as defined in G.S. 14‑50.16A(2), shall constitute a public nuisance and may be abated as provided by and subject to the provisions of Article 1 of Chapter 19 of the General Statutes.
Proof that criminal gang activity by a member of a criminal gang is regularly committed at any real property or proof that the real property is regularly used for engaging in criminal gang activity by a member of a criminal gang is prima facie evidence that the owner or person who has legal possession of the real property knowingly permitted the act. For purposes of this section, the term "regularly" means at least two times in a period of not more than 12 months.
(b)	Innocent Activities. – The provisions of this section shall not apply to real property used for criminal gang activity where the owner or person who has legal possession of the real property does not have actual knowledge that the real property is being used for criminal gang activity or the owner is being coerced into allowing the property to be used for criminal gang activity. Evidence that the defendant knew, or by the exercise of due diligence should have known, of the criminal gang activity constitutes proof of knowledge.
"§ 14‑50.43.  Criminal gangs declared a public nuisance.
(a)	A criminal gang, as defined in G.S. 14‑50.16A(1), that regularly engages in criminal gang activities, as defined in G.S. 14‑50.16A(2), constitutes a public nuisance. For the purposes of this section, the term "regularly" means at least two times in a period of not more than 12 months.
(b)	Any criminal gang, as an unincorporated association and in the name by which it is commonly known and without naming any of the individual members composing it, any person who regularly associates with others to engage in criminal gang activity, and any person who directs, participates in, assists in, conducts, furthers, suggests, requests, authorizes, or causes criminal gang activity, as defined in G.S. 14‑50.16A(2), may be made a defendant in a suit, brought pursuant to Chapter 19 of the General Statutes, to abate any public nuisance resulting from criminal gang activity. The complaint may also name, as a class of defendants, all unknown gang members.
For purposes of service of process, service of process upon any leader, officer, or organizer of a criminal gang or three members of a criminal gang, or any person representing a criminal gang or criminal gang member, shall constitute adequate service upon a criminal gang. 
Neither the identity nor the location of a confidential informant used to establish criminal gang membership or criminal gang activity in any action pursuant to this Article shall be discoverable.
Criminal gang activity, membership, association, leadership, and existence may be proven through the testimony of a fact witness, an expert witness, or a combined fact‑expert witness pursuant to the rules of evidence.
(c)	If the court finds that a public nuisance exists under this section, the court may enter an order enjoining the criminal gang, or defendant in the suit from engaging in criminal gang activities and impose other reasonable requirements, including, but not limited to, ordering any person not to associate with other persons associated with a criminal gang and to divest himself or herself of any involvement or interest, direct or indirect, in a criminal gang, to prevent the defendant or a gang from engaging in future criminal gang activities. Any gang member who is not specifically named in an injunction may be subject to the order only after personal service with a copy of the injunction.
(d)	The order may be modified, rescinded, or vacated at any time upon the motion of any party if it appears to the court that one or more of the defendants is no longer engaging in criminal gang activities.
(e)	In any proceeding, pursuant to this Article, expert testimony is admissible to show particular conduct, status, and customs indicative of criminal gangs and criminal gang activity, including, but not limited to, any of the following:
(1)	Characteristics of persons who are members of criminal gangs.
(2)	Specific rivalries between criminal gangs.
(3)	Common practices and operations of criminal gangs and members of those gangs.
(4)	Social customs and behavior of members of criminal gangs.
(5)	Terminology used by members of criminal gangs.
(6)	Codes of conduct, including criminal conduct, of particular criminal gangs.
(7)	The types of crimes that are likely to be committed by a particular criminal gang or by criminal gangs in general.
(f)	In case of the violation of any injunction granted under the provisions of this Article, the court, or, in vacation, a judge thereof, may do any of the following:
(1)	Find the defendant guilty of contempt and punish the defendant as provided in G.S. 19‑4.
(2)	Find the defendant guilty of violating orders of the court as provided in G.S. 14‑226.1."
SECTION 6.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2017, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.