Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.
The alleged members of the 311 Boyz gang, who enjoyed national publicity largely thanks to the videotapes of their violence that they and members of their entourage filmed, now don't want a new set of videotapes to be seen.
The latest videotapes are of depositions to which the young men had to submit as a result of a civil lawsuit stemming from a July 2003 rock attack that left an 18-year-old with a crushed face.
On Sept. 8 Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar issued an order forbidding viewing of the videotapes by the public or anyone other than the case judge, the parties to the case or their lawyers.
Normally, such depositions become public record.
But Biggar ruled in favor of the alleged gang members' requests to keep them secret, saying "the disclosure of the tapes could only be used to inflame potential juries or prejudice either side."
District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who is presiding over the civil suit filed by Stephen Tanner Hansen and his parents, Carma and Edward Mahn, must still approve Biggar's order before it stands.
Court procedure allows Hansen's attorney, Jerome Bowen, to appeal Biggar's ruling to Gonzalez. The judge could either hear arguments and make a ruling on the issue or simply affirm Biggar's order.
On Wednesday, Bowen declined to comment on the order and the case.
The motion to prevent the public from viewing the tapes was filed by alleged 311 Boyz member Scott Morse, and his co-defendants joined the motion. Morse's lawyer, Tracey Howard, declined to comment Wednesday on the case or the motion.
After their arrest for the rock attack on Stephen Tanner Hansen, videotapes emerged and were aired on local and national television depicting alleged 311 Boyz gang members engaged in several fights. One of the tapes showed fights with two black teens.
Two alleged members, Steven Gazlay and Scott Morse, even went so far to be part of a special segment aired by NBC Dateline that recounted the attack, the 311 Boyz videos and Hansen's injuries.
Joining Hansen as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are his parents, Edward and Carma Mahn, two friends of Hansen, Craig Lefevre and Joe Grill, and their parents. Lefevre and Grill were with Hansen the night of the attack.
All nine of the alleged 311 Boyz gang members who were charged criminally for the attack as well as their parents and guardians are named as defendants in the civil suit. Several other teens who were allegedly at a party the night of the rock attack are also named as defendants in the civil lawsuit.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Jared Rose, the teenager who threw the party, and his father, Les Rose, who is believed to be the owner of the home where the party was held in the Summerlin neighborhood of Canyon Terrace.
Also named as defendants in the suit are Christopher Morgan, Bryan Bushy, Mike Arnold, Michael Flank, Brenda Flank and Helen Constanides.
In March Gonzalez dismissed Terrible Herbst Inc. as a defendant in the suit ruling the company could not be held liable for the actions of alleged 311 Boyz gang members simply because one of its gas stations sold one member beer the night of the rock attack.
District Judge Michael Cherry sentenced alleged 311 Boyz gang members Jeff Hart, 18-year-old Matthew Costello, Christopher Farley and 19-year-old Steven Gazlay to one year at the Clark County Detention Center, a year of house arrest and three more on probation.
Cherry sentenced alleged 311 Boyz member Dominic Harriman to pay a $2,000 and to stay out of trouble for a year. Harriman violated that order by being arrested twice in February and for having an outstanding warrant for a domestic battery charge.
Because Harriman violated the terms of his plea agreement by getting into trouble with the law Cherry sentenced him to a combination of one year of house arrest, three years probation and 30 days in a rehabilitation center for drug abusers.
Harriman would later leave the program and was set to enroll in a new one, but after reporting to his probation officer in Clark County he tested positive for marijuana use. Cherry subsequently sentenced Harriman to 10 months in jail for violating the terms of his probation.
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