Evidence of participation in a criminal street gang.

Under existing law, a person who actively participates in any criminal street gang with knowledge that its members engage in, or have engaged in, a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang is guilty of a crime. Existing law authorizes a court, in its discretion, to exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will either necessitate undue consumption of time or create substantial danger of undue prejudice, confusing the issues, or misleading the jury. This bill would require a case in which a person is charged with actively participating in a criminal street gang, as described above, and other criminal charges to be tried in phases that separate the trier of fact's determination of the person's guilt of participation with the criminal street gang and guilt of the other criminal charges, as specified.