The Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office has obtained the first gang enhancement sentence in an assault case as the office and the Lehigh County Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center contribute resources to gang-related prosecution.

A 20-year-old Allentown woman who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as a first-degree felony was sentenced Jan. 5 to four to 20 years in state prison for assaulting a 15-year-old girl, Chief Deputy District Attorney Bethany Zampogna, said.

Zampogna is supervisor of gang prosecutions, human trafficking and nuisance bars for the DA’s office.

At a hearing before Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos, Zampogna established the crime was committed in association with a criminal gang. The enhancement added 12 months to the lower end of the standard range sentence and 12 months to the higher end of the standard range.

The enhancement can apply to certain crimes involving criminal gangs.

The Pennsylvania Crimes Code defines “criminal gang” as “a formal or informal ongoing organization, association or group, with or without an established hierarchy, that has as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts and that consists of three or more persons.”

In the case, Antanyia Lakeisha Franklin, of the 800 block of North Sixth Street, apartment 2, was charged with punching a juvenile numerous times and kicking her in the head, causing injuries.

According to Zampogna, Franklin, who is a member of the Frutown Brim Brick City Brim gang, said to be a set of the Bloods, became angry when the juvenile, who is not a gang member, flashed gang signs. Franklin, who is known as “Vicious Brim,” yelled at the juvenile she was not a Brim and repeatedly assaulted her on July 16, 2015, in the 700 block of South Fifth Street in Allentown.

Franklin had the assault videotaped. Zampogna introduced the videotape into evidence, and the judge watched the videotape during the sentencing hearing.

In September 2015, District Attorney James B. Martin named Zampogna supervisor of gang prosecutions, human trafficking and nuisance bars.

Zampogna, who was a prosecutor in the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office, joined the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office in January 2007. She previously headed narcotics prosecutions. Zampogna will continue to be involved in drug investigations and prosecutions when gangs or human trafficking are involved.

The RIIC has enabled investigators to research gang members and their associates and guns, vehicles, crimes and places with which they are associated. Investigators also are able to make connections between people and past and present crimes.

Martin said the RIIC has received two grants totaling $249,000 from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, allowing the RIIC to revamp and enhance the gang intelligence database.

Zampogna said when she started her career as a prosecutor in 1999, she did not think criminal gangs would become so entrenched in the Lehigh Valley area.

Violent crimes involving gangs are difficult to prosecute, she added, because victims can be uncooperative, and victims and witnesses may be gang members.

Human trafficking cases are difficult because victims who have fallen prey to defendants have vulnerabilities such as drug addiction, family instability and financial problems making them easier to exploit, according to Zampogna. Those issues also make it difficult to locate victims and to get them to cooperate in investigations, she said.