Stephen Stubbs, the gadfly attorney who filed a biker civil rights lawsuit in Nevada last June, filed another civil rights lawsuit in Flagstaff, Arizona Friday afternoon.

The suit was filed on behalf of the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club, twelve members of the club and five women including the wives of four members. Defendants to the complaint include the Arizona Department of Public Safety; the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission commonly called “GIITEM;” the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department; and various officials of the three law enforcement agencies including Robert Halliday, Brad Elliot, Brian Barnes and Nate Gould of the ADPS; Dan Wells, Frank Stewart, Michael Wischman and Douglas Wheeler of GIITEM; Bill Pribil, Marl Pierz, William Rackley, Jason Lurkins, Gerrit Boeck, Michael Curtis, Ethan Miltowski, Robert Gambee, Jason Bond and James Coffee of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department; and numerous John and Jane Does and Roes.

Stubbs Takes Case

The suit is the result of an incident at the Too Broke for Sturgis Motorcycle Rally at the Mormon Lake Lodge Campground near Flagstaff on July 22, 2011. A previous lawsuit related to that night was filed by another attorney last year. The suit was dismissed after that attorney missed multiple court appearances. The two-year statute of limitations to sue would have expired today.

“With the statute of limitations looming, the Sons of Hell contacted me and asked me to jump in,” Stubbs said. “I got an attorney to assist me in Arizona, who will file the lawsuit and stay on as co-counsel. I will be applying for pro hac vice status in Arizona and expect to fight this thing there.” Pro hac vice is lawyer’s Latin for “this particular occasion.” It is the formal term used when an out of state lawyer is granted the same standing as a local attorney.

Stubbs has carved out a niche with bikers’ rights cases in the last two years and he has hardly endeared himself to biker cops. He was sued by Boulder City, Nevada Police Chief Thomas Finn last year. He was also the target last year of an apparent ATF sting.

The Incident

Stubbs said, “The facts of this case are beyond troubling – shockingly horrid.”

About 11 p.m. two years ago, a man named Christian Tejeda, who has no connection to the Sons of Hell and was camped on the other side of the campground, shot two men and two women after getting into an argument with his wife Desiree Tejada abou their unexpected dinner guests. Tejada shot his wife and the two guests, Edgar and Trina Atzin. Both the Atzins were killed. Christian Tejeda then shot and killed himself. Desiree Tejada survived.

The Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Public Safety, GIITEM and the Flagstaff Police Department all responded to the campground.

In the suit Stubbs alleges:

“At around 1:00 a.m. on July 23, 2011, approximately two hours after the incident, and despite the abundance of evidence that the incident was a murder-suicide perpetrated by Christian Tejeda, Defendants, as officers and deputies of ADPS, GIITEM and CCSD, under color of their authority as police officers, illegally and wrongfully invaded Plaintiffs’ residences (their tents), and forcibly removed Plaintiffs from their residences with assault rifles and other firearms.”

Throughout the suit, Stubbs characterizes the police actions as an “invasion.”

“During the invasion, Plaintiffs were handcuffed, forced to lay on the cold ground, detained and imprisoned for longer than three hours (some partially or mostly naked), photographed, forced to answer questions in interrogation, forced to reveal all of their tattoos for further photography, mocked, otherwise humiliated, yelled at, and threatened with violence by Defendants, under color of their authority as police officers. During the invasion, and even after Defendants determined that Plaintiffs did not have weapons and were not a physical threat of any kind, Plaintiffs were still forced to lay on the cold ground, were denied repeated requests to clothe themselves and use the restroom by Defendants, under color of their authority as police officers. During the invasion, Defendants obtained identifying information for a law enforcement databases and law enforcement are currently using such information.

“The gathering of information, as described in Paragraph 32 above, is encouraged in a de facto policy of GIITEM, ADPS, and other cooperating law enforcement agencies (including CCSD), by which officers unlawfully detain members of motorcycle clubs for the purpose of gathering information for law enforcement databases. All with complete indifference to how these policies affect the lives of motorcycle club members and their families.”

“Plaintiffs were threatened, and with assault rifles and other firearms pointed at Plaintiffs, to answer questions under interrogation.”

Extra-Judicial Punishment For Gangs

The suit also alleges that the “Defendants wrongly identified the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club as a ‘gang’ solely based on associations and friendships that members of the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club have with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, and not based on any facts that would determine that the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club, or its members, meets the legal definition of a gang.”

The suit complains that GIITEM and its fellow travelers “infringed on Plaintiff’s right against unwarranted searches and seizures guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment;” “infringed on Plaintiffs’ right against self-incrimination, guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment;” “infringed on Plaintiffs’ right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law as guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments;” “infringed on Plaintiffs’ right to equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment;” “infringed on Plaintiffs’ right to be free from use of excessive force by law enforcement officers as guaranteed by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments;” and “infringed on Plaintiff’s right to be free from pre-conviction punishment as guaranteed by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

The suit alleges that the police actions that night, “were done with actual malice toward Plaintiffs and with willful and wanton indifference to and deliberate disregard for their constitutional rights. Plaintiffs are thus entitled to exemplary damages against the individual officers in their individual capacities.”

Naming Names And Numbers

The suit singles out three defendants who have been leaders in Arizona’s ongoing war against the motorcycle menace. The document states:

“Defendant Robert Halliday has the duty and responsibility to implement and enforce the guidelines, procedures, and regulations of the ADPS and to train and supervise the conduct of its employees to ensure they are properly trained.”

“Defendant Dan Wells is the final policy maker, directly liable for the acts of GIITEM Officers for failing to enforce the rights provided under the United States Constitution, the laws of the State of Arizona, and the regulations of the GIITEM pertaining to an individual’s freedom of association and assembly.”

“Defendant Bill Pribil is the final policy maker, directly liable for the acts of CCSD Officers for failing to enforce the rights provided under the United States Constitution, the laws of the State of Arizona, and the regulations of the CCSD pertaining to an individual’s freedom of association and assembly.”

The plaintiffs demand “equitable remedies, including but not limited to the declassification of the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club as a ‘gang,’ and enjoining Arizona Law Enforcement from using unconstitutional tactics in the future.” It also seeks “damages in a sum in excess of $75,000…” “exemplary damages in a sum in excess of $75,000” and “reasonable attorney’s fees.”

Big Picture

Sons of Hell et al. versus Arizona Department of Public Safety et al. is one of three major lawsuits filed by motorcycle club members who have been bullied or worse by police as part of an unofficial campaign of bullying. The others are James Coles et al. v. Nicholas Carlini et al., filed by current members of the Pagans against the New Jersey State Police and the Southern Nevada COC suit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and others.

All three suits protest a national police strategy to enforce a de facto writ of attainder against motorcycle club membership or even association. Chuck Schoville, the former Tempe patrolman, GIITEM Training Director and the President of the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigator’s Association told the National Geographic Channel why cops bully and harass members of motorcycle clubs in a show about Operation Black Biscuit, the largely unsuccessful investigation of the Hells Angels in Arizona.

“Maybe the outcome (of Black Biscuit) wasn’t the desired outcome.” Schoville proclaimed to the world. “But there’s kinda two outcomes. There’s the outcome you read about in the newspaper and that is the prison sentences and some of the dismissals. But, there was also the outcome that you see on the streets. We got Hells Angels that all of a sudden decide, ‘You know that’s not the lifestyle for me and they’re leavin’ the club. It feels like a game of cat and mouse.”

Enjoy more of the cop who teaches GIITEM what to do and how to do it below.

Cesar Villagrana, a San Jose Hells Angel, pled guilty to one count of “battery with a deadly weapon” and a single count of “challenge to fight with a deadly weapon” this morning in Reno. He had faced a murder charge. He will be sentenced by Washoe District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer on September 4th. The penalty for his first charge is two to ten years imprisonment. The challenge to fight charge carries a penalty of one to two years.

Villagrana was one of three men charged with murder following a deadly fight on the casino floor just outside Trader Dick’s Lounge at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada on September 23rd, 2011. The other men were Vago Motorcycle Club member Ernesto Gonzalez and former Vago Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick.

Villagrana and Gonzalez were supposed to be co-defendants in a trial starting today. Rudnick pled guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors last year.

Rudnick instigated the fight between the two clubs by baiting Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, San Jose Angels charter president. He was voted out of the Vagos in bad standing after the fight. Gonzalez will now stand trial alone. Jury selection began this afternoon. Both Rudnick and former Vago Jacob Cancelli are expected to testify against Gonzalez.

Lawyers Speak

The deal may diminish Gonzalez’ possibilities for appeal if he is found guilty. A legal scholar, speaking to The Aging Rebel on conditions of anonymity said, “The prosecution’s strategy of trying mutual combatants as co-conspirators is probably unconstitutional.”

Karl Hall, a prosecutor in the case told Scott Sonner of The Associated Press, “I wouldn’t have done it (the plea deal) if I didn’t think it was fair.”

Gonzalez’s attorney, David Houston, told the AP “We’re not pleading, because our client is innocent.”

Attorneys for both Villagrana and Gonzalez were expected to tell jurors the men acted in self-defense. A source with a general knowledge of Gonzalez’s case said, “Gonzalez acted to defend others from deadly force. He should walk on these charges. He did nothing wrong. If he gets the same justice George Zimmerman did in Florida, he will end up a free man.”

You can view the press pool video of the pleading below.

A couple of years ago I found myself – as all of us in the new and improved America, even old housecats like me, must inevitably and repeatedly find ourselves – on my knees as when I pray, in my driveway, shivering in a winter night’s rain. My hands were cuffed behind my back and three policemen wearing visible body armor were pointing guns at me. Two of them held black, automatic handguns with the sort of high capacity magazines I must never be allowed to possess and they both were doing that cop trick – you know that thing where you hold both your pistol and a flashlight in both hands at once. So when I looked right I was blinded by the light.

Thirty feet straight in front of me my neighbor, call him Bob, had emerged grinning and fascinated by my humiliation. Bob is a lawyer who specializes in the lucrative practice of screwing injured men out of their workman’s compensation claims and we were never friends. But after years of reading the half-hidden glances of his ripe and voluptuous wife, I got the idea that some days Bob liked to live through me and some days his wife liked it when he did. “Get back in your house now, sir! It’s dangerous here,” a voice hidden in the blinding glow commanded and of course Bob obeyed. He scurried back inside where, mostly hidden by a curtain, he continued to peek at me through his front window unconcerned by the potential danger my exploding head might present. Maybe Bob had Kevlar curtains. Maybe he was just being brave.

On my left, well out of my reach but well illuminated, was an aging police sergeant with some sort of a gee-whiz gun. I belong to a generation of men who still call the M-16 rifle and all its variants the gee-whiz gun.

And that particular gee-whiz gun was a real beauty. It had a collapsible stock with the usual pistol grip. Some sort of miniaturized astronomical telescope occupied the top of the receiver group where the carrying handle should be. It had a sling, a front grip like a Tommy Gun, some sort of electronic device under the front sight and a banana clip. I’ve always thought simple systems work best and this particular weapon struck me as complicated and theatrical. And since my curse, from about the time I turned three, has always been my smart mouth I asked the trig sergeant, in that annoying way I have, “Is that a real, fucking gun?”

My question made him frown and without missing a beat he snapped back, “Of course it’s a real gun!” He took himself very seriously. He was very proud of his rifle and I’m sure he thought I was way out of line for a man on his knees. I suppose I should have just been glad they didn’t run over my motorcycle with a Bearcat.

At Last The Point

Which is all a roundabout way of saying that I am not the only person to notice the police-stating of Thomas Jefferson’s aging ideals. And, at the same time I am probably more willing than most people to care about Radley Balko’s new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.

Balko is currently a senior writer and investigative reporter for the Huffington Post, where he covers civil liberties and the criminal justice system. He is a former senior editor for the libertarian monthly Reason. His politics may explain why Warrior Cop has been mostly ignored. Although The Wall Street Journal did give Balko almost two full broadsheet pages last Saturday, July 20th, to talk about postmodern policing he hasn’t yet become one of Bill Maher’s special guests.

Balko is hardly an ideologue. He is a lucid and considerate writer. His prose is muscular and his work is information dense so it is curious that his latest book hasn’t yet been reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker or any of the other national periodicals that define America’s reading list. The problem is probably that most of America’s Mandarin class more readily identifies with a Trayvon Martin who was stalked and killed by a nut with a gun than with the likes of me on my knees in the rain cracking wise about some fool’s precious machine gun. As Balko puts it, “Most Americans still believe we live in a free society and revere its core values.”

Balko wrote this book to answer the question: “How did we get here? How did we evolve from a country whose founding statesmen were adamant about the dangers of armed, standing government forces – a country that enshrined the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights and revered and revered and protected the age-old notion that the home is a place of privacy and sanctuary – to a country where it has become acceptable for armed government agents dress in battle garb to storm private homes in the middle of the night – not to apprehend violent fugitives or thwart terrorist attacks, but to enforce laws against nonviolent, consensual activities.” Whether he succeeded or not depends on your cynicism. The more cynical you are the more likely you are to think that Balko might be soft-selling the situation. But it is a meticulously researched book about a problem that should be at the top of the nation’s agenda yet is not.

We Also Have Noticed

This page has taken several looks at Swat in America, for example in “Swat Murdered Russell Doza”, and with all due respect for this book and without intending to offend the man, one gets the impression that Balko has never heard of an indicia search – a pervasive form of extra-judicial punishment aimed specifically at known members of motorcycle clubs in which a Swat team invades a home in the darkest hour before dawn, kills the pets and sometimes the residents and terrorizes and humiliates those residents who survive on the pretext of searching for tangible proof, in the forms of mementos and insignia, that a known member of a motorcycle club is in fact a member of a motorcycle club.

It is a shame Balko never stumbled over the tragedy of James Hicks, whose home was invaded and who was killed during an indicia search in late 2009. The search found a “shotgun, a bank statement, assorted photos, (2) motorcycle helmets, MC Club patches, 2 Pagan walking sticks, camera, Samsung video camera” and “assorted ammunition.” And, it lasted for hours while the new widow Hicks was compelled by the police to grieve, not in her home and not over her husband’s body, but in the restroom of a nearby gas station.

Most readers here will also remember the murder of a Pagan named Derek J. Hale in Wilmington, Delaware in 2006.

Buy A Copy

But these little complaints are really only quibbles that Balko doesn’t cite my most memorable Swat atrocities. The fact is that there is a Swat atrocity somewhere in America every single day. And, Balko did manage to find a lady cop named Betty Taylor. Taylor had her own satori when she opened a door during a Swat raid and found an eight-year-old girl in “a defensive posture, putting herself between Taylor and her little brother. She looked at Taylor and said, half tearful, half angry, “What are you going to do to us.”

Balko spends about 40 pages on the history of cops and then concentrates on the evolution of police since the invention of Swat in the 1960s. He spends almost 70 pages on the incorporation of domestic policing into the war on terror in the last decade. And he does not spare politicians of either party. He calls both George W. Bush and Barack Obama to account.

If you like the things you read here you will also like reading almost anything by Radley Balko. If you are hungry to know more about how America is becoming a police state, you should read this book. And, if you want to do something about it you should encourage anyone who will listen to you to read Rise of the Warrior Cop.

Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of Ernesto Gonzalez. Gonzalez, is the former president of the Vagos Motorcycle Club in Nicaragua. Gonzalez killed Hells Angel Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew in a Sparks, Nevada casino on September 23, 2011. Jurors must decide if the murder was coldly premeditated or if Gonzalez acted reasonably to save the life of another Vago.

The deadly fight erupted during an annual motorcycle rally in Reno named Street Vibrations. The two motorcycle clubs were coexisting peacefully at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort when a former Vago named Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick started trying to provoke Pettigrew. At the time, Rudnick was vice-president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Vagos. The provocation continued for almost an hour. Numerous, senior Vagos told Rudnick to stop. When he did not, Pettigrew hit Rudnick in the head with a beer bottle and the melee began.

Rudnick was one of three men charged in the case. He made a plea deal with the state last year and was released from custody. Two other Vagos, Leonard Ramirez and Diego Garcia were shot that night.

Hells Angel Cesar Villagrana was also charged in the case. Villagrana pled guilty to one count of “battery with a deadly weapon” and a single count of “challenge to fight with a deadly weapon” on Monday.

The prosecution’s theory of the case has evolved during the last 22 months. Originally, prosecutors had accused both Hells Angels and Vagos of agreeing to fight that night.

A twelve person jury with three alternates was empanelled Tuesday. The opposing attorneys in the case, prosecutor Karl Hall and defense attorney David Houston outlined their cases for the jury yesterday.

The Prosecution

Hall will try to convince jurors that Pettigrew’s death resulted from a Vagos conspiracy. Rudnick is expected to testify that Vagos International President Pastor “Tata” Palafox wanted someone to kill Pettigrew and Gonzalez volunteered.

Various state and federal police forces have been trying to pin something on Palafox since the fight. Palafox was one of 12 Vagos arrested after a massive series of raids called “Operation Simple Green” in October 2011. It took 500 policemen and a press conference to take those dozen men into custody. At the time, a California Department of Justice Special Agent named Andy Spillman told the Los Angeles Times that Simple Green was “…a tremendous blow, because we’re targeting their (the Vagos) top leaders.”

Palafox was accused of stealing a motorcycle, possessing a stolen motorcycle and “street terrorism.” All the charges against him were dropped the following January.

The Defense

Houston will tell jurors that there were few security guards near the scene when the fighting started, that Gonzalez did not become immediately involved, that Gonzalez and Pettigrew started shooting first and that Gonzalez drew and fired a pistol only after Pettigrew and another Hells Angel began kicking an unconscious Vago in the head. In his opening statement yesterday Houston told jurors Pettigrew said, “This will teach you to fuck with the Hells Angels,” as he kicked the Vago.

Anticipating Rudnick’s testimony, Houston said Rudnick wanted to collect a Hells Angel “souvenir” and that he tried to rip the patched cut off an incapacitated Hells Angel before he fled. In his opening statement Houston told jurors Rudnick was solely responsible for the tragedy and that once the fighting started Gonzalez simply faced a hard choice and did what he thought was best at the time.

“Ernesto Gonzalez was put in a position of making a decision. Do I do nothing and let that (the assault on a brother Vago) happen? Or do I fire this weapon,” Houston said.

The defense attorney also told jurors the Vagos is a “fraternal organization” that includes doctors, lawyers and other professionals.

Judge Connie Steinheimer has banned the words “gang” and “club” from the trial, which is expected to last about two weeks.

It doesn’t look like Warlocks Rising, the Discovery Channel “reality” show about the motorcycle club headquartered in Orlando, will be renewed. Last week about 713,000 viewers tuned in. That was still an estimated 14,000 more viewers than watched Philly Throttle, the show that follows Warlocks on Discovery but neither show is exactly a ratings hit.

It is, however, interesting to some people who read this page. Producer Cameron Casey talked about the show with The Aging Rebel a couple of weeks ago and clearly regretted that experience. But that didn’t stop him from giving another interview last week to entertainment industry netzine StudioDaily.

In that interview Casey explains that the show was conceived when his producing partner, Stuart Schonfeld, met some Warlocks at a wedding. That meeting led to a conversation about a documentary film which eventually evolved into what Casey calls a “docu-reality” television show. “Stuart, working with Shotgun, Troy and Slob, also put together a core group of people from the Warlocks that would eventually become the people you see featured in the show,” Casey explains.

Casey uses the word “trust” many times in the interview and makes a point to describe the men in the club as “proud, patriotic Americans”

“Both Stuart and I put our names and reputations on the line to ensure they got their story told the way they wanted it told,” Casey says. “It’s still a sensitive thing. A lot of members of the club weren’t very accepting of this show. They were against us from the start. They feel really strongly about their patch, and don’t want a bunch of Hollywood TV guys exploiting their patch. These guys fought hard to get where they are. Frankly, I understand it and I respect it.”

Casey was so impressed with the Warlocks that he is now talking about a show featuring “the East Bay Dragons. It’s the biggest and oldest black bike club in the country. They’ve been around since the early 1950s. They’re an amazing club with a history that’s unbelievable.”

If you want you can read the entire interview here.

Jacob Cancelli, a former member of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, testified today in the Reno, Nevada murder trial of Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez. Gonzalez is accused of murdering San Jose Hells Angel Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew in a Sparks, Nevada casino on September 23, 2011. Gonzalez says he shot Pettigrew to save the life of another Vago who was being stomped by Pettigrew and an Angel named Cesar Villagrana.

Cancelli was a decades long friend of longtime Vagos President Terry “The Tramp” Orendorff. Cancelli was accused of stock manipulation and of defrauding small time stock speculators in 2009. He pled guilty and agreed to cooperate with and be debriefed by representatives of the FBI, ATF and the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security, which obviously has more agents than it needs, has been investigating international motorcycle clubs since 2006. It has justified those investigations semantically, by declaring all the big clubs with a presence outside the United States to be “transnational gangs.” A Homeland Security Agent named Matthew Neal relied heavily on Cancelli’s knowledge and address book to stage an October 6, 2011 media event called “Operation Simple Green.”

One of the men harassed and questioned during Simple Green was Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick, the former Vago who started the fight in Sparks. Rudnick was later arrested, charged with murder, made a deal and is also expected to testify during this trial.

Prosecutors did not identify Cancelli as Cancelli but as “Jimmy Evanson.” Prosecutors did not explain why they made the strategic choice to call Cancelli “Jimmy Evanson” instead of “Beef Supreme” or “Congressman Ding Dong.” Presumably the ruse is intended to confuse any television reporters who might stumble into the proceedings.

Not Much Damage

Cancelli basically reiterated his grand jury testimony. The Aging Rebel summarized that testimony in a September 26, 2012 story titled “Sparks Grand Jury Testimony.”

He said Rudnick “taunted” Pettigrew until Pettigrew was forced, as a matter of personal honor, to do something about it. Cancelli said that he and several senior Vagos told Rudnick to stop. And, he also testified that he was knocked down early in the fight, lost his glasses and never saw Gonzalez fire a shot.

Prosecutor Karl Hall wanted Cancelli to tell jurors that the gunfight in Sparks was the culmination of a long-simmering feud between the Vagos and the Hells Angels. He invited Cancelli to talk about another fight, allegedly between Hells Angel Michael Pena and prospect Joseph Soto and Vagos Roger Anthony Violano and Nerl Rinehart, outside a tattoo parlor near Bakersfield in 2010. Violano died in the fight and Rinehart was seriously injured. Pena and Soto were later acquitted but Hall thought the Bakersfield fight would convince jurors that Pettigrew was murdered as an act of revenge.

Cancelli has opinions about the fight. Hall thought those opinions go “directly to motive. It’s the basis for the rivalry which provides motive.” But Judge Connie Steinheimer ruled that Cancelli’s opinions were hearsay and the jury never heard them.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney David Houston, Cancelli agreed that the Vagos included doctors, lawyers, blue collar workers, family men and “good people.” Houston also asked if Vagos patch holders included “accountants.”

Cancelli, who was sitting there as the result of what could be described as an accounting problem answered, “Not sure about that.” His irony was probably lost on Hall.

The trial resumes Monday. So far the defense is winning.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club’s annual USA Run will start tomorrow in Rockford, Illinois under a dark cloud.

Fourteen members of the host charter have been arrested within the last week in connection with the beating and alleged armed robbery of an unnamed victim. The arrests started last Friday at five o’clock in the morning and were effected by the Rockford Police Department, the Chicago Police Department, the Illinois State Police, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The accused men have been identified as Richard Todd, Robert Bell, Curt Lambert, Aloysius J. Balice, Christopher L. Lawson, John R. Savalick, Dariusz Achramowicz, Tomasz Lech, Bradley K. Wilhelms, Dennis R. Juno, Earl Murray, Donald J. Hess, Neal Resendez, and Jose Vielma. All are accused of armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping of a child younger than 13, unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated battery with a Taser, aggravated battery with a knife, aggravated battery with an ax handle and mob action. According to police, their bonds total $1 million.

Clubhouse Condemned

The charges stem from a June 27th incident that sounds like a patching out in bad standings. A Rockford man was hit with an ax handle, punched, struck with brass knuckles and a hammer, Tasered and stabbed. Police allege the men, acting in concert, stole the victim’s wallet, keys and truck and an 11-year-old girl was detained by the men while the victim was assaulted. Police have not specified a motive. The investigation started after the victim went to a hospital for treatment.

Simultaneous to the arrests, Police raided the Rockford charter’s clubhouse at 1109 Rock St. in Rockford, searched it and then condemned the building. In a press release issued later that day, police said the beating occurred at the clubhouse.

Rockford City Attorney Jennifer Cacciapaglia told the Rockford Register Star that police discovered the clubhouse chimney and plumbing were falling apart, wiring was exposed, and the building lacked smoke detectors and a fire escape. “It’s going to be a pretty extensive list,” Cacciapaglia said. “There’s a portion of the roof that is in significant disrepair. I don’t know how soon they’ll be able to address each item.”

The packs will start rolling into Rockford today. The party will be in Lyran Park, in the southwest corner of the city near the Rockford airport. As is always the case, extra police will be on hand to give the Angels a big, old hello.

A reader named Trina Amadon posted the following comment at 4:46 this morning in response to a story titled “Stubbs Sues GIITEM.”

“Southern Nevada Confederation of Clubs, Inc., et al, Plaintiffs, vs. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a Political Subdivision of the State of Nevada, et al, Defendants,

“July 26, 2013 – all cases DISMISSED

“Hmmm . . . all cases dismissed. Mr. Stubbs is a nothing but a self promoter who used you to try to make a name for himself. A bow tie does not a lawyer make.”

Because Trina Amadon is commenting on a story this page has not yet written, The Aging Rebel believes it is appropriate to run her comment and the reply to it on the front page where readers will not have to hunt for it.

Reaction Is

Dear Trina Amadon,

Yeah, I was looking at this dismissal this morning and I will probably write about it in a story that will include a recent ruling in the New Jersey suit that prohibits the plaintiffs from actually collecting any money – which means the lawyers cannot be paid. I am not ready to write about the Vegas dismissal yet. The judge’s ruling itself is only 14 pages long but I also want to study the motions that led up to it.

Let me just quote this about the legal, technical reason most, but not all, of the suit was dismissed yesterday, which orbits the question of whether the Southern Nevada Confederation of Clubs has “standing” in this matter. The quote is long because I haven’t put the work in yet to make something complicated and technical seem simple.

“The LVMPD Defendants argue that the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-Third, and Twenty-Fourth Claims for Relief must be dismissed because they are not brought by proper plaintiffs. Plaintiffs respond that SNCC is an umbrella organization with standing to bring suit on behalf of its members. However, the Amended Complaint contains no allegations concerning SNCC’s identity, mission, membership, or other details from which the court could determine SNCC’s relationship to the action. Thus, SNCC has failed to meet the pleading requirements of Rule 8.

“Furthermore, SNCC has failed to establish standing even if the court were to disregard the fatal absence of any such allegations in the Amended Complaint. SNCC claims to be an umbrella organization representing both incorporated and unincorporated motorcycle clubs and their members, for the purpose ofpromoting and protecting its members’ common interests, including seeking and promoting fair treatment. An association may bring suit on behalf of its members when: ‘(a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit.’”

I also think it is important to remember that although most of the suit has been dismissed the issue is not yet cooked. In the conclusion of Judge Gordon’s ruling yesterday he wrote:

“Plaintiffs have until August 30, 2013 to amend this case as described above and to file new and separate actions regarding the severed claims and parties. Each of the severed cases will be consolidated before this court for purposes of discovery. The parties to each of the severed actions are required to pay a filing fee.”

As far as Stubbs goes, he has obviously tried to carve out a legal niche representing motorcycle clubs and individual patch holders. I’ve never hired him. I have written about him because he makes news. I honestly can’t yet say whether Stubbs screwed up here. I really can’t. I know for a fact that he really annoys numerous authority figures in Nevada and I know he is basically the one guy facing at least a platoon of opposing lawyers with unlimited funds. I don’t yet know what the odds are that the suit will be modified to overcome the standing issue or whether the suit is dead. I do know that the strategy of trying to end police harrassment by filing civil rights suits looks less effective to me than it did even a week ago.

Clubs and others have hired Stubbs and I think his cases are interesting on a lot of levels. I think the guy has taken on cases nobody else would and he makes news so he has gotten a lot of play here. Just about every day I have to write about something so I don’t think Stubbs has used me anymore than I have used him – if that is your implication. Personally I would rather write about big issues that effect multiple clubs that little stories that are important to fewer people.

I am open to the criticism that I have given Stubbs more credit and importance than he deserves.

I think your comment is timely and important so I intend to run it both here, where it might be easier for you to find, and on the front page.

Thank you for commenting,

Rebel

There were setbacks in two biker civil rights suits last week. Both cases are being contested in federal court. One case is being heard in New Jersey and the other in Nevada. Both cases are still alive and may eventually discourage the common police practice of harassing bikers wearing colors on public roads.

The New Jersey case is titled James Coles et al. v. Nicholas Carlini et al. The Nevada case is titled Southern Nevada Confederation of Clubs, Inc. et al. v. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department et al.

New Jersey Suit

The Coles case was filed by three men named James Coles, Joseph Ballinger and Louis C. Degailler in November 2010. All three are now members of the Pagans.

The three were part of a small pack including members of the Tribe Motorcycle Club which was stopped by New Jersey State Police while going to a charity event. The Trooper in charge was Nicholas Carlini and the stop was obviously made in order to harass and intimidate the six men as a form of extra-judicial punishment for belonging to motorcycle clubs and wearing insignia of membership on their backs. Carlini lectured his detainees that the only gang allowed on New Jersey’s roads was the State Police.

Dueling Countermotions

Last February both sides in the slow-moving case asked Judge Jerome B. Simandle to issue summary judgments. Coles, Joseph Ballinger and Degailler sought summary judgment only on the question of whether “the first amendment was violated by the defendant State Troopers in the course of their ‘anti-colors’ speech delivered during plaintiffs’ custodial detention at roadside.” They didn’t seek a judgment on “whether the stop itself was pretextual and initiated in retaliation for Plaintiffs’ alleged expressive conduct.”

The State Police sought a summary judgment of the entire case in their favor on three grounds: “(1) Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity, (2) no violation of the First Amendment occurred, and (3) Plaintiffs Coles and Ballinger are judicially estopped from asserting claims for damages because they failed to disclose their potential claims when each was going through bankruptcy.”

The court listened to the lawyers argue about all this on July 7 and ruled against everybody on July 22.

Core Issues Unchanged

First the judge ruled that since none of the men actually removed his club insignia Trooper Carlini’s bullying speech was simply an “attempt” to deprive the bikers of their free speech rights. He did not rule on the issue of whether the stop itself was intended to deprive the men of their Constitutional rights.

The State Police had asked that Coles and Ballinger be denied any monetary judgment in the case because they had neglected to list a judgment in the case as a potential asset when both declared bankruptcy. The bankruptcies were filed well before this civil suit but were in their final stages after the suit was filed. Most case law indicates that whether the men could be compensated or not was almost entirely at the judge’s discretion. He ruled against Coles and Ballinger because he thought they acted in “bad faith.”

Simandle put it like this: “On the judicial estoppel issue, the key question for the Court is whether bad faith may be inferred from Coles’s and Ballinger’s nondisclosure of this litigation as a contingent asset in their bankruptcy proceedings, while simultaneously pursuing the present claims for damages. Because the Court finds that bad faith may be inferred in this case, the Court will grant Defendants’ motion for partial summary judgment, prohibiting Coles and Ballinger from seeking compensatory or punitive damages.”

However the third plaintiff, Degailler, can still be awarded monetary damages if the suit is successful.

All three plaintiffs can still obtain what is called “injunctive relief” if they win the suit – which means that Simandle will order the New Jersey State Police not to do it again.

Nevada Case

The key issue in the Nevada case was whether the Confederation of Clubs had legal standing to sue Vegas Metro and the other defendants including former Boulder City Police Chief Thomas Finn. Last Friday Judge Andrew P. Gordon ruled the COC does not. He instructed the Plaintiff’s lawyer in the case. Stephen Stubbs, to modify and refile the suit by the end of next month and he basically told Stubbs how to do it. The judge wants to see the plaintiff’s sorted by club. At the end of his ruling he wrote:

“At the July 24, 2013 hearing on the motion to sever, Plaintiffs requested that the court allow the cases to be refiled and grouped by each motorcycle club, such that each club and its related members may file a single complaint (e.g., allowing all Mongols incidents to be contained in one lawsuit, all Stray Cats incidents in another). Based on the allegations presently before the court, the cases may be grouped together as follows: all Mongols incidents may be joined in the present lawsuit (involving Espinoza’s First, Second, and Third Claims for Relief), along with the Jerald Murillo incident; all Stray Cats incidents may be joined in one complaint; all Bandidos incidents may be joined in one complaint along with the Down and Dirty Motorcycle Club incident; the Joseph Pitka incident must be filed in a separate complaint unless Plaintiffs can establish that it should be properly joined with another lawsuit. Each such complaint must be sufficiently pled to satisfy both the joinder requirements ofRule 20 discussed above, and the standing requirements for each plaintiff (including individuals and motorcycle clubs) to maintain the claims. The court does not opine at this time whether the motorcycle clubs can satisfy the standing requirements of Federal Rule ofCivil Procedure 17(b)(3) and any other applicable law.

“Plaintiffs are granted leave to amend the present Amended Complaint (as described above) by August 30, 2013. Similarly, the new and separate lawsuits must be filed by August 30,2013, and will be assigned new case numbers. The court further orders that each of the cases will be consolidated before this court for purposes of discovery. Thus, Plaintiffs shall note in the caption of each complaint that any new case filed as a result of this order is related to this base case, and should be assigned to the same judges. The parties to each of the severed actions are required to pay a filing fee.”

Stubbs Comments

When reached for comment, Stubbs said “What has happened is that Federal Court Judge Andrew Gordon granted me a ‘do over’ with some guidance.”

“Judge Gordon specifically states that all claims for relief are to be grouped by club, dismisses all claims but the Mongols claims, grants me leave to amend the Mongols claims to repair any defects, and then instructs me to file new and separate claims for the other clubs.”

Both suits are ongoing and should remain so for at least another year.

Former Vago Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick took the witness stand in Reno this morning and lied.

Most of his testimony in the murder trial of Rudnick’s former club brother Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez was true but Rudnick lied about the most important elements in the case. He lied about details that may lead naïve jurors to reach erroneous conclusions about motive, premeditation and how the motorcycle outlaw world works.

Rudnick lied to save his life and make a brand new start in 2013. He lied to pay for his new beginning with Gonzalez’ life. The prosecutor who put him on the stand knew he would lie, had encouraged him to lie and had coached him to lie. The federal agents from at least four national police forces, who lurk behind this case like ghosts hiding in shadows in a gothic novel, promised to protect and reward Jabbers for lying.

Everybody who knows anything about this case knows what happened that night.

Rudnick Did It

Jabbers Rudnick started a riot. The Angels and Vagos were getting along. They did not love each other but they were at peace. The two clubs had had their differences, including an attention grabbing gunfight in Prescott Valley, Arizona in 2010. But that night, on the casino floor just outside Trader Dick’s Lounge at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, the two clubs peacefully coexisted.

It was the Vagos hotel. A few Angels were staying there because they hoped to sell some tee-shirts. Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, President of the San Jose charter of the Hells Angels couldn’t help but notice the sea of green which was why he was working the casino floor like a South Boston politician with petition papers – shaking hands and patting shoulders. And Jabbers Rudnick, who was drunk, and who is apparently a mean drunk, was determined to start a fight with Pettigrew – for reasons that might only be fully understood by Sigmund Freud. A few weeks after the gunfight, a friend of Rudnick’s tried to explain Jabbers’ pugnacity with, “He’s a great guy. He just doesn’t like Hells Angels.”

Eventually on September 23, 2011, after an hour or so, after practically every other man in the Vagos Motorcycle Club had told him to just calm down and relax, Jabbers Rudnick finally found Jethro Pettigrew’s on-button. And then there was, by all accounts, a massive and confused explosion of violence as only two name-brand motorcycle clubs can violently explode. Rudnick singlehandedly created a gruesome, preventable tragedy which is why a half-dozen of his club brothers went to his house two days later and demanded his colors and his motorcycle. Rudnick saw his expulsion coming which is why he had already hidden his motorcycle. And, if anybody should be on trial for murder it is Jabbers Rudnick.

So, it is hard to excuse today’s cynical travesty of justice. The Vagos and the Angels and their differences better be that vital to national security. There better be some half-baked Tajikistani dude down in Gitmo who has revealed under enhanced interrogation that the two clubs are converting to Islam and are stockpiling suitcase nukes. Otherwise this prosecution should be prosecuted as an attempted lynching as this whole case was initially prosecuted under an archaic law intended to outlaw arranged duels.

Rudnick Testifies

This morning Rudnick testified that the fight had been planned in advance and that he was merely one actor playing a part. He testified that earlier that day on Highway 99 members of a group of broken down Vagos were ordered to remove their colors by a group of Hells Angels. He said there was an all members meeting at eight o’clock that night and at that meeting leaders of the club discussed the “Hells Angels treating us like bitches.”

“We were told that was our hotel,” Rudnick told the jurors, “that we were staying there.” He said that San Jose Vagos, who had generally gotten along amicably with San Jose Angels, were ordered by somebody to not let the Angels get on the elevators and go to their rooms. Then, Rudnick testified, he approached Pettigrew and asked “if we were all cool,” which, according to numerous sources, is close to what Rudnick actually said.

According to Rudnick, Pettigrew called Rudnick a “bitch.” When Rudnick, according to Rudnick, politely objected Pettigrew “took a swing at me.” Rudnick says he then “backed up.” Pettigrew “pulled out his gun.” And, Rudnick “ran behind slot machines.”

Rudnick testified that while he hid, he kept his eye on Gonzalez “because I didn’t want to get shot.” He told jurors he “knew there was going to be a shooting.”

The next day, according to Rudnick, he talked to Gonzalez about the shooting and Gonzalez confessed, “I did it.”

There will probably be two more days of testimony before the case goes to the jury.

The Vagos Motorcycle Club has been linked to a shootout yesterday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to multiple news reports about 50 shots were fired at a motorcycle shop fundraiser for a sick, 15-year-old girl in an industrial neighborhood near the intersection of Fourth and Menaul in Albuquerque. The motorcycle shop is about a half mile from the intersection of Interstate 40 and Interstate 25.

The fundraiser was sponsored by the Black Berets Motorcycle Club. The club name is an apparent homage the Vietnam era Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group. The Black Berets MC has three chapters in Albuquerque.

Police said two people were injured in the incident. One victim was listed as being in “critical but stable condition” Monday morning. Shots were still being exchanged when Albuquerque city police arrived at the scene about four p.m. There were no announced arrests as of one p.m. Pacific Time Monday.

Chatty Black Beret

A Black Berets patch holder named “Chale” talked at length with television station KRQE soon after the shooting.

“They came in here and started shooting up the place, started shooting at my brothers, no questions asked. Just started shooting for no reason at all,” Chale told the television station without specifically naming the Vagos. “That’s uncalled for,” the man said. “This was a benefit for a little girl.”

“They came over here and retaliated against us because were strong here in Albuquerque,” Chale said. The Black Berets identify themselves as a philanthropic organization. “That’s what we do. What the Black Berets stand for,” Chale told the television station. “We help out the needy. We help out vets.”

Negative Publicity

The shooting was the most serious of multiple, widely publicized incidents related to the Vagos Motorcycle Club in the last two weeks.

A Vago named Ernesto Gonzalez testified Monday morning at his murder trial in Reno, Nevada. Gonzalez is accused of murdering a Hells Angel named Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew during a brawl between those two clubs at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada on September 23, 2011.

Three Vagos named Michael Joseph “Tomahawk” Hughes, Steven Martin “Tank” Shaw and Chad Gary “Halfbreed” Kruger were charged with insurance fraud last week in Las Vegas. Those arrests are connected to an ATF investigation of motorcycle clubs in Southern Nevada called “Operation Pure Luck.” The investigation was loudly announced on June 26.

Those arrests follow raids on 14 homes in San Bernardino County in California on July 22. Three men named Tyler Graziano, Enrique Felix and Mark Johnson, were arrested during those raids and charged with robbery.

Details have begun to emerge about a shooting in Albuquerque Sunday that left one member of the Vagos Motorcycle Club dead and another wounded. Police have identified the dead man as Japheth Seaman (photo above). The wounded man has not been named. A third Vago named Malachi Seaman was arrested at the scene and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Initial news reports described the incident as a “drive-by shooting” of a peaceful gathering by the three Vagos but that story has already fallen apart. The three Vagos were invited to a fund raiser for a sick girl by members of the Black Berets Motorcycle Club. The three Vagos arrived at the gathering on motorcycles at about 3:30 p.m. They dismounted and mingled with the crowd until about four when more than 70 shots were fired. Other than Malachi Seaman’s collapsible baton, the Vagos appeared to have been unarmed.

A source unaffiliated with either the Vagos or the Black Berets described the shooting as a “premeditated ambush of the three Vagos.” The Black Berets have three chapters in Albuquerque. The Vagos established that club’s first chapter in New Mexico within the last year. The preeminent motorcycle club in New Mexico is the Bandidos. The motive for the attack on the Vagos remains unclear.

Guy Named Chale

Public statements by voluble members of the Black Berets to Albuquerque television stations in the first forty hours after the shooting have described an unprovoked attack by the three Vagos on the dozens of Black Berets who attended the fundraiser.

News accounts have stated that the Vagos Motorcycle Club “targeted” the Black Berets and “an innocent family.”

“They rolled up into here. Started shooting up at the place. Started shooting at my brothers. No questions asked. Just started shooting for no reason at all,” a Black Beret named “Chale” told television station KOAT.

Chale described the shooting as “uncalled for. This was a benefit for a little girl.” Chale was indirectly quoted by KRQE as saying “the club had no issues with anyone and believes they were attacked because of the role they play in the city.”

Chale continued, “They came over here and retaliated against us because were strong here in Albuquerque.” Chale’s position in the Black Berets and his qualifications as a spokesman for the club remain unclear.

An unnamed member of the Black Berets told KRQE, “Those sons of bitches (the Vagos Motorcycle Club), it ain’t over with them.”

Whodunit

Albuquerque police said yesterday that “more than 70 spent shell casings” were found at the scene.

Tasia Martinez. The Lead Public Information Officer for the Albuquerque Police department, would only say that the case is being investigated by “gang detectives” who hope to “curtail retaliation” for the murder of Japheth Seaman.

Efforts Tuesday afternoon to solicit further comment from Officer Martinez were unsuccessful.

The fate of Ernesto Manuel “Romeo” Gonzalez is now in the hands of a Reno jury.

Gonzalez, a member of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, was tried on seven criminal charges including murder, second degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to engage, challenge to fight resulting in death, carrying a concealed weapon and discharging a firearm in a structure. He killed a widely respected Hells Angel named Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew during a brawl between members of the two clubs inside John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada on September 23, 2011.

The brawl culminated more than an hour of taunting of Pettigrew by former Vago Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick (photo above). Rudnick pled guilty to conspiracy to murder, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and investigators and will be sentenced on August 22.

The Prosecution

Prosecutor Karl Hall took two weeks to present what, at a distance, seems to have been an unconvincing case against Gonzalez. Hall called several current Vagos to the stand including Gregory Fearn who is president of the Lake County Vagos chapter, Richard Nickerson who was with Gonzalez moments before the fight erupted and Robert Wiggins who is vice-president of the Vagos Orange County, California chapter.

Fearn testified he was pistol whipped by Pettigrew. “He fired two or three rounds, and then he came around to me and hit me in the face. I turned and he hit me a second time.” Fearn said Pettigrew “looked like a wild coyote.”

Nickerson said the two clubs had “coexisted” until “some drunken fool shot off his mouth and started a hornet’s nest.”

Wiggins was on the casino floor and was kicked in the head by both Pettigrew and his chapter sergeant-at-arms, Cesar Villagrana at the moment Gonzalez shot Pettigrew. It remains unclear why Hall thought these witnesses would advance his case.

Villagrana pled guilty to one count of battery with a deadly weapon and a single count of challenge to fight with a deadly weapon on the first day of the trial. He will be sentenced September 4.

Former Vago Jacob Cancelli, who agreed to cooperate with federal authorities after a conviction for stock fraud, also testified for the prosecution. He told jurors that the blood in this tragedy covered Rudnick’s hands.

But Hall called Rudnick, “the drunken fool shot off his mouth and started a hornet’s nest,” as his chief witness anyway. Rudnick testified that the Vagos and Hells Angels had been itching to murder each other for months, that there was a meeting of 200 Vagos that night to decide which Hells Angel to kill and that Gonzalez volunteered at that meeting to kill Pettigrew.

Hall showed the jury hours of surveillance video but there was no video of Gonzalez shooting Pettigrew.

Defense

Only Gonzalez testified for defense attorney David Houston.

Gonzalez said that he had just returned from dinner at a burger joint with Fearn when Pettigrew hit Rudnick. “When the fight ensued, I backed up,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t want any part of it.”

“As I approached inside the disco, I still see them walking at the same time and same moment, I have a brother on the ground. Then they start approaching him and kicking, I see one of them with a firearm and I shot.”

Gonzalez said he shot Pettigrew with a .40 caliber Glock automatic pistol. He said he found the weapon lying on a counter. He testified he did not own the pistol but it is the same make and caliber as a pistol he owned in Nicaragua. The pistol was the subject of a wide search in early October 2011. The weapon has never been recovered. Gonzalez said he disposed of it and doesn’t know where it is now.

Hall mocked Gonzalez’ recollections of the gun. “That was a fortuitous event that there was a Glock 40. That was quite the find.”

“That’s what happened,” Gonzalez said.

“It just happened to be a gun you owned in Nicaragua,” Hall hectored.

“Yes.”

Gonzalez patched into the Vagos in Hawaii in 2009 and testified that he started carrying a weapon that year after being harassed on a California road. “I was heading to San Jose and somewhere between the airport a truck pulls up to me. Rolls down the windows. I heard certain people say stuff like, ‘You are a biker, I don’t like you,’ and I had bottles thrown at me. Since then, I determined I was never going to get caught alone or unprotected.”

Hall pointed to video footage of Gonzalez walking through the casino with the gun in his hand and asked the defendant if he was “on a mission.”

Gonzalez replied “Why the hell do I have a gun in my left hand, when I am right handed.”

The five man and seven woman jury received its instructions yesterday. Both sides gave their closing statements today. Deliberations began about noon Pacific Time. There may be a verdict as early as tonight.

A five man, seven woman jury in Reno found Vago Ernesto Manuel “Romeo” Gonzalez guilty of seven charges including first and second degree murder late yesterday afternoon after deliberating for about five hours. The seond degree murder charge will be incorporated into the premeditated murder charge.

Those charges refer to the shooting of Hells Angels San Jose charter president Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew during the Street Vibrations motorcycle rally in September 2011. Gonzalez admitted to shooting Pettigrew five times but he said he did so to save the life of fellow Vago Robert Wiggins who was being kicked in the head by Pettigrew.

Gonzalez was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to engage, challenge to fight resulting in death, carrying a concealed weapon and discharging a firearm in a structure. The jury reconvened this morning to consider whether to apply a Nevada “gang enhancement” to Gonzalez’ convictions. He faces up to life in prison without parole. He will be sentenced by Washoe County District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer October 3.

Two other men were also charged in the case. San Jose Hells Angel Cesar Villagrana pled guilty to battery with a deadly weapon and challenge to fight with a deadly weapon. He faces two to ten years in prison and will be sentenced by Steinheimer on September 4. Former Vago Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick pled guilty to conspiracy to murder last year, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and investigators and will be sentenced by Steinheimer on August 22. Rudnick started the fight that led to Pettigrew’s death. Because of his cooperation with authorities, Rudnick will probably avoid prison.

Lawyer Versus Lawyer

The prosecutions’ key witness in the conviction was Rudnick. Rudnick testified that ill-will between the Angels and the Vagos led to a Vagos all member meeting the night of the murder. According to Rudnick, Vagos International President Pastor “Tata” Palafox authorized an assassination of Pettigrew to stop Hells Angels from treating Vagos “like bitches.” Palafox has not been charged in the case. According to Rudnick, Gonzalez volunteered to murder Pettigrew.

In closing arguments yesterday, Gonzalez attorney David Houston told the jury, “Either Gonzalez is telling the truth or Rudnick is telling the truth. That’s what this case boils down to.”

Prosecutor Karl Hall trial strategy was to portray the shooting as part of a wider, ongoing conflict between the two clubs. Yesterday he stood in front of a display with a Hells Angels cut and a Vagos cut hanging side by side and told jurors, “This case is not about Gary Rudnick. This case is about gang warfare.” The jury believed Hall and afterward Houston was surprised.

Reaction

Houston told Emerson Marcus of the Reno Gazette-Journal, “I’m still somewhat flummoxed that we could have resulted in a guilty verdict without so much as reviewing what I would consider to be a great deal of evidence.”

“(It) leads me to believe there is some concern with the idea that a very broad brush was utilized by the prosecutor to say Vagos did this, Vagos did that, and I think it may have been lost in translation that this was a case of state versus Ernesto Gonzalez,” Houston told Marcus. “It had nothing to do with state versus the Vagos.”

Houston also said Gonzalez “was very disappointed by the verdict. “He was very uplifted after closing arguments. He felt a very good case had been presented as to why he, Ernesto Gonzalez, didn’t do anything. Unfortunately, the jury disagreed and felt that Ernesto Gonzalez was a Vago, and if Vagos had done things, Ernesto Gonzalez was the only Vago in the room.”

Hall had no public comment on the verdict.

Houston, in the video below, intends to appeal the verdict. The advertisement at the beginning of the video has nothing to do with and in no way profits The Aging Rebel.

Citing an “FBI Intelligence Report” the Albuquerque Journal reported this morning that Sunday’s prolonged shooting at a charity fundraiser at Eppie’s Motorcycle Services was actually a confrontation between three Vagos and an undetermined number of Bandidos Motorcycle Club members.

According to the Journal: “Current intelligence reporting from multiple sources indicates that the (Bandidos Motorcycle Club) national leadership has directed out of state (Bandidos) to proceed to Albuquerque … within the next 24 hours … in response to the August 4, 2013 confrontation,’ says an FBI ‘situational information report’ dated Tuesday. ‘Additionally, (Vagos Motorcycle Club) members from neighboring states may already be in Albuquerque awaiting orders from their national leadership….’”

You can read the complete Journal story here.

Presumably both the FBI and local police now know what happened. This page has taken pains in the last four days to withhold common knowledge about the incident obtained from multiple sources with multiple points of views. This page has withheld that information so as to not unnecessarily inform police.

Some Background

The Vagos Motorcycle Club, which began as a Southern California club, has been expanding into areas previously populated by other proud and pugnacious patches during the last four years. Those areas include Arizona, which had previously been a haven for Hells Angels including HA eminence gris Sonny Barger; areas of Kansas and Missouri that have long been the stomping grounds of the Galloping Goose and El Forastero Motorcycle Clubs; and most recently into New Mexico which, for the last forty years, has been an extremely friendly state in which to ride for members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.

Steve Cook, the Executive Director of the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association has given numerous media interviews in the last two years about the threat to public safety and law and order he thinks the growth and expansion of the Vagos represents.

The Vagos have been the target of an ongoing, multi-agency, federal investigation for more than four years. That investigation comprises investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

One Big Investigation

The three federal police forces, working in concert with the United States Marshall’s Service, have exploited multiple opportunities to “get the Vagos.” The ongoing investigations have also involved state and local police agencies in California, Nevada and Utah. The best known of those agencies is probably the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission in Arizona. The most recent of those collaborative police actions was Operation Pure Luck, a multi-agency investigation spearheaded by the ATF in Las Vegas.

The story told by Gary Rudnick in the recent trial of Ernesto Gonzalez – that some 200 Vagos conspired together to assassinate Hells Angel Jeffrey Pettigrew – was concocted not so much to get Gonzalez as to create a highlight predicate in a future RICO case. That case may be aimed solely at the Vagos or it may be intended to force the leadership of multiple, competing clubs to stand trial together.

Various state and federal police agencies have used “intelligence sharing” capabilities institutionalized as part of the Global War on Terror to coordinate what is, in essence, one investigation of the Vagos. A large part of the government effort against the Vagos has involved the manipulation of public opinion. The March 2010 accusations, made by California officials including now-Governor Jerry Brown, that the Vagos were terrorizing the town of Hemet, California was part of that one, ongoing disinformation campaign.

All of this lends context to today’s story in a usually clueless, community newspaper. The Journal “obtained” the report it cites in its story today because the local FBI field office “leaked” it to the Journal. The FBI didn’t leak the story to the New York Times. It seems unlikely that the report was leaked as a public service. It seems more likely the leak was the release of specific information to achieve a specific purpose; which is to say the leaked report is intentional propaganda.

What Happened Last Sunday

Multiple sources have described last Sunday’s shooting as an attempt by the Bandidos Motorcycle Club to both intimidate the Vagos Motorcycle Club and to spread disinformation about the incident. Multiple sources have also alleged that the incident was premeditated. Those sources have also said that the story fed to the weak Albuquerque press was scripted in advance and was calculated to discredit the Vagos.

The Black Berets Motorcycle Club, which has three chapters in greater Albuquerque, basks in the goodwill of and maintains friendly relations with the Bandidos. The Black Berets have no particular reason to dislike the Vagos except to share the Bandidos enmity toward the new club in town.

The three Vagos involved in the gunfight were invited to the event by the owner of the motorcycle shop. Sources have told conflicting stories about the relationship of the shop owner and local chapters of the Bandidos.

News reports in the Journal and other Albuquerque news outlets have described the event as a peaceful fundraiser for a sick girl at which children were present. The Aging Rebel has been unable to confirm that children were actually present at the event. Multiple sources have also alleged that the men who shot at the Vagos and killed a Vago named Japheth Seaman were not members of the Black Berets Motorcycle Club but were wearing Black Berets cuts. The brawl began, multiple sources have alleged, when one of the ersatz Black Berets punched Vago Malachi Seaman in the face.

Today’s Newz

The lead in today’s Journal story reads, “Albuquerque could be ground zero for a violent clash between outlaw motorcycle gangs.” It is exactly the sort of propagandistic statement that the multi-agency antagonists of the Vagos has been planting for years.

A violent confrontation between two one percenter motorcycle clubs is news but not earth-shaking. Last Sunday’s murder was tragic but not unprecedented. But an attempt to script news coverage of a violent confrontation between two clubs in advance is unprecedented.

It is blatantly the sort of thing alphabet police agencies do. So last Sunday’s fight seems to be about much more than disputed territory or a murder.

Michael Henry “Delano Mike” Pena, a well known member of the Hells Angels motorcycle Club, was buried Saturday, August 10 at the Greenlawn Southwest Mortuary Cemetery in Bakersfield.

He died July 17 on the southbound 405, the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles. Pena was legally riding his motorcycle in the car pool lane near Victory Boulevard when he hit a Nissan pick-up truck that had stopped to use the lane as a breakdown lane after one of the trucks tires went flat. Pena was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.

Pena was born in Orange County, California and lived in Bakersfield. He was in the news recently because he was accused of murder in an alleged fight with two men reported to be associated with the Vagos Motorcycle outside a tattoo parlor near Bakersfield in May 2010. It was Pena’s only felony charge and he was acquitted. But Karl Hall, the prosecutor in the recent Ernesto Gonzalez murder trial, had told jurors the Bakersfield homicide was the motive for the homicide of Hells Angel Jeffrey Pettigrew in Reno in September 2011.

Most people knew Delano Mike Pena as a good hearted and generous man. The same week Pettigrew was shot, Pena organized a multi-club fund raiser for a ten-year-old girl named Zoe Whipple who suffered from kidney disease.

Delano Mike is survived by his father, Raul Felix of Delano, California; his mother Sylvia Brunelle of Orange City, Iowa; his sisters Melinda Pena, Lethesia Escalante, Cecilia Salazar and Elizabeth Felix; his brother Bubba Felix; and his children, Reyna Pena, Isaac Pena, Brandee Pena, Jacob Pena and Dominic Pena.

Delano Mike Pena turned forty-seven in May. He made his life matter. Many still weep for him.

Requiscant In Pace

Sturgis, the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally, ended Sunday and most of the official numbers haven’t been calculated yet but it looks like it was another banner year for motorcycle tourism.

Event sponsors said this years rally attracted more visitors than last year. Event sponsors say that every year but South Dakota Highway Patrol Captain Kevin Karley told Rapid City television station KNBN “we can see the traffic is up this year.” Last year’s official attendance was 416,000. That’s about 30 percent less than 2000 when an estimated 604,000 bikers attended the rally. The city of Sturgis issued 734 temporary vendor licenses this year which was 42 more than last year. There were 69 motorcycle accidents resulting in injuries this year. Last year there were only 50. There were 50 non-injury accidents last year. This year there were only 33.

Cops wrote 1,535 traffic tickets and issued 4,932 warnings for violations. There were 255 drunken driving arrests, four more than last year, and 275 drug arrests. Last year there were only 219. The 275 drug arrests amount to about 15 percent of all the drug arrests the entire state of South Dakota expects to make this year. Cops seized nine vehicles and $13,221 in cash as a result of drug arrests.

Behind The Numbers

One of the DUIs was awarded to second generation daredevil Robbie Knievel. Fellow stuntman Clint Ewing wasn’t so lucky. Ewing, who holds the record for the longest motorcycle ride through a 2,900 “tunnel of fire” tried to break his own record at the Buffalo Chip Campground last Wednesday. The video below seems to indicate Clint might have gotten as far as 300 feet through the 360 foot long tunnel before he crashed and ran screaming and flailing through the side of the tunnel. He suffered third degree burns and is now being treated at a burn center in Los Angeles.

The state of South Dakota estimates that rally attendees spend about $250 a day each to attend Sturgis and those numbers are probably on the low side. The minimum price of a hotel room in Rapid City or Sturgis is $200 a might. Weekly rates to camp at the Buffalo Chip are $180 for dry RVs, $450 for RV hookups and $150 for a tent spot. According to an article in the Rapid City Journal a typical rally visitor spends about $400 for gas travelling to Sturgis and about $750 for tee-shirts, souvenirs, concerts, beer and food. This years concerts included Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, Kid Rock, ZZ Top, Rob Zombie and Mastodon.

More

The sleazy side of Sturgis included a sting by the Rapid City Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that led to the arrests of nine men on charges of trying to buy sex with underage girls after responding to online ads.

There were no reported “motorcycle gang” incidents this year.

Sturgis, with a population of 6,500, spent about $1 million to host the rally.  The city will probably reallize a profit of about $350,000 which will amount to about 80 percent of its annual budget.

http://youtu.be/8rWWiTC61B8

http://youtu.be/A0mLnC7VImg

George Christie was sentenced yesterday to serve a year in federal prison.

Christie was the long time president of the Ventura, California Hells Angels charter. He was indicted for conspiring to firebomb two tattoo shop competitors out of business on July 29, 2011. The two shops, named “Scratch the Surface” and “Twisted Ink” were firebombed in July 2007. As his case lingered, Christie was forced to sell his shop.

Christie’s prosecution was unusually perverse even by the standards of federal justice. Christie was not indicted until months after he retired from his motorcycle club. The evidence against him comprised statements made by the men who actually set the fires. Those men were entrapped and then offered leniency if they helped the FBI get Christie.

Plea Deal

The case went to trial last January. Christie faced two charges that carried minimum sentences of 30 years each and another charge that carried a mandatory sentence of life. Much of Christie’s defense would have examined the means and methods used to entrap and bully members of motorcycle clubs. Both former Mongol Al Cavazos and former Bandido President George Wegers were prepared to testify on Christie’s behalf. The judge in the case, George H. Wu, practically begged the adversaries to reach a plea deal. A handshake deal was agreed to on February 1. Since then, virtually every document filed in the case has been sealed including all the motions to seal.

There has been no public notice of Christie’s sentencing. There was no public notice that Christie was about to be sentenced. Assistant United States Attorneys Jay Robinson and Carol Chen are apparently so ashamed of their case that they have taken extraordinary steps to hide the Chrstie matter from public scrutiny. For example, Christie, his attorney Michael Mayock, and friends and relatives of Christie were all instructed by the court not to talk to The Aging Rebel. The prosecutors were also livid about Christie’s appearance in a documentary film that went into production before Christie was indicted and continued in production after Christie’s informal plea deal was negotiated.

The Film

After he retired from the Hells Angels and before he was indicted, Christie agreed to appear in a film by the British documentarian Nick Mead. The film was originally conceived as an homage to Easy Rider and would simply follow Christie around the country and record conversations he had about the state of freedom in America. The first of those conversation was with Michael Blake who wrote both the screenplay for Dances With Wolves and the novel on which the film was based.

Christie was indicted shortly after that interview. Mead continued to film and the movie became a record of Christie’s life as the United States Department of Justice tried to crush him. The title of the documentary is The Last American Outlaw. The film includes interviews with Al Cavazos, Wegers and several well informed attorneys about federal racketeering cases brought against motorcycle club members. The author of this page also appears in the film and wrote most of the narration.

Art And Justice

Prosecutors literally tried to blackmail Mead and Christie into locking the film in a box and throwing away the key. Mead cancelled a June screening of the film for potential distributors after prosecutors threatened that they would “make sure Christie gets prison time” if the film “was shown.” Neither Robinson nor Chen has seen the film so their objections obviously say far more about them and their own shame than any opinions Christie or Mead might voice in a thousand films.

Prosecutors spent much of yesterday’s sentencing hearing complaining about the film they have not seen. Prosecutors alleged that it evolved out of the FBI’s pursuit of Christie. Christie explained that the film had started off as something completely unrelated to the state of American justice and its narrative had simply followed a road the FBI and prosecutors made.

Robinson insisted that Judge Wu sentence the 65-year-old Christie to three years in prison.

Obviously even prosecutors understand that federal justice is a lot like sausage. They are afraid people won’t buy it anymore if they get a glimpse of how it’s made.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that FBI investigations are not court proceedings under the federal statute criminalizing obstruction of justice. The ruling has received far more attention than it might have if appeals court judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, one of the three judges to hear the case and the author of the ruling, had not begun his opinion with the words: “The facts of this case read like an episode of the fictional television drama Sons of Anarchy.”

O’Scannlain goes on to explain: “Sons of Anarchy is a television drama series that runs on the cable channel FX. It documents the legal and illegal activities of a fictional outlaw motorcycle club operating in a town in California’s Central Valley. In the show, the club’s headquarters are located in a clubhouse adjacent to an auto mechanic shop.”

The prosecutorial fantasy that undercover investigations are really court proceedings is surprisingly widespread. The notion surfaced in May as part of a prosecution against members of the Black Pistons, Hoodlums, and Outlaws Motorcycle Clubs. Three men, Larry “Larry Mack” McDaniel, Sean King and Howard Brown were charged with obstructing a criminal investigation after the men allegedly kicked an FBI informer out of one of the clubs. The charge is based on the theory that an undercover investigation is a court proceeding. Presumably, the charges against those three men will now be dropped.

Road Dog Cycles Case

The case that led to the Ninth Circuit ruling was an FBI investigation of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Believing that the Angels intended to establish a chapter in Modesto, California, an FBI puppet task force called the Central Valley Gang Impact Task Force, or CVGIT, began investigating alleged associates of the club in and around Modesto. Those alleged associates included Robert Holloway and his son Brent who together owned the Road Dog Cycle Shop.

Task force agents alleged the Holloways were dealing in stolen motorcycles and motorcycle parts and that some individuals associated with law enforcement were leaking information to the Holloways. To catch the leakers, CVGIT circulated a contrived law enforcement bulletin about an annual party at Road Dog Cycles and used phone taps to see who warned the Holloways.

Ermoian, Johnson And Swanson

Three men, Gary L. Ermoian, Stephen J. Johnson and a deputy sheriff named David A. Swanson took the bait and warned the Holloways they were being investigated. The three men and nine others were indicted for racketeering in May, 2009. The indictment claimed that Ermoian, Johnson and Swanson had conspired to “corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, to wit, a law enforcement investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation” Their cases were severed from the other Road Dog Cycles defendants and they were tried separately. Swanson was found not guilty at trial but Ermoian and Johnson were convicted.

The district court judge who heard their case ruled that an FBI investigation is an official proceeding. This week, the appeals court told him he was wrong.

Nevada Judge Connie Steinheimer sentenced former Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick to seven years in prison yesterday. Rudnick pled guilty to conspiracy to murder last year.

The charge is the result of a very violent brawl between Hells Angels and Vagos in John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada on September 23, 2011. By all accounts except the prosecutor’s, Rudnick started the fight. A member of the Vagos testified that Rudnick hoped to collect a Hells Angels cut as a souvenir. Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, the president of the San Jose charter of the Hells Angels, died in the fight.

Rudnick is the first defendant to be sentenced in the case.

Cesar Villagrana, the sergeant at arms of the Angels pled guilty last month to one count of battery with a deadly weapon and one count of challenge to fight with a deadly weapon. Villagrana will be sentenced on September 4th.

Vago Ernesto Manuel “Romeo” Gonzalez was convicted of multiple charges including murder August 7th. Gonzalez will be sentenced October 3rd. Gonzalez faces life in prison.

Rudnick will be eligible for parole in two years.

Instigator and Witness

Rudnick was expelled from the Vagos two days after Pettigrew’s murder and he became the chief prosecution witness against Gonzalez.

According to Rudnick, Pettigrew’s murder was a premeditated hit and he was only one small actor in a highly orchestrated plot. He claimed the murder culminated almost two years of friction between the two motorcycle clubs with the latest conflict being the alleged harassment of Vagos by Hells Angels earlier that day.

Rudnick testified that the murder was ordered by Vagos Motorcycle Club President Pastor “Tata” Palafox in front of 200 witnesses because the Hells Angels were treating Vagos “like bitches.” Palafox has not been charged in the case. According to Rudnick, Gonzalez volunteered to murder Pettigrew at that meeting and Gonzalez admitted the murder to Rudnick the next day. Rudnick also testified that he did not see the murder because he was hiding behind a bank of slot machines at the time.