Plante, in his second day of testimony on behalf of the
director of civil forfeiture, listened intently as tapes of some of his
intercepted conversations from 2004 were played for Justice Barry Davies. In
one of the tapes, East End Hells Angel member Ronaldo Lising complained to Plante
about other members of the club, including his fellow chapter mate, John
Punko. Lising referenced Punko’s conviction for threatening a federal
prosecutor in a Vancouver food court several years earlier.
The conversation happened in a drive to Kelowna in 2004 when
Plante was working on behalf of the RCMP to infiltrate the East End Hells
Angels.
Several Hells Angels and associates were later charged and
convicted as a result of Plante’s work for the police on the E-Pandora
investigation. Plante, who now lives under a new identity, was paid $1 million
for his undercover work and for testifying at a series of criminal trials.
He told Davies Monday that he was being paid another $80,000
to testify in the civil proceedings between the Hells Angels and the government
agency.
The B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture is trying to get Hells
Angels clubhouses in East Vancouver, Nanaimo and Kelowna forfeited to the
government as the instruments of criminal activity. The Hells Angels have
counter-sued the government, claiming the Civil Forfeiture Act is
unconstitutional. The case has been ongoing since November 2007 when police
first raided the Nanaimo clubhouse.
The recordings played Tuesday highlighted the infighting and
petty disputes between some of the Hells Angels. In one reference, Lising
complained about two other Hells Angels that he was in the drug trade with at
the time. Plante explained the references to Davies.
“He was saying he was doing all the work … but he was still
paying those guys half the money,” Plante testified.
Cops also want the East End Hells Angels Clubhouse
Lising also appeared to threaten an unidentified group of
people, saying, “those guys are not welcome in this f–king province.”
“If we see them, we are going to f–king take care of them,”
he said in the recording.
Lising said he liked “being around Hells Angels” and
attacked other full-patch members who didn’t want to socialize much within the
group.
“Why do you want to be a Hells Angel if you are not going to
hang out with Hells Angels?” he told Plante.
Two lawyers for the Hells Angels, Joe Arvay and Greg
DelBigio, both objected to Plante’s attempts to interpret what Lising was
referencing in the 14-year-old conversation.
“When he is listening to his own voice, he can say this is
what I meant,” Arvay said. “But actually interpreting the tape, I don’t know if
he has any greater expertise than any of us.”
Davies said that “the tape is the evidence, not the
interpretation and not the transcript.”
“Unfortunately I have been doing this business of listening
to these kinds of tapes for a long, long time,” Davies said of the grainy
recordings. “I am just very glad that they aren’t playing heavy metal in the
background for a change in the car because that’s the usual circumstance.”
Plante will be on the stand all week before returning for
cross-examination in February.
SOURCE: The Province