As he appeals his sentence, he’s urging a judge to order the government to give him Robert's 2011 Harley-Davidson motorcycle back. Robert was outbad in the club in 2014 and beaten after he stole money from the Portland clubhouse to support a heroin addiction, prosecutors said. Club members took Robert’ motorcycle and truck as well, and Mark eventually obtained the title for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Inside Gypsy Jokers MC Portland Clubhouse - Photo: Court Exhibits
When police raided Marks’s home, they seized the bike. Mark argues he’s the lawful owner of the Harley and police unlawfully took it from his home. But prosecutors say Mark has it all wrong. He stole the motorcycle from Robert and doesn’t deserve to get it back, they argue. The government plans to return the bike to Robert’s family, prosecutors told the court.
Mark’s lawyer cites testimony from his co-defendant, Earl Fisher, who said at trial that Robert signed over the title as part of “paying the debt for the money he had stolen” from the club. Fisher, who was treasurer of the Portland chapter, said he deposited the title into the club’s treasury.
Mark later approached the club about trading another bike for it, which he did, according to Erik Eklund, Mark’s lawyer. He submitted to the court a copy of the title in Mark’s name, dated June 6, 2014, with what appears to be Robert’s signature. The date of transfer shows June 6, 2014, when the bike’s odometer read 18,500 miles.
“This Court should issue an Order compelling the government to return Mr. Dencklau’s property to him or his designated representative,” Eklund wrote to U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman. According to prosecutors, Robert bought the Harley Davidson motorcycle on July 18, 2013, for $21,638 from Columbia Harley Davidson.
Inside Gypsy Jokers MC Portland Clubhouse - Photo: Court Exhibits
In June 2014, the Gypsy Joker club booted Robert out for stealing from the club. Mark testified he suspected Robert had taken about $18,000 from the club. In response, Mark and other club members beat Robert in the club basement for several hours, using batons, weight plates and fists. Members and associates also forced Robert to turn over his motorcycle and truck to the club, according to prosecutors.
“Even if Huggins owed the Club a debt, stealing property from Huggins by force is not a lawful form of recourse,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad wrote to the court. “Dencklau stole this motorcycle. He was not then, and is not now, a lawful owner of this motorcycle.’’
As payback for getting kicked out of the club and forced to relinquish his bike and truck, Robert later robbed Marks’s Woodburn home in June 2015, prosecutors argued at trial. Later that month, club members kidnapped Robert, 56, from a home in Portland, drove him to a shed in Washington state and beat and killed him on June 30, 2015, before dumping his body in a remote field, prosecutors said.
According to Mark’s lawyer, however, co-defendants Tiler Pribbernow and Fisher both described how Robert signed over the title to his motorcycle to satisfy a debt to the club and Mark later exchanged another motorcycle for it with the support of other club members.
“Registering this motorcycle in defendant’s name does not change the facts about how it came into defendant’s possession – he and other club members forced Huggins, during a brutal hours-long beating in the clubhouse basement, to sign over title,” Bolstad responded in her filing.