Hells Angels MC Member Gets 10 Years

Vancouver, B.C.(October 12, 2022) - Hells Angels Motorcycle Club remember Jason Arkinstall was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years for smuggling large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine worth millions into Canada two years ago. Surrey Provincial Court Judge Mark Jetté said that Arkinstall was entitled to extra credit for time in pretrial jail during the pandemic, meaning his remaining term is six years and three months.

Crown prosecutor Maggie Loda told a sentencing hearing last month that the 48-year-old only motivation was profit when he attempted to bring 90 kilograms of meth and 118 kilograms of cocaine into B.C. from Idaho on October 23, 2020. United States border agents spotted Arkinstall and a friend near the border with five duffel bags full of drugs. The two men fled but were later arrested on the Canadian side of the border.

Arkinstall, a member of the Hells Angels Mission City chapter, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to importing the illicit substances. Loda argued that Arkinstall should get a 12-year prison term based on the quantity of drugs and his criminal history. His defence lawyer Ken Westlake said a seven-year sentence would be more appropriate.

Jetté said Wednesday “that the sentence of seven years jail suggested by defence counsel would not be fit, given Mr. Arkinstall’s criminal record — in particular his prior conviction for drug trafficking, the quantity of drugs involved, and the fact that two schedule-one drugs were imported into Canada.”

“On the other side of the ledger, I find that Mr. Arkinstall’s early guilty plea justifies the sentence itself fall somewhere below the 12 years sought by Crown Counsel,” Jetté said. “I have concluded that a fit sentence in this case is 10 years jail.”

Source: Yahoo News  

Former Grim Reapers MC Prez Sentenced

Evansville, Indiana, USA (October 10, 2022) - A federal judge handed down a long prison sentence this week to the former president of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club chapter in Evansville, Indiana. On Wednesday, U.S. Southern District of Indiana Judge Richard Young sentenced Gary Forston to serve 16-and-a-half years in federal prison for his role in an alleged drug trafficking scheme.

The former GRMC president pleaded guilty to four out of the 12 counts originally listed in his indictment back in July.

 

According to the agreement, Forston admitted he conspired to distribute more than 550 grams of methamphetamine and used a firearm to further a drug trafficking operation.Forston was arrested in November 2019 after local and federal law enforcement officers swarmed the Grim Reapers' club house in the former SheLounge strip club off Diamond Avenue.

RELATED | Grim Reapers MC Members Busted In Drug Raid

At the time of the raid, Forston, a convicted felon, allegedly had in his possession a 0.40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, leading a grand jury to indict him on weapons charges. Ten pounds of meth, 23 guns and $35,000 in cash were seized during the raid, according to then U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler. The drugs reportedly had an estimated street value of more than $250,000.

In February 2020, a federal grand jury indicted 17 people from Indiana and Kentucky, including Forston, for allegedly operating the methamphetamine trafficking ring affiliated with the motorcycle club. Of the 17 people indicted, 13 were from Evansville. When those indictments were announced, Minkler called the Grim Reapers Motorcycle club a "criminal organization."

Central Holman IV, of Owensboro Kentucky, is alleged in federal court documents to have been the club's main supplier of methamphetamine. Besides Holman and Forston, the other 15 people indicted were believed by law enforcement to be "mid-level distributors," records show.

Some of their cases are still ongoing. In September, Holman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to serve 18 years in federal prison. He has since appealed his conviction, according to court records.

Source: WTVW  

Mongols MC member faces murder charge

Largo, Florida, USA - (August 29, 2022) - A Pinellas grand jury has indicted a member of the Mongols motorcycle club who is accused of killing another motorcycle club member he believed to be a police informant. Paul Mogilevsky, 48, faces a first-degree murder charge in the April shooting death of Dominick Paternoster, 46, in Palm Harbor. 

Paternoster was a member of the Raiders MC, a feeder group for the Mongols MC. The two share a clubhouse in Tampa, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. “Paternoster was not just killed. He was executed,” Gualtieri said. 

He declined to say, however, whether Paternoster was an informant. Mogilevsky and Paternoster were at the Mongols clubhouse in Tampa together on April 27, the night Paternoster was killed, Gualtieri said. They then went to Paternoster’s Palm Harbor home with another person.

 

Video evidence and witnesses placed the suspects at Paternoster’s home on the night of the shooting, Gualtieri said. Mogilevsky initially said he and another person left Paternoster asleep in a recliner at home, according to court documents. However, investigators said Mogilevsky lied about the timeline of events that night.



A confidential witness also told authorities that Mogilevsky had planned the shooting and admitted to killing Paternoster, court documents say, and authorities were able to verify some of the information the witness provided. Mogilevsky and the other suspect got rid of some evidence in Tampa Bay, Gualtieri said. Members of the sheriff’s office dive team helped recover the evidence.

Gualtieri said multiple guns were used to shoot Paternoster in his home, where he was found dead about 4:30 p.m. on April 28, according to court documents. Law enforcement is still investigating the death and plans to make other arrests, the sheriff said.

Police say new MC's linked with Hells Angels

Vancouver, B.C. (August 1, 2022) - New motorcycle clubs that police say are linked to the Hells Angels MC are sprouting up around the province, alarming police who suspect the older club is expanding its reach. 

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the 'anti-gang' Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, says there are now about 30 of the support clubs in B.C., compared to 10 chapters of the Hells Angels.

 

“There’s been four or five new ones pop up in the Lower Mainland in the last year,” he said. “The farm team system for the Hells Angels is very alive and well.”

Houghton said six of the approximately 30 support clubs “are self-identified one percenters, so they wear the little one per cent diamond on their leather vest.” That means they identify as “outlaw” motorcycle clubs, he said, of the expression that dates back to the formation of the Hells Angels in 1948.

After more than two years of COVID restrictions, Hells Angels and their supporters are hosting large “rides” and other events that had been cancelled throughout the pandemic. That has allowed police to gather intelligence on how the biker landscape has changed.

Many of the new motorcycle clubs are showing up at Hells Angels events, Houghton said.

 

“The concern, as these clubs proliferate, is that the people in these clubs, will continually confirm their dedication and their loyalty and their subservience to the Hells Angels,” Houghton said.

RELATED | Hells Angels MC support club throttled

Last week, Houghton said that the Throttle Lockers puppet club, which had tried to expand in Kamloops, was basically defunct after a major CFSEU drug investigation that resulted in charges against two of its former members and an associate.

Brad Stephen, a retired Vancouver Police biker specialist, said puppet clubs were not common in B.C. until the past decade, “due to the fact that they’re kind of a conduit into the Hells Angels and there’s some vulnerabilities there.”

Redbubble Ordered to Pay Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

Melbourne, Australia (July 29, 2022) - Online merchandise store Redbubble has been ordered to pay the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club more than $78,000 for selling items depicting the MC's logo without permission, in the second ruling against the company in three years.

Redbubble is an online marketplace that allows users to upload images to be printed on merchandise such as stickers, mugs, T-shirts, masks and other items, which are then offered for sale.

 

After winning $5,000 from Redbubble for trademark infringement in 2019, the club launched legal action again last year after discovering more items for sale bearing the Hells Angels MC logo. The company uses keyword filtering to pick up on uploads that may violate the copyright or trademarks of organisations that have sought to protect it, such as the Hells Angels MC.

Redbubble proactively moderates uploads for 477 organisations, and told the court that 2 million artworks uploaded to the site had been moderated in the past five years – including 114 related to the Hells Angels MC since the 2019 court decision.

However, the Hells Angels MC trademark officer in Australia was able to buy a number of items bearing the Hells Angels logo despite the previous court ruling. Over the course of the case, 11 different listings were discovered.

While the only people who had bought items bearing the logos were members of the Hells Angel Motorcycle Club who were seeking to determine whether the items were still for sale, Greenwood did not award damages on the basis of sales but instead for the injury suffered for the use of the trade marks without authorization.

Antifa Picks a fight with a Motorcycle Club

Salem, Oregon, USA (July 27, 2022) - On July 16 of this year, members of Antifa followed through on threats to disrupt a gathering at the Honky Tonk Bar in Salem, Oregon.

The result of the group’s actions is what some are predicting to be a war between them and several motorcycle clubs throughout Oregon.

Breaking: #Antifa members including Clifford Eiffler-Rodriguez (in blue top & hat) gathered for a direct action to shut down the Honky Tonk bar in Salem, Ore. but were met by a group of bikers. One of the Antifa begins macing people before retreating. pic.twitter.com/08i6D89Oza

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 16, 2022

Reputed Hit Man has Convictions Overturned

Nova Scotia, Canada (July 27, 2022) - Almost 22 years after Kirk Mersereau and Nancy Christensen were murdered in their Nova Scotia home, the man accused of killing them is facing the prospect of a third trial on two charges of first degree murder. In a decision released Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned the latest conviction of Leslie Douglas Greenwood, an alleged hit man for the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

 

Leslie Greenwood is escorted through the courthouse​ in 2018

Mersereau and Christensen were found dead in their home in Centre Burlington, N.S., on September 9, 2000. They had been shot. Their infant son was lying unscathed in another room. Greenwood was initially tried and convicted in a jury trial in 2012. But that conviction was overturned on appeal.

"Based on the charge to the jury, they may have been left with the impression they could convict Greenwood of first degree murder because he drove Lawrence to the Mersereau home and assisted him in getting access to the house where Lawrence committed the murders without it being proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Greenwood knew that Lawrence had planned and deliberated on the murders," Justice David Farrar wrote for the three-member appeal panel.

A decision on whether to proceed with a third trial is up to the Crown, which is still studying the Court of Appeal decision. Greenwood remains in a federal prison serving a sentence for two murders in Quebec. Kirk Murray and Antonio Anesi were killed in 2010.

Hells Angels MC on the move in Toronto

On The Road (July 20, 2022) - A large procession of up to 1,000 Hells Angels members has left Newmarket, Ontario and is now headed for Toronto's east end. The ride is in honor of long-time Toronto Hells Angels member, Donny Peterson, who died at 74 of natural causes.

Hells Angels MC Clubhouses Raided

Westport, Massachusetts, USA (July 21, 2022) - A large law enforcement presence at a Hells Angels MC clubhouse in Westport on Thursday. Numerous armed law enforcement officers were spotted at the club located on American Legion Highway.

The FBI says the agency is conducting court-authorized activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation.

BREAKING: Multiple Hells Angels clubhouses in Massachusetts - including two in Westport - were raided by the FBI and other agencies Thursday. https://t.co/F6EGbUvHKH

— Tim White (@TimWhiteRI) July 21, 2022

Hells Angels MC support club throttled

Keremeos, British Columbia, Canada (July 20, 2022) - A multi-year investigation into a motorcycle club that answers to the Hells Angels has prevented the group from laying down roots in Kamloops and resulted in charges against three members.

Kamloops RCMP say they first became aware the Throttle Lockers Motorcycle Club was working to build a clubhouse in the city in 2017. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. was quickly called in, and together the two police agencies worked to investigate the threat.

In 2019, RCMP and the special enforcement unit secured search warrants related to the Throttle Lockers, and turned up $330,000 in cash, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, firearms and brass knuckles, and Hells Angels support gear. Two men were arrested then and a third was arrested in 2020.

It wasn’t until June 28, though, that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada approved charges against the three men.

Shawn, a 49-year-old from Falkland, faces three counts of trafficking cocaine and one count of selling cannabis contrary to the Cannabis Act.

Zale, a 53-year-old from Kamloops, is charged with two counts of trafficking cocaine, one count of trafficking fentanyl, and one count each of possession for the purposes of trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. He also faces one count of conspiracy to traffic fentanyl.

Jacob, a 29-year-old from Kamloops, has been handed one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking of fentanyl, and one count for conspiracy to traffic it.

The three remain out of custody while they await the court process.

Speaking during a media briefing Wednesday (July 20), Superintendent Duncan Pound of the special enforcement unit said targeting lower level clubs is important in stopping organized crime in B.C. He described preventing the Kamloops clubhouse as taking “the wind out of the sails” of the Hells Angels.

Police raid Rock Machine MC clubhouse

Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (July 19, 2022) - Regina police say they have arrested and charged multiple people believed to be members of a motorcycle club while a another investigation netted a large quantity of drugs. 

Over the course of a couple of weeks, police executed nine search warrants in Regina, including the Rock Machine MC clubhouse, as part of an investigation led by the unit.

 

Police seized $12,700 cash, seven firearms and ammunition, 320 grams of cocaine, 19 grams of meth, six motorcycles, five vehicles, one heavy equipment skid steer loader, multiple cellular devices and evidence supporting vehicle thefts and fraudulent processes for changing VIN numbers. 

Multiple charges were laid against six people, including three “Members of the Rock Machine” according to police. The three men all made their first appearance in Regina Provincial Court.

Gang Unit Investigation Leads To Seizure of Drugs/Property and Charges Laid https://t.co/UhruCOCecK

— Regina Police (@reginapolice) July 18, 2022

In a separate investigation led by the Regina Police Service’s drug unit, officers seized 10 kilograms of cocaine, six kilograms of methamphetamine, $155,000 cash and  “other proceeds of crime, including motorcycles” after searching several addresses in the city. Three men are facing multiple charges, including a member of the Silent Soldiers MC.

HA Request Sonny Barger Service at Coliseum

Oakland, California, USA (July 17, 2022) - Members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club have requested to have a memorial service for Sonny Barger at the Oakland Coliseum complex, that is just a couple of miles away from the Foothill Boulevard clubhouse where he founded it. Sonny Barger died June 29 at his home surrounded by loved ones.

 

A funeral at the coliseum may or may not happen, but it is up for discussion. Henry Gardner, the executive director of the Coliseum Authority, plans to discuss the club’s proposal with his board.

RELATED | Sonny Barger Dead at 83

In a memo to the board, Gardner said the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club have asked to use the stadium’s parking lot for a service in August, but he’s waiting to hear back from authorities.

“We have consulted with the city’s leadership, including the Oakland Police Department, to seek guidance on whether or not this event can be safely and securely managed,” Gardner wrote. “The group estimates there will be approximately 2,000 of their members in attendance".

"The Oakland Police Department is taking the lead in determining a safety plan and will be providing us with their recommendations on whether and how we should proceed.” it continued

Events at the Coliseum, which is publicly-owned, do not necessarily need the approval of the Coliseum board, which is made up of members of the Oakland City Council, county Board of Supervisors, and members appointed by both government bodies.

Read the memo here: Oakland Coliseum Authority 

Dutch Court Rules Hells Angels MC Illegal

Amsterdam, Netherlands (July 17, 2022) - The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ruling that means the Hells Angels motorcycle club is illegal and an illegal association. The ruling means, among other things, that it is not allowed to wear clothes that are associated with the motorcycle club.

 

This is the third time that a court has now ruled that the Hells Angels motorcycle chub should be dissolved. The first time was in 2019 at a court in Utrecht. That judgment was appealed to the Court of Appeal in Arnhem-Leeuwarden, which, however, came to the same conclusion. Since then, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which on Friday set the final sentence in the case.

In the past, the Satudarah motorcycle club has also been declared illegal in the Netherlands by the Supreme Court.

RELATED | Dutch Court Upholds Ban on Hells Angels MC

In Denmark, the Loyal To Familia (LTF) has been all the way past the Supreme Court. In 2021, the court affirmed that the club was an illegal association and therefore should be dissolved. The Hells Angels motorcycle club are also represented in Denmark and has been in the country for many years.

In November 2020, the long-standing unofficial spokesperson Jørn Jønke Nielsen was reportedly thrown out of the Hells Angels, he co-founded the club in Denmark and had been a member for almost 40 years. He has previously been convicted of violence and murder, as have a number of other members of Hells Angels in Denmark.

Sons of Silence MC Member Arrested and Released

Rock Island, IL, (August 15, 2021) - A man was released on bond after an Iowa State Trooper found a loaded gun and a small amount of crystal methamphetamine on his motorcycle. Jeffrey Sebree, 51, of Indianapolis, Indiana faces a felony charge of carrying weapons, court documents say.

Shortly after 6:00 p.m. Friday, the trooper stopped Sebree, who was driving a Harley-Davidson near Mile Marker 291 on the eastbound side of Interstate 80. The motorcycle was stopped for going 90 mph in a 70 mph zone.

 

Sebree, who was alone, was wearing a Sons of Silence MC leather vest, “identifying him as being a member of this motorcycle club,” the affidavit says. The trooper asked whether Sebree had a gun. He said he did and that it was locked up on his bike.

“I also observed a red cut-down plastic straw w/ white residue on it sticking out of a pocket on his vest,” the trooper wrote in the affidavit. “Based on my training and experience this item was consistent with snorter straws that (a) drug user will use to snort drugs with.”

The trooper deployed his drug-detection K9, and the dog alerted toward the side of the motorcycle with luggage compartments and a backpack. A probable-cause search produced a “very small personal amount” of crystal methamphetamine and another snorting tube with white residue on it, the affidavit says.

The trooper also found a Kimber .45 caliber handgun with a fully loaded magazine and a round in the chamber.

When the trooper did a background check on Sebree, he discovered Sebree is prohibited from possessing guns. The gun and contraband were seized and submitted into evidence storage, the affidavit says.

SOURCE: Our Quad Cities

Court Challenge Win by Hells Angel Member

British Columbia, Canada (January 26, 2021) - A Supreme Court Justice has ruled that Gaston Methot should get a second hearing in provincial court to make his case about why he deserves to have his licence renewed. Earlier, a provincial court judge upheld a decision made by the province’s chief firearms officer to deny the renewal based on Methot’s membership in the West Point Chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

But Marzari said the original judge did not apply the right standard in reviewing that decision. She said the provincial court should have taken an independent look at all the evidence in the case instead of determining whether the firearms officer’s decision was “reasonable.”

“The reference judge’s reliance on the reasonableness standard permeates the decision to uphold the firearms officer’s decision, both with respect to the factual matrix and the evidence found to be relevant, and with respect to the result. The decision must therefore be set aside,” she said in written reasons released Monday.

Marzari did not accept Methot’s suggestion that she simply renew the licence because she said she didn’t have all the evidence before her that was before the lower court. Methot had a firearms licence from June 2012 to April 2018 “without incident,” the ruling noted. 

He applied to renew it in March 2018. An Royal Canadion Mounted Police firearms officer sent a ‘notice of refusal’ to Methot that June, saying he was being denied “because it was not desirable in the interest of public safety that he have the licence.” 

“As you are a full patch member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, West Point Chapter, I find you represent the Hells Angels and are bound by rules that allow for violence and criminal acts and that the police are your adversary,” the letter said.

“You made a decision to be involved with an organization that has a reputation for violence and criminal acts. … I find that it would not be desirable in the interest of public safety that you be issued a firearm licence at this time. Accordingly, I refuse to issue you a licence.”

Methot then filed a review application to provincial court, which was heard in 2019.

Cpl. Sergio Da Silva, a biker expert with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, testified at the provincial court hearing that Hells Angels rules forbid members from co-operating with police. So if a firearm is ever stolen, an Hells Angel member would not report the theft to the police.

Marzari noted that some of Da Silva’s evidence was “admittedly based on indirect hearsay evidence” because Hells Angels don’t talk to police. She said that “it was incumbent upon the reference judge to consider the weight that the evidence of Cpl. Da Silva was entitled to after a fresh analysis of the relevance and reliability of that evidence.”

Meanwhile, in Quebec, provincial police announced last month that they had revoked 11 firearms licences from people connected to the Hells Angels. In the news release, the Sûreté du Québec said the revocation was the second phase of a project begun two years earlier with the revocation of 75 gun licences linked to Hells Angels support clubs.

SOURCE: Vancouver Sun

HA Member Arrested For Weapons and Cash

Bayonne, New Jersey, USA (January 21, 2021) - A Hells Angels motorcycle club member was arrested for having a knife, handgun, and $7,000 cash that cops believed to be from gambling proceeds while he was riding as a car passenger in Bayonne, police said.

Bernard W. Krynicki III, 31, of North Arlington, was charged with possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a firearm, certain persons not to possess a weapon, gang criminality, possession of gambling records, and promoting gambling, according to Police Capt. Eric Amato. 

Krynicki was taken into custody at approximately 10:15 p.m. yesterday. Officers conducted a stop of a vehicle in which Krynicki was a passenger. During the stop, while seated in the rear passenger compartment, Krynicki proceeded to make movements while gripping items concealed in his pants pocket.

After officers requested that he show his hands, an officer was able to observe a knife protruding from his pocket. Krynicki was then removed from the vehicle, leading to the recovery of a knife and a 9mm handgun from his pockets.

During the incident, Krynicki was wearing clothing indicating that he was affiliated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club and it was later confirmed that he was an active member of the Newark chapter of the club.

Krynicki was additionally found to be in possession of gambling records and over $7,000 in gambling proceeds. He was also later determined to be classified as a certain person not to possess a weapon, authorities said.

SOURCE: NJ.com

Hells Angels Lend a Hand at Christmas Giveaway

Patchogue, New York, USA (December 21, 2020) - It was angels helping angels. And they were all helping families in need Sunday in East Patchogue for the massive “Christmas Miracles 2020” gift giveaway.

Once again, the Suffolk County Hells Angels joined with the Angels of Long Island nonprofit group for the annual event. It was held in the parking lot outside the Angels of Long Island thrift shop and outreach center off East Main Street.

There, moms and dads currently facing hardships were able to shop for brand-new items for their kids.

All for free. “We wanted children across Long Island to have an amazing Christmas this year,” said Angels of Long Island co-founder Debbie Loesch. “With this coronavirus pandemic our children’s worlds have changed overnight. “But still, Christmas morning needs to be magical.”

Parents from over 200 families got to shop.

Nine families every half-hour (for social distancing purposes) perused the tents. They picked presents from among new toys, bikes, scooters, skateboards, electronics and more. They also got a bundle of stocking stuffers. 

All the families left with hats and gloves, and a complete Christmas meal of turkey, ham, hot and sweet Italian sausage, and other groceries. “We couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of the Suffolk chapter of the Hells Angels and a long list of local businesses and Long Island residents,’ Loesch said.

The Hells Angels motorcycle club first heard about the Long Island Angels’ giveaway last fall, when the nonprofit was struggling to meet demand. Then they swooped in with toys like a bunch of Santa's with their sacks. Then they did it again Sunday for this year’s event.

Normally secretive, the local Hells Angels charter has been quietly involved with helping nonprofits across Long Island. “We got word that the Angels of Long Island needed toys and we wanted to help them out,” Billy, a sergeant of arms for the group who couldn’t give his full name, said last year.

“We start collecting early on in the year with different events, including our Christmas party, where everyone brings an unwrapped gift to donate,” he said.

SOURCE: Greater Patchogue

Retired Undercover Cop Decides to Write a Book

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada (December 17, 2020) - A retired Ontario Provincial cop from Sudbury has released a book of his career. He titled it '1% Hatred' and it details Dan Rocheleau's experiences, starting as a rookie cop in Chapleau, to serving in Sudbury and being involved in major undercover drug investigations in Ontario and Quebec.

"There is a lot of humor in it and there is a lot of the undercover work that I did in two provinces," said Rocheleau. "And dealing with everything from serial killers to outlaw bikers to traditional organized crime." He states that he wrote the book when COVID forced people to stay home. He said that he hopes it helps readers see the different aspects of policing.

"When you are working in organized crime like that, it changes hourly almost it feels," he said. "It's not like working in uniform where you have a schedule and pattern to go through. When you work in organized crime it's completely different." 

 

The tiny book details the his experiences negotiating drug deals with so called outlaw bikers, chasing drug smugglers by boat on the St. Lawrence River and of course, being shot at. "It's bizarre cause now it sort of flashes back up where for 30 years I never thought of it," Rocheleau said. "I just walked away from very bad scenes and just forgot about them."

The officer said he now suffers from PTSD and wants to share a message. "There is help out there, you don't have to be Superman, you can ask for help," said Rocheleau. He also hopes to give back to the community. A small percentage of the proceeds from the book will be donated to NEO Kids and The Hospital for Sick Children.

SOURCE: CTV

Ex-Hells Angels Charter President Denied Jail Release

San Francisco, California, USA (December 16, 2020) - In a court hearing that included a tense back-and-forth between the prosecution and defense attorneys, a federal judge denied a former Hells Angels charter president’s latest bid for release.

Raymond “Ray Ray” Foakes, 57, argued through his attorney that his due process rights were being violated as he’s spent 27 months in jail while still legally presumed innocent with — his attorney argued — as many as three more years to go before his cases even goes to trial. Federal prosecutors countered that courts, including the Ninth Circuit, have routinely found two years to be an acceptable amount of pretrial detention when the defendant is facing serious charges. 

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said at a Wednesday court hearing that Foakes demonstrated a “continuing pattern” of law violations throughout his life, so he wasn’t confident Foakes would comply with pretrial release conditions if he was freed from jail.

“Mr. Foakes has not conformed, on numerous occasions, time after time, with orders from the courts. That simply cannot be ignored,” Chen said. He added, though, it was “not inconceivable” a similar motion could succeed at a future date if Foakes ends up spending a lengthier time in jail.

Foakes’ attorney, George Boisseau, said that Foakes’ jail stay has been so long that it has “become punitive” and amounted to a due process violation. He said Foakes has a job offer in Oakley and is willing to stay on house arrest with “stringent conditions.”

RELATED | Former Hells Angels Prez Wants House Arrest

Boisseau also argued that witnesses in the case haven’t been threatened or intimidated by Foakes nor his co-defendants, even though their names and locations are commonly known. When it was his turn to speak, assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Barry called that remark “a form of intimidation.”  “Mr. Boisseau’s argument that, ‘we know who the witnesses are and we know where they live’ is a form of a threat,” Barry said.

Later in the hearing, Boisseau shot back at Barry and sharply denied he’d threatened anyone.

“I take offense to that,” Boisseau said. “I’ve been an attorney for a long time with an unblemished record, probably longer than Mr. Barry has been an attorney.”  “I didn’t read Barry’s comment as saying you were a risk,” Chen said to Boisseau.

Foakes, who was once president of the Hells Angels Sonoma Charter, is accused of an “hours-long” beating of a victim that occurred in November 2016, and that prosecutors say culminated with someone forcibly tattooing the victim’s face, and Foakes declaring he would shoot the victim until fellow members of the motorcycle club dissuaded him. The charge is part of a racketeering case aimed at 11 alleged Hells Angels members.

Both pretrial services and the U.S. Probation department opposed Foakes being released. Chen said the “yardstick mark” for Foakes’ motion is how much time he’s actually spent in jail, not how much time he could potentially spend awaiting trial, and agreed that 27 months was acceptable.

The basis for Boisseau’s motion was that Foakes is set to go on trial after a number of his co-defendants — who, unlike Foakes, are accused of participating in a murder and illegal cremation of a fellow Hells Angels member in Fresno — are tried in October 2021. But Barry said that federal prosecutors are working to get Foakes into the earlier trial. “We want him in the first trial group,” Barry said. 

SOURCE: The Mercury

Dutch Court Upholds Ban on Hells Angels MC

Arnhem, Netherlands (December 15, 2020) BTN - The Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal issued an appeal in the case in which the Public Prosecution Service claimed that Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Holland and Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation The Netherlands will be banned.

Activities contrary to public order in the Netherlands

The court finds that the global organization of Hells Angels should be seen as a foreign corporation and the organization of the Dutch charters as an informal association. The court finds that the Public Prosecution Service has sufficiently demonstrated that the activities of these two organizations are contrary to public order in the Netherlands and considers a prohibition of these organizations necessary.

Violent culture

There have been frequent violent incidents and possession of weapons involving members of Hells Angels, both worldwide and in the Netherlands. This is a structural situation that cannot be seen in isolation from the culture of violence that exists at Hells Angels. An important factor is the violent image, in which that violence is encouraged and glorified in various ways. 

Another factor in their decision is the rivalry with other motorcycle clubs, which regularly leads to power struggles and accompanying violent confrontations. These conflicts between different motorcycle clubs are fought more than once amidst the public on the street. Intimidation of members and former members, victims and witnesses furthermore makes action by the police and the judicial authorities much more difficult.

RELATED | Hells Angels Want Club Ban Reversed

The prohibition of Hells Angels and Hells Angels Holland that has been pronounced by the court therefore remains in force.

The charters

The court also finds that the charters are sub divisions of Hells Angels Holland, but also meet the characteristics of an informal association. They have the freedom to regulate the course of events at the local level, bottom-up structure. The charters are therefore legal entities themselves and therefore do not fall under the prohibition and dissolution of Hells Angels Holland. 

Nevertheless, the court finds that once the prohibition of Hells Angels and Hells Angels Holland is irrevocable, the activities of the charters and the members, as Hells Angels in the Netherlands, are prohibited. This means, for example, that Hells Angels are no longer allowed to wear their colors in public and the charters are no longer allowed to use this name.

Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation 

The organization in the US that holds the trademark rights of Hells Angels is not banned because it does not appear that those activities are also contrary to public policy.

SOURCE: Dutch News