22







Showing posts with label Gypsy Joker MC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gypsy Joker MC. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Ex-Gypsy Joker MC member fears retaliation in custody

Portland, Oregon, USA  (September 10, 2019) BTN – A former member of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club facing federal racketeering, kidnapping and murder charges argued Monday that he’s at more risk of retaliation behind bars than he would be outside while awaiting trial.

Joseph Duane Folkerts is a target, said his defense lawyer, Andrew Kohlmetz. “It’s easier to get to him in jail than out of custody,’’ Kohlmetz said.


U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones denied the request to release Folkerts, noting that he’s currently in protective custody and faces a potential life sentence if convicted. Folkerts, 62, is one of four co-defendants who face similar charges and remain behind bars pending an April trial. Two others have pleaded guilty.

Folkerts’ attorneys, by day’s end, filed a notice they plan to appeal Jones’ ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Prosecutors said Folkerts wasn’t involved in the initial abduction of former club member Robert “Bagger’’ Huggins, 56, who was taken from a home in Northeast Portland to a rural property in southwest Washington, where he was beaten, tortured and killed.

Related | Gypsy Joker MC murder trial continues
Related | Gypsy Joker MC national president released
Related | Gypsy Joker MC members face charges

But Folkerts did witness the 2015 beating in Washington, helped restrain Huggins with zip ties around his wrists during the assault and then drove Huggins’ body to a field near Ridgefield, Washington, where it was dumped, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Mygrant.

Huggins’ body was found by loggers on July 1, 2015 in the Clark County field. He had a fractured skull, a broken rib, a broken leg, a removed nipple, nails driven through his boots, slash wounds to his back and face and many blows to his face. Mygrant said Folkerts was a member of Road Brothers, a different motorcycle club at the time of Huggins’ death. After the killing, he got a patch to join the Gypsy Joker club as a reward, the prosecutor said.

Folkerts’ lawyer challenged that characterization. Kohlmetz said Folkerts was forced to join the Gypsy Jokers after the beating of Huggins. “It’s not a reward,’’ Kohlmetz said. “It’s a threat, purchasing his silence. … ‘Here’s you patch, sir. You’re in.’"

Sometime in the summer and fall of 2016, Folkerts was assaulted by a number of Gypsy Joker club members at the clubhouse and elsewhere and knocked unconscious by one of his current co-defendants, Kohlmetz told the court. Folkerts also had his motorcycle and identification stolen by Gypsy Jokers, his lawyer said.

He was basically “beat out’’ of the motorcycle club, Kohlmetz said.

When he arrived at the Multnomah County Detention Center in downtown Portland after his arrest, he learned from another inmate in his dorm that he had been “green lit,’’ meaning that word had come from co-defendant Earl Fisher that it would be OK to assault Folkerts, Kohlmetz said.

So he was moved to Inverness Jail in Northeast Portland, but once there, he came into contact with two of his co-defendants, Kohlmetz said. He was then shipped out to the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Institution in The Dalles for his own protection. Somehow, he was housed in a dorm with the son of a Gypsy Joker member and told face-to-face to “shut up," Kohlmetz said. He’s now in protective custody at his own request, according to court testimony.

The prosecutor urged the judge to consider the severity of the allegations. Huggins was water-boarded and struck in the head with a baseball bat, Mygrant said, though he conceded that Folkerts wasn’t involved in the torture. Folkerts has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death.

Fisher and Tiler Evan Pribbernow – two of the six charged in the kidnapping and murder - have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in racketeering. Pribbernow has been described as the government’s "star witness,’’ who delivered the fatal blow to Huggins with the bat.

A seventh defendant, Kenneth Earl Hause, the national president of the outlaw motorcycle club, was accused only in the racketeering conspiracy and released from custody in February pending trial.

SOURCE: Oregon Live

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Gypsy Joker MC members stopped at airport

Perth, Australia (April 20, 2019) BTN — Five international motorcycle club members including three Gypsy Jokers and two associates of the club have been banned from entering the country after being stopped at Perth Airport.

The men all arrived in Perth in the past week to attend an event being held on Saturday night to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the motorcycle club.

Baggage search bench at Perth Airport

But the Australian Border Force (ABF) said they were all stopped and questioned before having their visas cancelled because "they presented a risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian community, or a segment of the community".

The men included two Germans, aged 33 and 61, a 34-year-old Norwegian and two Spaniards aged 43 and 44. The ABF said the German pair, both members of the Gypsy Jokers, arrived in Perth on a flight from Hong Kong on Monday night.


The Spanish men, both club associates, also arrived on Monday on a flight from Dubai. The Norwegian member of the Gypsy Jokers arrived on a flight from Singapore on Wednesday. The ABF said the men were held at the Perth immigration detention centre before being sent home.

ABF regional commander for WA Rod O'Donnell said they were focussed on disrupting the activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs.

"These gangs pose a significant threat to our community and are known to be involved in serious criminal activity including drug trafficking and violent crime," he said. "Any non-citizen involved with a criminal organisation, including outlaw motorcycle gangs, can expect to have their Australian visa cancelled on arrival and be removed from the country."

The event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Gypsy Jokers, at the motorcycle club's Maddington clubhouse in Perth's south-eastern suburbs, is expected to be watched closely by police.

SOURCE: ABC.NEWS.AU

Friday, April 12, 2019

Gypsy Joker MC murder trial continues

Portland, OR (April 12, 2019) BTN – The star government witness in the torture-style killing of a former Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club member is the man who wielded the fatal blow with a baseball bat strike to the head, a defense lawyer said in court Thursday.

The prosecution’s case largely rests on the words of the actual murderer, Tiler Evan Pribbernow, who has cooperated with the government, said attorney Matthew Schindler, who represents one of the co-defendants in the case.


Schindler called it “outrageous” that prosecutors would allow Pribbernow to plead guilty to only racketeering to leverage his testimony against others. The deal allows Pribbernow to avoid accountability for the killing and save his own life by avoiding a potential death sentence, the lawyer said.

Related | Gypsy Joker MC national president released
Related | Gypsy Joker MC members face charges

“Tiler Pribbernow did it because he’s a lunatic. That’s why,” Schindler said. “We’ve seen one witness statement, and that statement is the statement of the murderer. … He killed this guy.”

Racketeering, kidnapping and murder charges are pending against five others in the 2015 death of Robert “Bagger” Huggins, 56. Loggers found his battered body dumped in a Clark County field. He had a fractured skull, a broken rib, a broken leg, a removed nipple, nails driven through his boots, slash wounds to his back and face and many blows to his face, authorities said.

Schindler was arguing for the pretrial release of his client, Ryan Anthony Negrinelli, now 36. At the time of the killing, Negrinelli was a “prospect’’ to join the club. After the killing, he became a full member who went by the nickname “Striker” before splitting from the club in mid-2018, a prosecutor said.

Schindler said the government has no physical evidence placing Negrinelli at the scene. Negrinelli has no prior criminal record, he said. The lawyer also pointed to Negrinelli’s full custody of his 14-year-old daughter and ties to the community. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones ordered Negrinelli to remain in custody, citing the gravity of the alleged offense. But the judge said he wasn’t willing to let the defendants languish in county jail indefinitely while waiting for “some bureaucrat’’ at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., to “make up their mind” and decide whether to pursue the death penalty in the case.

He said he was told it could take up to a year for the decision, and that’s not acceptable. Schindler also urged the judge to discount Negrinelli’s statement to two Portland detectives after his arrest, saying it should be suppressed because the detectives failed to acknowledge Negrinelli’s repeated requests for a lawyer, placed him in a holding cell for eight hours without food and then plied him with leading information about the attack. Negrinelli also told the detectives he suffered from a childhood brain injury that impairs his memory.

The judge said he’d rule on a motion to suppress any statements at a later date.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad said Negrinelli was involved in a “premeditated, planned hunt of someone who angered the group he was part of.” According to Pribbernow, Portland’s Gypsy Jokers president Mark Leroy Dencklau ordered the attack on Huggins and others helped. The June 30, 2015, kidnapping and subsequent killing was in retaliation for Huggins’ burglary and robbery at Dencklau’s Woodburn home earlier that month, the government alleges. Dencklau is also charged in the killing.


Huggins had targeted Dencklau’s home after getting kicked out of the club for stealing and breaking club rules, Bolstad said. Dencklau’s then-girlfriend was tied up and Huggins stole some of Dencklau’s property, including guns, the prosecutor said.

While Pribbernow is a key witness and has implicated co-defendants, he’s not the only witness, Bolstad said. Information Pribbernow shared with investigators has been corroborated, including use of a Chevy Tahoe by some of the defendants to carry Huggins’ body and dump him in Ridgefield, Wash., she said. DNA from blood found under carpet in the trunk of the Tahoe matched that of Huggins, she said.

According to Bolstad, Negrinelli helped grabbed Huggins in the driveway of a Portland home and put him into an SUV, where he and four others beat him and drove him to a shed in Woodlawn, Wash. Negrinelli helped place Huggins in the shed, where the defendants continued to torture Huggins, according to Bolstad. In his own words, Negrinelli told Portland detectives after his arrest that he “blasted,’’ or punched, Huggins a few times, Bolstad said.

Negrinelli also used water-boarding on Huggins, placing a scarf over his mouth and pouring water into it, triggering a choking response, Bolstad said. He also helped apply burning hot wire to Huggins’ body, she said. While others dumped Huggins’ body, Negrinelli and two co-defendants drove away in another car to discard weapons, throwing baseball bats into brush off the side of a road, Bolstad said.

Kenneth Earl Hause, the national president of the Gypsy Jokers Outlaw Motorcycle Club, is the only one of the defendants who has was released from jail this year to home detention with electric monitoring as he awaits trial. Hause’s circumstances are different, Bolstad argued, because Hause is charged only in the alleged racketeering conspiracy and not with murder.

SOURCE: Oregon Live

Friday, February 15, 2019

Gypsy Joker MC national president released

Portland, OR (February 15, 2019) BTN – A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of Kenneth Earl Hause, the 61-year-old national president of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club, who is charged in an alleged racketeering conspiracy. But U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones placed Hause on home detention with electric monitoring and said he must resign immediately from his role as leader of the motorcycle club and not associate with any current or former Gypsy Joker members as he awaits trial.

Kenneth Earl Hause

Hause’s defense lawyer, Todd Bofferding, called his client a "man of honor'' and described him as an ailing grandfather who has the widespread support of his local community in Aumsville -- from the chief of police to waitresses in the small Marion County town of about 3,580 people. Hause also can’t get the medical care he needs in jail for his congenital heart failure, Bofferding said.

Related | Gypsy Joker MC members face charges

Though he has a past criminal record, it’s old and he hasn’t been convicted of a crime in 15 years, his lawyer said. “I don’t believe he’s now the man the government believes he is,’’ Bofferding said. Prosecutors vigorously opposed Hause’s release, contending that at his direction as the "Wiz'' or "The Boss’’ of the club, fellow Gypsy Joker kidnapped, tortured and murdered a former club member.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Mygrant called Hause the “chief enforcer of this criminal enterprise,’’ a motorcycle club he said that prides itself on being a “1 percenter’’ group of outlaws, apart from the 99 percent of motorcyclists who abide by the law. Hause has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Four co-defendants who remain in custody are accused of racketeering but also are charged in the 2015 torture and killing of former club member Robert Huggins, who was kicked out for stealing money and for his intravenous drug use, prosecutors said.

The killing was in retaliation for Huggins’ burglary and robbery at the Woodburn home of Portland’s Gypsy Joker president Mark Leroy Dencklau. Dencklau’s then-girlfriend was tied up during the robbery.

SOURCE: FOX 12 Oregon

Friday, February 1, 2019

Gypsy Joker MC members face charges

Portland, OR (February 1, 2019) BTN  – Six members and associates of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club have been charged by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office - District of Oregon.

The five-count superseding indictment includes charges of racketeering, kidnapping and murder.

From left to right top row: Kenneth Earl Hause, Mark Leroy Dencklau and Earl Deverle Fisher. From left to right bottom: Ryan Anthony Negrinelli and Jospeh Duane Folkerts.

Those charged include:

Kenneth Earl Hause, 61 of Aumsville, who is the National President
Mark Leroy Dencklau, 58 of Woodburn
Earl Deverle Fisher, 48 of Gresham
Ryan Anthony Negrinelli, 36 of Gresham
Jospeh Duane Folkerts 61 of Battleground

A sixth defendant was not named. All are members and associates of the club and are charged with conspiring to conduct and participate in the activities of a racketeering enterprise.

With the exception of Hause, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the other five defendants also face charges of murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death for the June 30 to July 2, 2015 kidnapping and murder of Robert Huggins.

Huggins was a former Gypsy Joker MC member and resident of southeast Portland. The five defendants are accused of killing Huggins to maintain and increase their positions in the criminal club.

“According to the indictment, since at least 2003, the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle club have engaged in a wide range of crimes, including kidnapping, murder, drug dealing, robbery, extortion, and witness tampering,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.

“Thanks to the efforts of ATF, the Portland Police Department, and federal prosecutors, we will work hard to hold accountable the leaders and members of this brutal and highly organized gang for their alleged crimes.”

“Kenneth Hause is the leader of a criminal organization that, through its many chapters and support clubs, has sowed violence and intimidation throughout the Pacific Northwest. This is an organization whose members and associates pride themselves on living outside the law and use kidnapping, assault, murder and other forms of violence to extend and maintain their power. 

Kenneth Hause and his co-defendants will soon face the consequences of their crimes thanks to a seamless partnership of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies,” said U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams.

The superseding indictment states the Gypsy Joker MC preserves, promotes and protects its power, territory and profits through violence and intimidation as well as enriches its members through extortion, robbery and the distribution of narcotics.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Gypsy Joker MC is known for using fear through its members and associates as a tactic for establishing and maintaining its power.

Additionally, the club oversees several support clubs in both Oregon and Washington, including the Road Brothers Northwest Motorcycle Club, Solutions Motorcycle Club, Northwest Veterans Motorcycle Club, High-Side Riders, and the Freedom Fellowship Motorcycle Club.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Dencklau, Fisher and Tiler Evan Pribbernow, 37 of Portland, were first charged in a four-count indictment that was unsealed in July 2018.  Pribbernow pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to conduct and participate in the activities of a racketeering enterprise on November 7, 2018. Dencklau and Fisher are detained pending trial.

Along with the criminal charges brought against the five named defendants in the superseding indictment, the government is seeking forfeiture of a property in Salem that is used as a Gypsy Joker MC clubhouse.

SOURCE: FOX12 Oregon