Former Hells Angels Prez Wants House Arrest

Sonoma, California, USA (December 11, 2020) - In an attempt to keep a former Hells Angels charter president incarcerated while he awaits trial in a racketeering case, federal prosecutors have revealed new allegations about the November 2016 beating he’s charged with committing, alleging that the victim was assaulted for hours, pistol-whipped, forcibly tattooed, and nearly murdered.

Raymond Foakes, AKA "Ray Ray" a prominent Hells Angels member and past Sonoma charter president known for setting off the River Run Riot, has made a new bid for freedom, arguing through his attorneys that he’s willing to be placed on house arrest in Oakley in lieu of imprisonment at the Santa Rita Jail. His attorneys have also argued it’s unfair to keep Foakes locked up when he’s not scheduled to go to trial for at least a year. 

“In sum, there has been little or no progress made in getting Foakes’ case to trial and the earliest feasible trial date for him will be sometime in 2022,” his attorney wrote in a Dec. 2 court filing. “By that time Foakes will have been detained for almost 60 months.”

In their response, federal prosecutors argued Foakes “poses both a flight risk and a danger to the community” and that his motion is essentially a rehashing of prior failed attempts to get out of jail. They also detailed the main crimes Foakes is accused of committing: the 2016 beating and a subsequent sexual assault of a woman connected to the beating victim.

In court records, both alleged victims are referred to by pseudonyms to protect their identities. The alleged victim of the beating is referred to as “Victim 5.”

“During that assault, another Hells Angel pistol-whipped Victim 5; he was beaten with a baseball bat; and he was repeatedly punched and kicked. Victim 5’s tattoos were forcibly covered over with a tattoo gun, and (Foakes) took that tattoo gun and crudely etched lines in Victim 5’s face,” prosecutors wrote. “During the beating, (Foakes) indicated that he was going to take the firearm that was used to pistol whip Victim 5 and was going to shoot the victim with it. Other Hells Angels stopped him from doing so, however.”

During the beating, Foakes allegedly called a woman — referred to in court records as “Victim 6” and said that he “needed to explain to her what was happening to Victim 5,” prosecutors wrote.

“Victim 6 drove to meet (Foakes), and when she picked him up, defendant took her to a secluded location and sexually assaulted her,” the prosecution memo added.

A federal judge is scheduled to rule on Foakes’ motion for release next week. The motion may yet succeed, as some of Foakes’ co-defendants, including other Hells Angels members have already been granted release in this case. Last September, the president of the Sonoma Hells Angels Charter, Jonathan “Jon Jon” Nelson, was granted release from Santa Rita with pending murder charges after his attorneys argued he had strong ties to the community and would not associate with other members of the club while out of custody.



Foakes was one of 11 alleged Hells Angels members charged in 2017 as part of a large-scale federal investigation. The defendants have since been divided into two groups: Those facing charges of luring a fellow Hells Angels member to a clubhouse in Fresno, murdering him, and illegally cremating the body, and those, like Foakes, who aren’t facing any murder charges. 

The former group is expected to go to trial in October 2021, and the latter group will likely get their day in court sometime the following year, according to court records.

SOURCE: The Mercury 

Hells Angel Member Faces Gambling Charge

Burnaby, B.C., Canada (November 26, 2020) - A full-patch member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and three other men have been charged with illegal gambling after an investigation by B.C.’s anti-gang agency. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit searched Big Shots Café, at 3980 East Hastings St. in Burnaby, on July 4, area residents said.

This week, a charge of being “found in a common gaming or betting house” was laid against café owner Francisco Batista Pires, as well as Jay Arnold Franco, Richard William Kosterman and Andrew David MacFarlane. Pires is a longtime Hells Angel member, currently with the Nomads chapter. 

The provincial court database confirmed that Pires appeared in Vancouver provincial court Wednesday on the charge. The other three accused are scheduled to appear on Friday. CFSEU’s media officer, Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, said Wednesday that she couldn’t yet comment on the case.

The date of the alleged offence is June 18, 2020. Sources say the charge relates to illegal gambling that, allegedly, was going on in the back of the business.

Corporate records indicate that Pires incorporated Big Shots on June 10, 2004 with another man. The second director was replaced by Hells Angel member Rob Alvarez on January 1, 2005, the records state. Alvarez ceased being a director on June 8, 2008, though the City of Burnaby 2020 business licence lists both Pires and Alvarez as café operators.

An earlier drug trafficking conviction of Pires was cited in a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling against the director of civil forfeiture’s attempt to get three Hells Angels clubhouses forfeited as instruments of criminal activity.

Justice Barry Davies accepted that Pires and others had used the East End clubhouse for trafficking on three occasions, but said that alone “does not establish that the East End Clubhouse was used in the past as an instrument of unlawful activity.”  The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office is appealing Davies ruling, which allowed the them to retain control of the East End and Kelowna clubhouses and returned the Nanaimo clubhouse to the local chapter.

Pires, now 57, and Hells Angel member Ronaldo Lising were convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and sentenced to 4½ years in jail. They appealed and lost, first in the B.C. Court of Appeal and in November 2005 in the Supreme Court of Canada.

At their 2001 sentencing, Justice Kenneth Smith found the two men were joint operators of a wholesale cocaine business that supplied two well-known Vancouver strip bars. He said the two bikers were “criminals in the true sense” because they walked down a criminal path “deliberately and for selfish reasons.”

SOURCE: Vancouver Sun

Hells Angels MC Clubhouse Searched

Surrey, BC, Canada (November 22, 2020) - Surrey RCMP executed a search warrant overnight Friday at the Hells Angels Hardside clubhouse in connection with a gun investigation. Mounties continued with the search Saturday at the rented rancher in the 18000-block of 96 Avenue.

The search is connected to the arrest Friday morning of Gurpreet Dhaliwal, a prospect with the Hardside chapter and an associate named Meninder Dhaliwal, who is linked to the Brother Keepers club. Gurpreet Dhaliwal was a passenger in an SUV allegedly driven by Meninder when it collided with a sedan Friday just after 8:00 a.m. near 180th and Golden Ears Way. 

Surrey RCMP said in a news release Friday that “the driver of the SUV fled the scene on foot while the passenger, who had minor injuries, remained at the scene.”

“As the investigation unfolded, the officer observed a handgun inside the SUV and subsequently arrested the passenger for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. The driver of the sedan remained at the scene and had minor injuries,” Cpl. Joanne Sidhu said. “At approximately 10 a.m., the driver of the SUV was located and apprehended with the assistance of the Integrated Lower Mainland Police Dog Services.”

Sidhu said the driver was arrested for failing to remain at the scene of a collision, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. She did not release the identities of either suspect. “Both the driver and the passenger of the SUV are known to police and are believed to have ties to organized crime,” Sidhu said.

RELATED | Hells Angels Clubhouse Targeted

Sidhu also said Friday that “the investigation is ongoing as officers work to determine the circumstances that led to the collision.”  Neither Dhaliwal has yet been charged in the current investigation into the firearm.

Retired Vancouver police biker specialist Brad Stephen said Saturday that “it’s not common for a Hells Angel member or prospect in B.C. to carry a firearm.” Speaking generally, Stephen said they would only do so “if they feel for some reason they need to defence themselves personally or there is a threat against the club.”

And he said in several previous cases of members or prospects who’ve been caught with firearms, they not only faced charges, but also repercussions from their biker brethren. “They’re held accountable and they have to explain themselves to the club,” said Stephen, who spent 20 years investigating motorcycle clubs.

The Hells Angels opened the Hardside chapter in March of 2017 — the 10th HA chapter to start since the motorcycle club set up in B.C. in 1983.

SOURCE: The Province 

Trial Set for Hells Angels Prospect

Kelowna, BC Canada (November 21, 2020) - A Kelowna Hells Angel prospect who's charged with assaulting a woman will go to trial next spring. In August, 43-year-old Jason Townsend was arrested and charged with simple assault and assault by choking, for an alleged incident that occurred in the early hours of Aug. 7 on Kelowna's Yates Road.

"Frontline officers immediately attended the scene and found the male suspect had fled the residence prior to police attendance," said Kelowna RCMP's Const. Solana Pare at the time. "Officers spoke with the female victim who had been assaulted and suffering non-life threatening injuries."

On Thursday, Townsend's two-day trial was set for May 3, 2021. 

The Vancouver Sun's Kim Bolan reported that Townsend had become a Kelowna Hells Angel prospect in the fall of 2019, after his former club, Prince George's Renegades motorcycle club, disbanded. A prospect is the final stage before members become full-patch members of the Hells Angels.

Townsend's former Facebook profile photo shows him wearing a jacket with red and white patches that say “PROSPECT” and “KELOWNA.”  Townsend remains out of custody after he was released on $1,000 bail following his arrest.

This is not Townsend's first run-in with the justice system. In 2014, he was sentenced to three years in jail for a 2013 assault on two men and a woman outside a Prince George nightclub, but the BC Court of Appeal took a year off his sentence in 2015.

RELATED | Hells Angels Associate Set For Trial

Townsend's trial will begin on the same date as the trial for another man affiliated with the Kelowna Hells Angels. Colin Bayley will face trial in Kelowna's Supreme Court for an aggravated assault charge stemming from a May 2019 incident that allegedly put a 41-year-old man in hospital. Kelowna RCMP described Bayley as a "known associate" of the local Hells Angels. His trial has been delayed several times, but it's now scheduled to also begin on May 3. He is also out of custody on bail.

In a BC Supreme Court decision from last spring, a judge ruled against the BC Civil Forfeiture Office's attempts to seize Hells Angels clubhouses in Kelowna, Vancouver and Nanaimo. Throughout the lengthy trial, the B.C government identified 14 members of the Kelowna Hells Angels since the chapter was started in 2007. At the time of the 2018-19 trial, the province also identified one prospect and two official “hangarounds.”

The province is appealing the decision.

SOURCE: CASTANET

Police Raid Hells Angels Clubhouse

Lahti, Finland (October 31, 2020) - Police confiscated drugs, weapons and explosives during a sweep of motorcycle clubhouses on Friday. According to Detective Superintendent Pälvi Suokas of the Häme police department, the operation targeted the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

In Lahti, about 100 kilometres north of Helsinki, authorities searched premises rented by a new motorcycle club called Red Roots. A preliminary investigation determined that the facility is now used by the Hells Angels. Other sites were searched, including a Hells Angels clubhouse in the eastern city of Lappeenranta.

Police said they detained an unspecified number of people on Friday. Three of them were prospective Hells Angels members who this month had been granted “hang-around” status, the first step toward full membership.

 

The Häme police department led the operation with extensive cooperation from the Southeast Finland, Helsinki, Eastern Uusimaa and Western Uusimaa police departments as well as the National Bureau of Investigations and the Criminal Sanctions Agency. Police declined to provide more details, citing the ongoing preliminary investigation. 

The Finnish News Agency STT reported in September that a new motorcycle club called Red Roots had been established in Lahti. Police first observed motorcyclists wearing Red Roots vests and insignia last spring.  Police say that Red Roots dissolved in August, splitting into two groups. Since then both groups have been involved with the Hells Angels, officials say.

Red Roots was set up to replace the Lahti chapter of the United Brotherhood (UB) club. At the same time an associated group called Redrum was also established, corresponding to a UB affiliate called Bad Union, according to police.

This week Eastern Uusimaa District Court extended a temporary ban on UB’s activities, which was originally imposed in January. Legal proceedings aimed at shutting down UB permanently are scheduled to begin in late November.

UB was launched in 2010 through the merger of three organisations, known as Rogues Gallery, Natural Born Killers and MORE.

SOURCE: Nord News

Hells Angels Want Club Ban Reversed

Haarlem, Netherlands (October 7, 2020) - The ban on the Hells Angels motorcycle club in the Netherlands must be reversed. If the Angels are accused of engaging in crime and violence, it should be attributed to individual members and not to that of the club or other members, Hells Angels lawyers argued in court on Wednesday.

The court in Utrecht banned the club last year, at the request of the Public Prosecution Service. The Angels have appealed against this. 

Lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops said before the court in Arnhem that the Public Prosecution Service is wrongfully portraying the Hells Angels as a criminal organization. Justice, according to counsel, uses a media strategy that relies heavily on "tabloids from the tabloid press and obscure, dubious websites". The image that arises from this is that the Angels pose a threat to public order.

Smear campaign

That image is incorrect, says Knoops. His argument was reinforced in court by contributions from two members of the Angels. They denounced the "smear campaign" that the judiciary would have launched against the Hells Angels in order to kill the club. That campaign is creating a reputation for a collection of "murderers, looters and rapists". The Angels believe that neither themselves nor their club should be the victim of members who engage in crime. "I just go to work with my lunch box," said one of them.

In the procedure that the Public Prosecution has started to have the Hells Angels banned in the Netherlands, it has mapped out nearly 1,500 incidents (worldwide) that must support the main argument for that ban: the Angels are not an association for tough Harley riders, but there is a strong, criminal culture of violence that bother society.

Departments

In its argument before the Arnhem court, the Public Prosecution Service cited, among other things, the liquidation of the Delft criminal Karel Pronk, for which a Hells Angel was convicted in June this year. The judiciary also pointed to escalating conflicts with rival motorcycle clubs and to an ongoing, international drug case in which Angels from Friesland figure as suspects.

The Hells Angels in the Netherlands has eighteen local branches (so-called chapters or charters) with a total of 241 members. The club was founded in the United States in 1948 by mainly former military personnel. About forty years ago the club also became active in the Netherlands.

A few years ago, the judiciary started a renewed offensive to get so-called Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) banned by the courts. A number of cases are still ongoing, against clubs such as Satudarah, Bandidos and No Surrender. 

SOURCE: Haarlem Dagblad

Shots Fired At Clubhouse Sparked Killing

New York City, NY, USA (October 7, 2020) - The assassination of a Bronx motorcycle club leader was retaliation for someone opening fire on the Hells Angels new Bronx headquarters, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

Hells Angels members Frank “Loose Cannon” Tatulli, 58, and Sayanon Thongthawath, 29, were arrested July 22 for for allegedly shooting Francisco Rosado, the head of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club’s Bronx chapter. 

Rosado, 51, was shot dead in a parking lot at Holland Ave. and Boston Road in Allerton about 3:20 p.m. on May 2, near the Bronx building where he worked as a super. He was shot in the head, neck and back. Another Pagan, identified as Javier Cruz, 42, was shot in the arm, officials said. 

Two masked suspects were caught on disturbing video jumping out of their Jeep Cherokee and opening fire on the two men. 

Related | Media Blames Hells Angels for Shooters 

Related | New Hells Angels Clubhouse Upsets Nosy Neighbors 

Related | Former Hells Angels MC Clubhouse Sold 

 
The Pagan's have been deemed an outlaw motorcycle club by federal authorities, and several of its members have been linked to drug dealing, violence and death, officials said.

Tatulli and Thongthawath were arrested on July 22 on charges of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder and assault charges A third suspect, Anthony Destefano, 27, a member of Satan’s Soldiers, was also arrested and charged with manslaughter and conspiracy. 

Francisco Rosado

The motive at the time was unknown.

A Bronx grand jury recently indicted Tatulli and Thongthawath on murder charges. Both are being held without bail on Rikers Island awaiting their next court date.

“The defendants allegedly shot the two victims, in retaliation for a January 2020 shooting outside the Hells Angels headquarters on Longstreet Ave. in the Bronx,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement Wednesday. 

“The defendants allegedly conspired and carried out this horrific violence in a residential area, near a busy intersection in broad daylight. These retaliatory shootings hurt our communities and must stop.”

SOURCE: New York Daily News

Hells Angels Associate Set For Trial

Kelowna, BC Canada (September 28, 2020) - A "known associate" of the Kelowna Hells Angels Motorcycle Club will appear in court to begin his long-awaited trial on October 19.

Colin Bayley was charged last spring with aggravated assault on May 6, 2019 after he allegedly put a 41-year-old man in hospital.

The Kelowna RCMP executed a search warrant at the Kelowna Hells Angels MC clubhouse on May 15, 2019 as part of their investigation into Bayley, and the 30-year-old was arrested just a few hours later.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin in January this year but was moved to September, and has now been delayed until October 19.

While the details of the alleged aggravated assault are not yet known, Bayley is restricted from having any contact with employees of Doc Willoughby's Pub, and from visiting the 300 block of Bernard Avenue.

He is also banned from wearing any Hells Angels clothing, or associating with anyone wearing Hells Angels clothing, along with attending the Hells Angels clubhouse.

At the time of his arrest in May 2019, Bayley had just completed a 12-month probation period for a prior assault he committed in January 2017.

Bayley remains out of custody on bail.

SOURCE: CASTANET

Suspected Hells Angels Member Found Dead

Ontario, Canada (September 26, 2020) - The Ontario Provincial Police say the “sudden death” of a man in Beckwith Township is now being investigated as a homicide.

“A post mortem examination, conducted in Ottawa on September 25, 2020, determined the death was the result of homicide,” police said Friday evening.

Police responded to a home on Scotch Corners Road before 10:30 a.m. Thursday and found Gregory Slewidge, 39, dead on the scene.

According to police sources, Slewidge is a full-patch Hells Angel member. He is also the son of Lyndon Slewidge, a retired OPP officer who was the official national anthem singer for the Ottawa Senators for more than two decades. There was no answer at the Slewidge family home in nearby Ashton on Friday morning.

Lanark County OPP officers, under the direction of the OPP’s criminal investigation branch continue to probe the death.

SOURCE: CBC News

Outlaws MC Member Free On Bail

Fall River, Massachusetts, USA (September 26, 2020) - Joseph (“JoJo”) Noe walked out of Fall River Superior Court Friday with a GPS bracelet around his ankle after posting $50,000 in bail. Outside, several members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, some wearing masks, greeted Noe with hugs as he emerged from the courthouse.

Noe is accused in the shooting death of Oak Bluffs firefighter Eric Voshell, who was a member of the Sidewinders Motorcycle Club, an affiliate of Hells Angels.

Noe, who had been held for a year without bail, was granted bail earlier this week by Judge Renee Dupuis. He had to test the GPS ankle bracelet by walking around the outside of the Fall River Justice Center under the guard of court officers. Members of the Outlaws MC followed them around the building.

Noe was in court Friday for a series of motions in the case.

Voshell’s wife appeared to be watching the court proceedings via Zoom.

Outside the courthouse, defense attorney Rob Galibois spoke on Noe’s behalf saying he’s grateful for the court’s decision. “We were grateful of course for the court paying careful attention to the evidence over the course of the two-day hearing. I think the best comment that could possibly be made on the state of the evidence comes directly from the court herself. From her decision to release my client on bail, her honor wrote, ‘the facts of this case call into serious question the strength of the commonwealth’s case given the lack of evidence tending to support the commonwealth’s ability to prove that the defendant did not act in proper defense of another.’”

“In other words,” Galibois added, “the evidence shows he did act properly in defense of another.”

Earlier in the week, Dupuis ruled that the prosecution failed to demonstrate premeditation required for a first-degree murder charge during at two-day bail hearing. Video evidence from outside JC’s Cafe in Fall River where the altercation between the rival clubs played out shows a chaotic scene, Dupuis wrote.



Galibois successfully argued that Noe was defending his uncle who was being beaten by members of the Sidewinders who were brandishing cylindrical objects, brass knuckles and knives. The Outlaws were outnumbered 3-1, according to the judge’s description of the videos.

Noe showed some restraint before pulling out his gun that night. “When a woman appeared to be pleading for calm, one of the Sidewinders swung a hammer at her face. Noe took out his firearm and pointed it toward the ground,” Dupuis wrote.

When he noticed his uncle getting beaten, he fired the gun. Voshell was killed and two others were injured.

Galibois said he expects the case to go to trial in September.

SOURCE: Martha's Vineyard Times

Hells Angels Member Now Has Sentence Date

Sudbury, Canada (September 15, 2020) - A sentencing date is now set for a full-patched Hells Angels Nomad chapter member from Ottawa who has pleaded guilty to a drug charge in Sudbury court.

Joshua Khosrowkhani, 33, who was facing five charges arising from his arrest August 1, 2019, and was in custody at the Sudbury Jail, pleaded guilty via video conference July 29 to cocaine possession for the purpose of trafficking. Sentencing has been delayed a number of times. A date will now be set September 16.

The court has heard that in the summer of 2018, Niagara Regional Police, Greater Sudbury Police and the Ontario Provincial Police started a joint investigation into a cocaine trafficking ring that operated across Ontario, including Greater Sudbury.

Dubbed Project Skylark, the investigation included the wiretapping of communications in April and June 2019 of a network of drug trafficking in Nova Scotia and Ontario and concentrated on the Red Devils motorcycle club and the Hells Angels Nomads chapter.

Police identified Khosrowkhani, a full-patch member of the Nomads chapter, as one of three targets.

Wiretapped communications showed Khosrowkhani selling cannabis products ranging in price from $250 to $300 an ounce.

On August 1, 2019, a search warrant executed at Khosrowkhani’s home in Ottawa turned up cocaine, MDMA, cannabis marijuana, cannabis edibles, other cannabis products, and $10,500 in cash.

Five at locations in Greater Sudbury were also raided that day. Police in here seized about $420,000 worth of drugs, including methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, and shatter. Five handguns, three long guns, and $50,000 in cash were also seized.

Seven people were arrested and charged in Greater Sudbury as a result of the searches.

SOURCE: The Sudbury Star

Cops Plan To Watch Hells Angels Event

Winnipeg, Canada (September 12, 2020) - Winnipeg police say they will be monitoring a Hells Angels event this weekend that will bring a large number of motorcycle club members to the city and its surrounding areas.

In a tweet shared Sept. 12, the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) announced they would be monitoring a Hell's Angels Winnipeg Chapter Motorcycle Club Event taking place over the weekend.

To ensure public safety, members of the Organized Crime/Biker Enforcement Unit will be monitoring a Hell’s Angels Winnipeg Chapter Motorcycle Club Event. There’s expected to be a large presence of Hells Angels & support clubs throughout the city & surrounding areas. #endganglife

— Winnipeg Police (@wpgpolice) September 12, 2020

Police say members of the Organized Crime/Biker Enforcement Unit will monitor the event for the safety of the public.

A large number of members of the motorcycle club are predicted to be in and around Winnipeg for the event, as well as members of supporting clubs.

SOURCE: CHVN Radio

Warrants Issued for Suspects in Stabbing

Mandan, North Dakota, USA (September 11, 2020) - Authorities have issued arrest warrants for four men suspected of stabbing a man during an attack on a rival motorcycle club member at a Mandan street dance in July, court records show.

Morton County authorities on Friday filed murder conspiracy charges against Nash Wollan, 48, of Williston; Nicholas Kinsella-Gref, 28, of Mandan; Girard Lee Glaser, 49, of Mandan; and Edward Nuckols, 32, of Mandan. The four also face felony charges for allegedly being part of a criminal street gang, court documents show.

Police say the men are members or aspiring members of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club, according to an affidavit. The man who was stabbed stepped in to help a friend, who is a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, police say. The man was taken to a Bismarck hospital for treatment of eight stab wounds and a collapsed lung. His name was not released.

Court records do not list attorneys for any of the wanted men.

According to the The U.S. Department of Justice: North Dakota has historically been territory claimed by the Sons of Silence, police say. Another motorcycle club in recent years joined the Hells Angels, which Sons of Silence members may have seen as a challenge.

SOURCE: Bismarck Tribune 

Hells Angels Member Wins Lawsuit

Denver, Colorado, USA (September 11, 2020) BTN- Five Colorado police agencies paid $25,000 and issued an apology to a Hells Angels member after an officer two years ago joked that he’d shoot the man to get “paid vacation.”

The settlement stems from a federal lawsuit filed in April by Anthony Mills against the city of Greeley, the town of LaSalle and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, as well as individual officers from those jurisdictions and from the Kersey and Garden City police departments.

The suit came in response to an April 8, 2018, incident in which David Miller, a LaSalle police officer, pulled over Anthony Mills for speeding.

Saying he “loved getting to (expletive) with” the motorcycle club, Miller asked the other officers who had responded to make sure their body cameras were off as they shared stories about the violent acts they had committed against members of the group, Mills’ attorney, Sarah Schielke, said in a news release announcing the settlement.

“Officer Miller then announced to the group that if Mr. Mills did anything he didn’t like: ‘I’m shooting him! I need some paid vacation!’ ” Schielke said, citing footage from the officer’s own body camera, which he’d left on.

As part of the settlement, Miller issued an apology to Mills, and has since resigned from the department, Schielke said.

“When police officers openly discuss with one another their disdain for one group of citizens that they are sworn to serve and protect, and make jokes about killing those citizens for ‘paid vacation leave,’ they normalize police misconduct and murder,” Schielke said in a statement. “Cop jokes about some lives not mattering inevitably fosters a culture of police officers who are much more willing to pull the trigger on those same lives later.”



The incident marks at least the third time in recent decades in which Colorado cities have paid money and have been forced to apologize to Hells Angels members.

Denver settled two cases — one in 2003 and another in 2008 — over lawsuits alleging illegal searches and traffic stops against bikers.

In November, federal agents in Denver raided the motorcycle club’s Highland neighborhood headquarters, arresting 14 members on organized crime charges. Those cases are still working their way through the courts.

SOURCE: The Denver Post

Hells Angels Club President Released

Oakland California, USA (September 10, 2020) BTN - A federal magistrate judge signed off on the release of a high-ranking Sonoma Hells Angels member, who is facing charges that he participated in a plot to murder a fellow club member who had fallen out of favor with the club.

But the Thursday morning order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi is not the end of the debate; the U.S. Attorney’s office is appealing the release order, meaning that the defendant, Jonathan “Jon Jon” Nelson, will remain at Santa Rita Jail for the time being.

If Nelson’s release is approved, he will be required to adhere to certain conditions; he is forbidden from interacting with other Hells Angels members or going to clubhouses. He will also be forbidden from using a computer or the internet and be limited to a flip phone.

Nelson, named by federal prosecutors as the president of the Hells Angels Sonoma Chapter, was indicted in 2017 as part of a large-scale investigation into the Hells Angels. Eleven club members — most of whom were tied to the Sonoma Club — were charged with racketeering and engaging in serious violent crimes, including murder.

But Nelson’s attorneys have painted him as a “father, son, coach, and small business owner” who is well-respected in the Sonoma area. One of the biggest defense points in favor of releasing Nelson was that he spent several months out of jail after the 2017 indictment.

He was detained in September 2018, when prosecutors filed new charges that made Nelson eligible for the death penalty. When the government decided not to pursue death in this case, Nelson’s attorney have moved for him to be released from jail.

“I believe one important fact in Mr. Nelson’s favor was his previous good performance while released in this case for over nine months on the previous indictment,” said Jai Gohel, one of Nelson’s lawyers. “Also, it is clear that the fact that Mr. Nelson no longer faces the death penalty was enough to tip the balance towards his release.”

Nelson is facing charges that he conspired with several other Hells Angels to murder Joel Silva, a former Hells Angels sergeant-at-arms who prosecutors say had fallen out of favor with his fellow club members. Prosecutors allege that Nelson lured Silva to the Fresno clubhouse, where another member shot him in the head. Silva was illegally cremated at a nearby funeral home, according to prosecutors. Brian Wendt, the president of the Fresno Hells Angels chapter, is alleged to have pulled the trigger.

SOURCE: The Mercury News

Hells Angels Member Denied Parole

Quebec, Canada (September 8, 2020) - A founding charter member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Quebec has been denied parole on a drug-trafficking sentence — in part because he remains loyal to the motorcycle club.

Michel (Sky) Langlois, 74, also told the Parole Board of Canada he is not interested in being transferred to a halfway house because he fears contracting the coronavirus. He was denied both full parole and day parole. During a hearing held last week, Langlois’s case management team recommended day parole was acceptable in his case but full parole would be “premature.”

Langlois was arrested in April 2018 in Project Objection, a probe led by the Escouade nationale de répression contre le crime organisé (ENRCO). The investigation alleged a few Hells Angels based in Quebec, including Langlois, controlled drug networks in specific locations across the province.

An undercover agent met with Langlois and another Hells Angel on Aug. 9, 2017 at restaurant on Drummond St. in downtown Montreal to discuss the distribution of drugs in the Outaouais region. The agent learned Langlois claimed to have title over drug trafficking in Petite Nation, a regional county municipality, and was partners in the distribution of nearly 300,000 meth pills and several kilos of hashish.

On Oct. 3, 2018, Langlois pleaded guilty at the Montreal courthouse to charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and gangsterism charges. His sentence left him with a prison term of just under 33 months. At the time, Langlois agreed with a summary of facts that were read into the court record. But he told a different story to the parole board last week — that he was merely helping a friend by selling meth and never saw the drugs being sold.

A written summary of the board’s decision indicates Langlois worked on a farm as a teenager before he left for Montreal. In 1963, he began to hang around with the Popeyes, another of Quebec’s motorcycle club at the time.

In 1977, Langlois and several members of the Popeyes were recruited into the Hells Angels and formed the clubs’s first chapter in Canada, based in Montreal. In 1997, he became a founding member of the club’s South chapter, based on the South Shore.

Langlois does not deny he is a Hells Angel but, he told the board he “never committed an offence at their incitation,” according to the summary.

“You do not consider the Hells Angels to be a criminal organization and you adhere to this group solely out of a love for motorcycles and that the group does not recommend to its members that they commit crimes,” it says.

The parole board noted Langlois has been a model inmate who worked in the penitentiary’s library before it was forced to close because of the pandemic. But the board could not overlook the fact Langlois continues to meet with organized crime figures while behind bars.

Langlois will become eligible for a statutory release sometime next year.

SOURCE: Montreal Gazette

Hells Angels Host Charity Event

Akron, Ohio, USA (September 8, 2020) BTN - An annual lemonade stand that raises money for children battling cancer is coming to a local Hells Angels Motorcycle Club this year. Kiely’s Lemonade Stand helps raise money each year for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Akron with children who are battling cancer.

The fundraiser, which usually is held in Streetsboro, will take place this year in Akron. Brandy Taylor said the Akron Hells Angels Motorcycle Club volunteered space this year to host the seventh annual event.

Taylor said the lemonade stand started after her daughter Kiely’s two cousins, Ryland and Jocelyn, were diagnosed with brain cancer. Taylor said the brother and sister were diagnosed in 2011 and 2012, and are now cancer free.

Kiely's Lemonade Stand

She said the Ronald McDonald House was amazing with helping out the family, which inspired the family to organize the stand each year.

The event will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13. Rather than selling lemonade and cookies for a fixed price, patrons can choose their donation, Taylor said. The club is at 560 N. Howard St. in Akron.

Taylor said they’ll also hold raffles for gift cards and other items donated before the stand opens up. Since the fundraiser started, she said they’ve raised close to $18,000. Taylor said they’ve donated to 17 families so far.

Part of the proceeds also go to making goodie bags each Christmas for children battling cancer. Last year, 50 bags were given to children in the hospital over the holidays.

People interested in learning more can visit facebook.com/KielysLemonadeStand

Convictions Reversed in Hells Angels Case

Montreal, Canada (September 6, 2020) BTN - Four people who were convicted four years ago on charges alleging they helped three Hells Angels members launder their money have succeeded in having their convictions reversed on appeal.

In a decision released on Thursday, the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered that the trial of Richard Felx, 62, Michel Ste-Marie, 75, and his children Dax, 45, and Marie Ste-Marie, 47, should not have proceeded.

All four were first charged in 2009 in Operation Diligence, an investigation led by the Sûreté du Québec, into how members of the Hells Angels based in Quebec had infiltrated specific segments of the province’s construction industry. As part of the same investigation, Felx, a former notary, and the others, were found to have helped Normand (Casper) Ouimet, 51, Martin Robert, 45, and Alain Durand, all full patch members of the motorcycle club, hide their money.

In a trial held at the Laval courthouse in 2016, Quebec Court Judge Gilles Garneau found all four guilty of money laundering, conspiracy and gangsterism. Felx’s role was to create trusts and an offshore company in Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, where he was able to send his clients’ money.

Ste-Marie and his children had a company that specialized in credit recovery and helped the three Hells Angels move their money around and into offshore bank accounts based in Mauritius. They charged a 10-per-cent commission on their transactions.

After they were convicted, Felx and the others were sentenced to prison terms of between 42 and 66 months.

But before the trial started, Garneau was asked to rule on a defence motion arguing it took the prosecution too long to prosecute the case. The four accused were first charged, along with Ouimet and Robert, in 2009 and the trial began seven years later. The motion was even argued before the Supreme Court of Canada issued a decision in 2016, commonly referred to as the Jordan ruling, setting very strict limits on how long a person charged with a crime should expect to wait before they have a trial.

Garneau ruled that, while he agreed it took the prosecution too long to bring the case to trial, placing a stay of proceedings on the charges would not have been an appropriate remedy in their case. Garneau wrote that “society has a certain and primordial interest in seeing the accused undergo their trial.”

On Thursday, three Quebec Court of Appeal judges issued their unanimous decision. They ruled that the only remedy available was to have a stay of proceedings placed on the charges filed against all four. They quashed the guilty verdicts and ordered a stay of proceedings on the charges.

“The first (error in Garneau’s decision) is an assumption that an appropriate remedy allows a measure of discretion in the assessment of various factors and that this discretion allows a judge to decline a stay of proceedings if he or she should conclude that it is not an appropriate and just remedy. An unbroken line of jurisprudence since (a precedent-setting case) has held that the only available remedy for a finding of unreasonable delay is a stay of proceeding,” Superior Court Justice Patrick Healey wrote on behalf of all three of the appellate court judges.

SOURCE: Montreal Gazette 

Major Win For Hells Angels MC

Nanaimo, BC, Canada (June 15, 2020) BTN — British Columbia’s Supreme Court has curtailed the sweeping powers of the provincial Civil Forfeiture Office in a ruling that concluded it could not seize three Hells Angels clubhouses based on a belief that they would be used for future criminal activity.

In a 321-page decision released late last week, Justice Barry Davies struck down a core provision of the provincial Civil Forfeiture Act as unconstitutional, ruling the office’s targeting of property because it is likely to be used to commit crimes in the future intrudes into criminal law – “the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal legislature."

The Hells Angels clubhouse in Nanaimo was seized in 2007

To illustrate his reasoning, Justice Davies posited that, under B.C.'s civil-forfeiture law, dangerous drivers who had served their sentence for killing or severely injuring a pedestrian could have their new car seized as “a future instrument of unlawful activity.” The law’s speculation over potential new crimes also runs counter to the “principles of sentencing enacted by the Parliament of Canada under the Code that have as an objective the rehabilitation of offenders,” he wrote.

Rick Ciarniello, a long-time Hells Angel who acts as a spokesperson for the bikers and who testified in the trial, said Hells Angels living in Manitoba and all parts farther west were asked for monthly donations to fund the 13-year legal fight, which cost more than a million dollars.

“We were probably the wrong people to fight this, but the only ones that had the resources and wherewithal to do it,” Mr. Ciarnello told The Globe and Mail on Sunday. “These were not just the rights of Hells Angels that were being violated; what we did here is we fought for the rights of all British Columbians."

Related | Hells Angels lose clubhouse to forfeiture

Related | Hells Angels MC still fighting for their clubhouse

The judge found the office was only able to prove that the B.C. Hells Angels, an organization with a reputation for violence and multiple members convicted of serious crimes, used their Vancouver clubhouse for a trio of cocaine and methamphetamine deals at least 15 years ago. Justice Davies said it is possible the bikers or their associates could once again use this clubhouse and the two others for such crimes, but the provincial agency did not prove that this is likely.

The office launched its case involving the Nanaimo clubhouse in late 2007. It began proceedings against the Vancouver and Kelowna clubhouses in 2012.

Hope Latham, a spokesperson for B.C.’s Solicitor-General and Minister of Public Safety, whose office oversees the civil-forfeiture system, said it was too early to say whether the ruling would be appealed to the province’s highest court. “For now, the Civil Forfeiture Office and its counsel will take time to review the court’s findings,” she said in an e-mailed statement.

Joseph Arvay, lead lawyer for the Hells Angels in the case, said not only was the law unconstitutional, but the office’s interpretation of the legislation was an overreach. As well, he added, the office had “all the resources imaginable” to prove the clubhouses were instruments of crime and failed to do so.

“Say what you will about the Hells Angels but I think they made an important stand,” Mr. Arvay said. “Almost everybody settles these cases because the risks of going to trial are so great.”

In a 2016 report, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, Calgary-based civil-liberties advocates, looked at eight provincial civil-forfeiture programs across the country and found they often trampled on the rights of citizens and seized property from innocent people. It gave the civil-forfeiture systems in B.C. and Ontario an "F" grade.

Lawyer Bibhas Vaze, who is representing a client in another trial arguing the civil-forfeiture system is unconstitutional, said the ruling is another clear rebuke to the office’s practices. He said in recent years clients have had to sign consent orders to keep their property but allow the office to seize it in the future if the office conducts a spot inspection that uncovers alleged criminal activity.

“The director is engaging in future policing, that’s unconstitutional,” Mr. Vaze said. “There’s a lot of people who think that fairness in the law only applies to certain sets of people, but we’re seeing across North America right now that people are finally cluing in that when you don’t take fairness seriously it results in rampant inequality in our world.”

SOURCE: Times Colonist 

Hells Angels Member Partially Liable for Accident

Toronto, Ontario (June 4, 2020) BTN - An unknown Hells Angels has been found partly responsible for a 2014 crash on the Lougheed Highway that left another motorcyclist injured.

But a B.C. Supreme Court judge rejected a claim by Donald Christopher Gorst that a police officer who was following a group of Hells Angels on May 31, 2014 was also negligent for the accident that led to his injuries. Justice Dennis Hori found that Gorst and the mystery Angel were equally responsible for the crash on the Lougheed Highway near Deroche, east of Mission, that left him with a smashed leg.

Gorst was heading east with a passenger on his Harley-Davidson behind several other vehicles when he saw the group of Hells Angels, followed by a police car approaching in the opposite lane. He claimed both the biker and the cruiser crossed the centre line, forcing him to veer sharply to avoid a collision.

As a result, Gorst also claimed, he did not see that the van in front of him was braking to pull over in response to the police car approaching. He “laid his bike down and it slid into the rear of the Dodge Caravan.” He sued the B.C. public safety minister, saying the minister was “vicariously liable for the actions of the police officer,” as well as the unidentified biker and ICBC.

According to Hori’s ruling, released Tuesday, the Hells Angels were on a “poker run” organized by the Haney chapter.

RCMP Const. Dunbar (whose full name was not included in the ruling) was following the group, and described the poker run as “being like a pub crawl on a pre-planned route in which the bikers frequent different bars and taverns.”

She followed between 30 and 40 of the bikers as they left The Sasquatch Inn, near Harrison Mills, west along Highway 7. After Dunbar saw the entire pack of bikers “swarm a vehicle in the westbound lane by surrounding it on three sides,” she decided there was a public safety risk and she would do a roadside stop, the ruling said.

“She activated her emergency equipment, including her lights and siren, in order to get the bikers to pull over,” Hori noted, adding that the officer denied “that she was straddling the centre line of the highway.”

“When she observed the plaintiff’s bike go down, Constable Dunbar discontinued her surveillance of the biker pack, performed a U-turn, and returned to the scene of the accident in order to render assistance.”

Gorst testified that a Hells Angels associate named Ady Golic, who was with the pack, stopped to see if he was okay.

Golic, the lead singer of a band named Skard, died in November 2016 of injuries sustained in a targeted shooting three months earlier. Rocker and Hells Angels associate Adis (Ady) Golic died Nov. 22, 2016, from injuries sustained in a targeted shooting three months earlier. YouTube/Skard Music

Hori accepted Dunbar’s evidence that she was not “in pursuit” of the bikers, but had caught up to them when she activated her lights and siren to pull them over. And he ruled there was “no negligence on the part of Constable Dunbar.”

Hori said that while “the accident would not have occurred without the negligence of the unidentified biker,” Gorst failed to slow down and pull over when he saw the emergency vehicle in the distance. “In these circumstances, I find that both the unidentified biker and the plaintiff are equally at fault for the accident.”

The judge rejected Gorst’s claim that ICBC was responsible for the unidentified biker’s liability because he said the injured man did not do enough to find out who the biker was.

Gorst argued that he contacted Golic and passed along Golic’s contact information to the Independent Investigations Office, which was also probing the crash. He assumed the IIO or the police would identify the biker, he said.

“The plaintiff claims that he did not take any further steps to identify the biker because he feared retribution from the Hells Angels if he did so,” Hori said. “I do not find this excuse compelling. There is no evidence that making inquiries of the Hells Angels about one of their members being involved in a motor vehicle accident would be the type of inquiry that would lead to retribution.”

SOURCE: Vancouver Sun