Pittsburgh Mayor defends drunken cops who started fight with Pagans MC members

Pittsburgh, PA (October 27, 2018) BTN — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Friday pushed back against Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala’s characterization of the city police investigation of a brawl between undercover officers and members of the Pagans motorcycle club.

Kopy's Bar in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Mr. Peduto called Mr. Zappala’s statement that he had problems with police management “disappointing” and “unfortunate,” and said he had not yet decided whether the undercover detectives used appropriate force when they fought with four Pagans in Kopy’s Bar on the South Side on Oct. 12.

Related |Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“What I saw is troubling, with the actions of escalation of force that didn’t seem to be warranted, but without full evidence of what actually happened, it’s very difficult to make that judgmental call,” Mr. Peduto said. “And a district attorney’s role is to investigate first, then comment; not comment and then do an investigation.”

Mr. Zappala said Thursday that Pittsburgh police initially turned over only a small part of the video evidence  in the case, and that his office did not receive the rest for more than a week. Mr. Peduto said Mr. Zappala received all the evidence he wanted within 48 hours of the request.

“I can understand why he would want information immediately, but some of that had to be obtained by our officers, such as the cameras, the video, and then compiled to be able to give that to him,” Mr. Peduto said. “I think 48 hours is a fair amount of time.”

But Mr. Zappala’s spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday it took far longer than 48 hours. The DA’s office requested the evidence Oct. 18 and received it Wednesday -- a day after the office was forced to postpone a scheduled preliminary hearings for the Pagans. Additionally, Mr. Manko said, body camera footage was delivered late Thursday afternoon.

“These requests are memorialized in dated emails,” Mr. Manko said.

Mr. Peduto also said Kopy’s Bar was frequented by motorcycle gangs and that area is “suspected of being a major trafficking area of illegal drugs.”

Mr. Manko said police evidence does not support that characterization of the bar, and an attorney for the bar, George R. Farneth II, said Friday it’s simply not true.

“We categorically deny that allegation and would encourage the mayor to come forward with all the evidence he has to support such an allegation,” Mr. Farneth said. “Short of doing that, this is a veiled attempt to cover for a police department for his city that in a lot of respects is out of control, as evidenced by these police officers.”

Mr. Farneth said the bar has not been cited by the Liquor Control Board or has needed to call police for more than a decade. Mr. Farneth said Kopy’s Bar is not frequented by bikers.

“If you go on a regular day of the week, any day of the week, the chances of a biker being in the bar are slim to none,” he said. “It’s locals, everyday common folk.”

Six members of the Pagans motorcycle club were there Oct. 12., and four left in handcuffs. Frank Deluca, Erik Heitzenrater, Bruce Thomas and Michael Zokaites each face several felony charges as a result of the fight, which their attorneys contend was started by intoxicated undercover detectives.

Detectives Brian Burgunder, David Honick, Brian Martin and David Lincoln had been drinking in the bar from 7:33 p.m. until the fight about 12:40 p.m., surveillance video shows.

Police officers are prohibited from drinking alcohol while on duty, but Mayor Peduto said Friday there is an unwritten understanding that undercover officers can drink while on the job to maintain their covers.

“That being said...someone would be expected while doing undercover work to be able to consume while still being able to properly respond,” he said. “And not being in a situation where the intoxication level would jeopardize themselves or other officers. That’s what we’re looking at right now. There isn’t a policy in place, it’s a common sense call.”

Attorneys for the men arrested say each of the undercover detectives drank between 13 and 19 drinks, many on the rocks, before the fight broke out.

The mayor said he’s asked Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert and Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich to create an alcohol policy for undercover officers by looking at how other cities handle the matter.

Mr. Farneth on Friday called on police to be more transparent and said they should release body camera footage from uniformed officers who responded to the fight to resolve any lingering questions about how the incident and subsequent investigation were handled.

The affidavit in the case, written by Detective Burgunder, was not finished and filed in City Court, Downtown, until 1 p.m. Oct. 12 -- nearly 12 hours after the fight. The document was approved by the District Attorney’s office about 11 a.m.

That timeline appears to violate Pittsburgh police policy, which typically requires officers to finish reports before the end of their shifts. Defendants cannot be arraigned or processed at the jail until the police affidavit is filed. Court records show the Pagans were arraigned about 6:40 p.m. Oct. 12.

Pittsburgh police spokesman Chris Togneri would not say Friday whether Detective Burgunder was granted permission to wait to file the paperwork. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, said Friday the end-of-shift policy helps ensure that officers can accurately recall what happened.”

“I think it’s inappropriate that it was filed so late and I believe it’s also contrary to the policy expectation that the report be completed prior to the end of shift, and with the rare exception and with a supervisor's approval,” she said.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Pittsburgh, PA (October 26, 2018) BTN — A notarized statement from Kopy’s bar owner who tended bar the night four Pagan motorcycle club members fought with several heavy drinking undercover cops appears to challenge how Pittsburgh police have described the fight.

The attorney for one of the Pagan's members charged in the fight contends the police officers were drunk and started the fight because the cops didn’t like how the motorcycle club members were dressed.

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“Our position is that my client was not engaged in any criminal activity, was not the subject of an investigation, but rather was the subject of drunk police officers who didn’t like the way they were dressed,” said Lee Rothman, the attorney for Frank Deluca, who faces charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and riot along with three others of the Pagan motorcycle club.

Security footage from inside the bar also shows one undercover officer punching Deluca in the head at least a dozen times. The fight occurred about 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 12 at the South Side bar. Four Pagans fought with several undercover Pittsburgh police officers who were at the bar investigating a drug complaint, authorities have said.

Public Safety spokesman Chris Togneri said the department cannot comment on ongoing investigations, though investigators are reviewing all video footage. The incident is being reviewed by the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizens Police Review Board.

A court affidavit from Stephen Kopy indicates that the undercover officers came in about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and identified themselves as construction workers. They ordered alcoholic drinks, Kopy wrote. The Pagans came in about 11:30 p.m. and sat at the opposite end of the bar.

“On several occasions, the undercover officers called me over and made statements indicating that they had an issue with the bikers at the other side of the bar,” Kopy wrote. “Each time I discouraged them from taking action.”

Twice before the fight, one of the officers spoke to the Pagans, but Kopy was not certain what was said, he wrote in the affidavit. Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Oct. 12, one officer identified himself as an undercover officer and told Kopy “he liked me and did not want to see anything happen to my bar,” according to the affidavit.

Kopy wrote that the officer said the bikers were dangerous. When he asked for clarification, the officer said the bikers were “staring and pointing at them,” according to the affidavit. He wrote that he did not see the bikers staring or pointing.

One officer asked Kopy what he and the bikers had spoken about, Kopy wrote, and wanted to know if he was associated with the Pagans.

“I was then asked by one of the undercover officers whether I was ‘siding’ with the bikers,” Kopy wrote in the affidavit. “I told them that I was not ‘siding’ with the bikers. I just did not agree with the undercover officers that the bikers were trying to cause trouble.”

Kopy wrote that as the bikers got up to leave, the officers stopped them and began talking to them. He said he called 911 when one of the officers and one of the Pagans began arguing. Uniformed officers arrived, and Kopy wrote that he was hit with pepper spray.

Video from the bar shows a conversation between the undercover police and Pagans beginning cordially. It shows Deluca shaking the hands of two of the officers. Rothman said the incident escalated with officers who “were highly intoxicated and agitated because members of a motorcycle club came in dressed a certain way.”

Rothman contends that the video shows the officers drinking for hours beforehand. He said he counted one who “had four Jack Daniels on the rocks – full glasses – within one hour and never stopped drinking.”

Deluca pushed one of the undercover officers, sparking an all-out brawl. Uniformed officers arrive on scene, called by the undercover officers because they’d been outted as cops, according to the criminal complaint filed against the Pagans.

Deluca, Michael Zokaites, Bruce Thomas and Erik Heitzenrater have been charged in connection to the fight. A preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday was continued until Nov. 6.

The footage shows one officer holding Deluca against the bar while an undercover detective punches him repeatedly in the face. Rothman said Deluca has damage to his orbital bone and elbow and, as a union electrician, is now unable to work.

Kopy’s affidavit also covered the aftermath of the brawl.

Some time later, two of the undercover officers returned to the bar with three or four uniformed officers, a lieutenant and a detective, he wrote.

Kopy wrote that the lieutenant asked if the bikers were regulars, to which he replied they were not. He said the lieutenant asked why he let them into the bar wearing their Pagan club jackets, and Kopy told them he had no reason not to let them in.

The lieutenant asked why Kopy did not have a dress code for his bar, and he responded that he never needed one.

“The lieutenant then stated that ‘this was my fault for letting them in with jackets,’” Kopy wrote. “I responded that the bikers did not cause the fight and the lieutenant then began screaming to me about the bikers being dangerous and referenced that they had gun and that someone could have been shot or killed.”

That would have led to the bar being shut down, Kopy said the lieutenant told him, and he would have to “live with a dead customer on my conscience,” according to the affidavit.

Later, two of the undercover officers asked Kopy if he’d outed them as cops to the bikers, according to the affidavit. Kopy told them he’d been unaware they were law enforcement until just before the fight.

One week later, a city detective came to remove the security camera hard drive and make a copy, Kopy wrote. Kopy had also provided copies to attorneys for the bikers and the Pittsburgh Police Citizens Review Board after they requested them.

The detective told Kopy that during the process the data was lost and the security system would not work.

“Upon stating that the data might be lost, I informed that the (review board) and the bikers’ defense attorney had copies to which (the detective) sounded surprised to hear such news,” Kopy wrote.

Kopy’s affidavit was signed Monday, Oct. 22, along with a notary.

SOURCE: TRIB Live

Bride in White

Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops

Pittsburgh, PA (October 25, 2018) BTN — The Allegheny County District Attorney says he is waiting on critical information from Pittsburgh police about a bar fight involving undercover officers and members of the Pagan Motorcycle club. "That's why I got cameras up and down Carson Street because I don't want to go through this nonsense," said Stephen Zappala, Allegheny County district attorney.

 A lot of questions remain over what led to the fight inside Kopy's, and the role of the undercover police officers seen on the video. “I don't know what kind of games these guys are playing, but this is serious stuff," Zappala said. "That's one of the reasons I'm talking with the U.S. attorney.” Zappala says he just received more than a dozen disks of security footage from the night of the fight, nearly two weeks later. “I don't know that they're undercover," Zappala said. "I don't know why they're in the bar.

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

We haven't heard from a supervisor that they were on-duty. We haven't heard from a supervisor who the target was, if there was in fact a target.” Attorneys for the four Pagan suspects facing assault charges have criticized the officers conduct, saying they had 40 drinks between them before the fight.

Zappala said he's still waiting on critical information from police, including body camera video from the responding officers. “Controlling a situation or trying to hurt somebody are two totally different things," Zappala said. "This is the second time we've had somebody repeatedly struck in the head. I have a problem with that.”


The Pagan MC members involved in the bar fight are scheduled to be in court next month. Various news sources asked Pittsburgh police to respond to the district attorney's criticism over the handling of the investigation, but a spokesman declined to comment.

SOURCE: WPXI News

No Surrender MC: Founder gets six years in prison

Breda, Netherlands (October 25, 2018) BTN — The founder of the No Surrender motorcycle club has been jailed for six years for assault, extortion and making threats, as well as laundering €1.3 million. Klaas Otto left one of his victims with permanent injuries and threatened to cut off his children’s ears, the district court in Breda heard.

The 51-year-old told another victim that his wife would be raped by members of his club if he refused to pay up. ‘He used the threat of severe violence to force his victims to hand over large sums of money and cars,’ judges said in passing sentence. The court said there was an ‘atmosphere of menace’ surrounding Otto, who denied all charges against him.

Several alleged victims refused to testify because they feared reprisals, but the court found Otto guilty of threatening and mistreating two car dealers. The sentence was lower than the 10 years demanded by prosecutors, partly because the court decided other charges including arson and letting off a hand grenade had not been proven. Judges also took account of the fact that Otto had been the target in a shooting incident and had been detained in custody for 18 months on a charge of threatening a prosecutor, which the court decided was not supported by the evidence.

His incarceration was ‘too long and too severe,’ the court decided. The prosecution service said last December it would seek a nationwide ban on No Surrender similar to the one imposed on rival motorcycle clubs Saturadah and Bandidos.

SOURCE: Dutch News

Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight

Pittsburgh, PA (October 23, 2018) BTN — Four members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club were all charged after a brawl at Kopy’s Bar on the South Side earlier this month. They are Frank DeLuca, Eric Heitzenrater, Bruce Thomas and Michael Zokaites. New video was released by their attorneys on Tuesday.

Screenshot of the bar fight - Photo credit: KDKA

Before the brawl, you can see DeLuca reaching out to shake hands with undercover officers. “Our clients are minding their own business at the bar trying to ignore them.

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

The officers are repeatedly going over, tapping them, touching them, trying to engage them,” said attorney Wendy Williams. The attorneys believe things escalated due to the amount of alcohol they say the undercover officers were drinking. “The main aggressor in this incident is seen drinking a fifth and a half of Jack Daniels in shots over the course of four to five hours,” said Williams. “One of the officers brandished a firearm.


He could barely stand. He was wobbly. Displayed a firearm to one of the defendants,” said attorney Martin Dietz. “After this melee occurred, all seen on video, my client was restrained by four, possibly six officers and punched in the face after hair being pulled back and neck being pinched over 23 times in face and head,” said attorney Lee Rothman.

 As for Thomas and Heitzenrater:

 “My review of video shows he took no aggressive stance, no aggressive actions and violently thrown to the ground unprovoked,” said attorney Thomas Will. “My client absolutely engaged in no aggressive behavior and he was what we call sucker-punched twice by an undercover detective,’ said Dietz.

 This case has been continued until Nov. 16.

SOURCE: KDKA2

Bacchus MC: Sentencing begins for club members

Nova Scotia, Canada (October 22, 2018) BTN — A justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court has reserved his sentencing decision in the case of three members of the Bacchus Motorcycle Club who have been convicted of extortion and intimidation.

In convicting Patrick Michael James, 51, Duane Jamie Howe, 49, and David John Pearce, 44, Justice Peter Rosinski also said that the Bacchus motorcycle club is a criminal organization, the first time that designation has been made in Nova Scotia.

The men were convicted in a trial this summer. The convictions stem from incidents in 2012 involving a man whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

The man tried to open a chapter of the Brotherhood Motorcycle Club in Nova Scotia. It is not an outlaw gang, but it uses vests and patches similar to those worn by outlaw riders.

Man ordered to disband club

When the Bacchus members saw social media posts of the Brotherhood club, they ordered the man to disband the club and destroy the patches. He was to provide proof by showing the shredded patches to Bacchus members.

Later, Pearce and Howe spotted the man at a Bikers Down event. They confronted and threatened him, prompting the man to sell his motorcycles and install a panic alarm in his home.

Sentencing arguments began Monday

In his sentencing submissions, Crown prosecutor Glen Scheuer argued that the criminal organization designation was one reason the sentences should be substantial. He recommended a five-to-six year sentence for James and four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half year sentences for Howe and Pearce.

Scheuer submitted photographs taken from Pearce's Facebook profile which show the man wearing T-shirts and sporting decals on his motorcycle that were supportive of motorcycle gangs.

Scheuer said the social media posts included the phrases "Police and government are very corrupt" and "All cops are bastards." 

Bacchus tattoo in police photos

Patrick MacEwen, Pearce's lawyer, said that wearing clothing that supports these groups is not a crime and the clothes are readily available for purchase by any member of the public.

MacEwen also said that Pearce is showing a Bacchus tattoo with the dates 2010 to 2012 in one of the photos introduced by police. MacEwen said any member who leaves the gang in good standing must put an end date on his tattoo and that's what his client did.

MacEwen and the other two defence lawyers also pointed out that all three men have avoided any further run-ins with the law in six years it has taken the case to make its way through the courts.

He recommended a sentence of six months for Pearce, who was the only one of the three to accept the judge's invitation to address the court.

"Ever since when this happened I do regret that it happened," Pearce said. The Crown had argued that all three men showed no remorse for their crimes.

Trevor McGuigan, the lawyer for James, recommended a two-year sentence for his client.

McGuigan said James has been taking care of his father and breeding rare dogs, while avoiding any further criminal activity. McGuigan said there was no physical violence in this crime.

Pat Atherton represents Howe. He said his client should be eligible for the shortest possible sentence.

Atherton said if it wasn't prohibited by case law, he'd be arguing that Howe get a sentence in the community. Instead, he suggested a one-year sentence would be sufficient.

He questioned a forfeiture order the Crown had requested, saying there was no proof some of the items seized from Howe's home were associated with any crime.

He mentioned a brass ring with a one per cent symbol on it. Gangs like Bacchus and the Hells Angels are known to use the one per cent symbol to identify themselves as the one per cent of motorcycle riders who are considered outlaws.

Rosinski will hand down his decision Nov. 7.

SOURCE: CBC News

Finks MC: High ranking member pleads guilty to 1st ever order

Newcastle, NSW (October 19, 2018) BTN — Toast with beetroot and feta, a flat white, two months in jail and the state's first ever conviction for breaching a Serious Crime Prevention Order.

Former high-ranking Finks bikie Troy Vanderlight only ordered the first two when he sat down for a light lunch with the president of the Gladiators Port Stephens chapter at the Heritage Gardens cafe at Ashtonfield in August.

Police photograph Troy Vanderlight's Finks vest during raids earlier this year. 

But when Strike Force Raptor investigators got a tip-off, it turned out that the time in jail and the conviction for contravening the order, imposed by the NSW Supreme Court in April in an unprecedented attempt to put a stop to the Hunter's violent bikie “civil war”, were also on the menu.

Vanderlight was one of five Finks, as well as five Nomads, hit with the strict 12-month orders, which banned them from associating with any member of any bikie gang.

And ironically, Vanderlight was meeting with the Gladiator to discuss how he could attend a funeral without breaching the orders.

“He was breaching the orders to see how he could avoid breaching the orders,” Magistrate John Chicken said on Friday.

Vanderlight, 27, who police allege was the Newcastle president of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang, and who twice had his house shot up during the tit-for-tat attacks earlier this year, had pleaded not guilty to contravening the serious crime prevention order and two other charges after his arrest outside the Ashtonfield cafe on August 17. He was due to face a hearing in Maitland Local Court on Friday, but pleaded guilty to contravening the order - the first of its kind in NSW - after prosecutor Benjamin Bickford agreed to withdraw the other two charges.

Mr Chicken said there was nothing to suggest the lunch meeting on August 17 was for a “nefarious purpose” and noted the conflict earlier this year had not involved the Gladiators.

Mr Chicken also said a discrepancy in the NSW Supreme Court orders meant he could not be satisfied that Vanderlight was the Newcastle president of the Finks. That fact reduced the objective seriousness of the offence and he ordered Vanderlight serve an 18-month community corrections order, the new equivalent of a good behaviour bond, that Mr Chicken said would test Vanderlight’s claims that he was no longer a member of the Finks.  

Vanderlight remains in jail, refused bail on charges of affray and participating in a criminal group relating to an alleged brawl with a member of the Newcastle Nomads in a car park of Charlestown Square in January this year.

And, despite serving his time for breaching the Serious Crime Prevention Order, Vanderlight might be destined to live under even more stringent conditions, with the matter listed again in the NSW Supreme Court next Thursday to vary the conditions against him. 

SOURCE: Newcastle Herald