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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Two identified as Hells Angels facing charges

Hells Angels Back Patch

Canton, Ohio Feb. 27, 2016 - Local officials say the Hells Angels, Pagans and Outlaws are active in Northeast Ohio but have a limited presence in Stark County.

Local men identified as Hells Angels members are facing several criminal charges, accused of having machetes, knives and other weapons at the biker clubs’s New Jersey gathering.

Canton resident Justin D. Morris, Massillon resident Kerry K. Kester and two other Northeast Ohio men are accused of stowing the weapons in a car trunk Aug. 22, according to a news release from the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey. Officials observed their actions in the parking lot of a restaurant — the site of an “End of Summer Bash” hosted by the Hells Angels of Newark, New Jersey.

The news release identifies the men as Hells Angels members, but a spokesman from the prosecutor’s office did not elaborate on their ties to the organization.

Surveillance was conducted by New Jersey State Police, Clinton and Readington township police and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force.

The prosecutor’s office reported that Kester rented the Chevy Malibu involved in the traffic stop and arrest in Clinton Township, which is about 50 miles west of New York City. He is charged with one count of possession of a prohibited weapon, 12 counts of unlawful possession of a weapon and 13 counts of certain persons not to possess a weapon, having previously been convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Morris is charged with 10 counts of unlawful possession of a weapon.

Joshua R. Woods, of Akron, is charged with one count of unlawful possession of cocaine and 12 counts of unlawful possession of a weapon.

Rocco P. Gullatta, of Aurora, is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, 11 counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, and 11 counts of certain persons not to possess a weapon, having previously been convicted of attempted murder.

They were indicted by a grand jury in December and were scheduled to appear in court Friday for a status hearing, according to the prosecutor’s office.

TJ Legg, the attorney representing Morris in New Jersey, declined to comment.

Anthony Iacullo, who is representing Kester in New Jersey, did not return messages seeking comment.

PRESENCE IN NORTHEAST OHIO

Local officials say the Hells Angels, Pagans and Outlaws are active in Northeast Ohio but have a limited presence in Stark County.

“None of the major outlaw motorcycle clubs has an official chapter here or clubhouse here at this time, but there are people that are present that live here and are part of other chapters or charters,” said Mark McMurtry, special agent with the Canton FBI office.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Vintage Police Car

Righteous Chopper and Vintage Police Car...all in one photo

She likes leather

Biker Babe on a Harley Sportster

Vagos and Mongols

Vagos and Mongols sharing a common interest....Motorcycles

Cossacks MC member asks appeals judge to intervene

Members being held after Waco Massacre

Texas -February 26, 2016
A man indicted in the fatal shooting between bikers and police outside a Waco, Texas, restaurant nearly a year ago said he is entitled to a speedy trial and asked a state court of appeals to order a local judge to set a date, according to court documents.

Scene of Biker Massacre in Waco, Texas

Cody Ledbetter, a Cossacks motorcycle club member charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and who watched his stepfather die in the shooting, argued that nine months have passed since his arrest and that he is entitled to a speedy trial. He added that he would not enter a plea, so the case would either have to be dismissed or go to trial. The filing was made late Thursday with the 10th Court of Appeals in Waco.

District Judge Ralph Strother in December scheduled Ledbetter’s trial for May 31, but less than a month later, postponed it indefinitely. The request for the court of appeal’s intervention comes weeks after another local judge in Waco postponed a trial for one of 186 people arrested after the shooting. No one among those arrested has been given a date for trial.

The investigation is ongoing and not all of the evidence, including forensic testing, has been analyzed, McClennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna said in a January motion to delay the Feb. 29 trial of another man arrested in the melee, Matthew Clendennen. It could take a year for the firearm DNA analysis alone to be completed, Reyna said.

During a pretrial hearing earlier this month, District Judge Matt Johnson did not grant the state’s motion for a delay but effectively postponed the trial by scheduling a hearing for April 1 to consider Clendennen’s motion for a change of venue. Clendennen had argued that pretrial publicity would taint the jury pool.

The district court judge also ordered the state to turn over evidence from a federal sting operation that led to the January indictment of top officers of the Bandidos motorcycle club.

Nine people were killed and 20 people were injured in an apparent confrontation last May between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs and police.

The gunfire had erupted shortly before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that says it advocates for rider safety.

Evidence reviewed by The Associated Press shows that four of the dead were shot by the rifles police use.

A grand jury indicted Ledbetter along with 105 others in November, all on the charge of engaging in organized criminal activity. Prosecutors haven’t yet presented the remaining cases.

Source: Dallas News