Bikers converge to pay tribute to killed MC member

Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA (September 23, 2019) BTN — The funeral for Eric Voshell, an Oak Bluffs man killed in a shooting at a Fall River bar one week ago, was held Friday morning at St. Augustine’s Church in Vineyard Haven.

The funeral drew hundreds of mourners, including dozens of bikers wearing gear from their motorcycle clubs and breaking the quiet with their motorcycles, slowing traffic on Franklin Street and Vineyard Haven side streets.

Court records indicate that Voshell, a member of the Hell’s Angels affiliate The Sidewinders, was killed during a fight with a rival motorcycle club known as The Outlaws.

There was a heavy police presence outside the church with both Tisbury police and State Police on hand. Tisbury Police Chief Mark Saloio, who could be seen on Franklin Street, could not immediately be reached for comment on who requested the police presence. Many bikers came to the Island on Thursday for Voshell’s wake to pay tribute to him and their presence created a buzz in ferry lines.

After the funeral, about 100 motorcycles followed the procession down Spring Street and into Five Corners headed for the cemetery in Oak Bluffs.

Voshell owned Reliable HVAC Co. and was an Oak Bluffs firefighter before being seriously injured in a motorcycle crash in July of 2018.

Joseph “JoJo” Noe, 25, is charged with murder and various other charges in connection with Voshell’s death. He pleaded not guilty in Fall River District Court Monday and is being held without bail.


Meanwhile, a GoFundMe has been set up for the family of Eric Voshell following the shooting that took his life. The fundraiser, titled “Eric’s Girls,” was set up by Jeremy Borges, who could not immediately be reached for comment. In two days, the fundraiser has gathered more than $2,700 out of its $100,000 goal.

Several people left comments on the GoFundMe page.

Ellen Baronosky, who donated $50, wrote, “Both Dave & I send our deepest condolences to Eric’s family & also to the whole SWMC!!!! RIP Eric!”

Jim Cooper, who donated $100 said, “it’s the right thing to do.”

SOURCE: MV Times

Suspected Outlaws MC members sought in man's death

Davie, Florida, USA (September 21, 2019) BTN — Davie Police Department detectives are still searching for the suspected motorcycle club members responsible for a brutal beating that resulted in a 57-year-old man's death last year.

Detectives released surveillance video Friday showing several possible witnesses and a group of motorcyclists leaving the parking lot after the beating. Detectives suspect they were Outlaw Motorcycle Club members.

Michael Kline was beaten July 4, 2018, outside of the Road Dawgs Saloon at 13010 W. State Road 84. According to Lt. Mark Leone, they left Kline bleeding on the ground.

Davie Fire Rescue took Kline to Broward General Hospital. Officers said Kline suffered a fractured skull, a fractured orbital bone and a subdural hematoma. Kline died as a result of his injuries Nov. 14, 2018.


Kline's son Michael Kline Jr. told police officers that he had been at Road Dawgs earlier in the evening to have a few drinks with his father and decided to leave him there.

Kline's son also told police officers he remembers seeing several Outlaw Motorcycle Club members there, and his father had argued with one of them a few weeks earlier.

Before the beating, Kline left the bar to buy cigarettes at a nearby Exxon gas station. A witness there told police officers that a man with a long beard and long black hair asked Kline for a cigarette.

The witness said Kline gave it to him and walked back with him toward Road Dawgs, police said. Kline never made it back to the bar. Officers found him lying on the ground bleeding.

SOURCE:

Pagan MC member indicted for attempted murder

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA (September 20, 2019) BTN — A Upper Township man accused of running down a motorcyclist in his truck and then speeding away has been indicted for attempted murder. Noah Frost allegedly told police that the damage to his white Dodge Ram’s must have happened while it was parked in the Harrah’s Atlantic City parking garage.

But an investigation found that Frost was involved in the hit-and-run, which witnesses said was the result of what appeared to be a road rage incident.

Both men are members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner previously said. But it was not clear what caused an issue between the two. The victim, identified in the indictment as Benjamin DiPilla, was critically injured in the crash. His current condition was not released, but the defense was expecting medical records to be provided under a protective order.

Frost, 35, pleaded not guilty Thursday, and remains in the Atlantic County Justice Facility. He was indicted on six counts, including aggravated assault, assault by auto and leaving the scene of an accident that caused serious bodily injury.

Frost has been offered a 10-year plea deal, Assistant Prosecutor Christopher D’Esposito told the judge. Defense attorney Carlos Martir was given 11 discs of evidence, according to information given during the brief hearing arraignment before Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury. Frost is due back in court Oct. 18.

DiPilla was arrested in 2016, as part of an investigation into drugs and guns related to the so-called outlaw motorcycle gang.


He pleaded guilty in 2017 to cocaine manufacturing/distribution and prohibited weapons and was sentenced to a year probation, court records show.

SOURCE: Breaking AC

Star witness in Vagos MC trial lied

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (September 20, 2019) BTN — A star witness for the government has repeatedly lied on the witness stand during a federal racketeering trial in Las Vegas for a group of reputed motorcycle club members.

And in an astonishing twist on Thursday, prosecutors asked a judge to throw out the testimony of Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick after he spent more than three days telling jurors that members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club had plotted to kill a rival biker in Sparks in 2011.

Related | Jury selection begins in Vagos MC case

“We have grave concerns and doubt as to whether this witness will be truthful,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han said during the 23rd day of a trial that started in August and is expected to last through the end of the year.

Rudnick, who was ousted from the club after the fatal shooting, cooperated with authorities and testified against his former allies.

Defense attorneys for the eight men on trial immediately asked to have the most serious charges of murder and conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise thrown out, and U.S. District Chief Judge Gloria Navarro allowed Rudnick’s testimony to continue through cross-examination. Should Navarro dismiss the case, it would mark the second time in as many years that high-profile federal charges against multiple defendants were tossed out.

In early 2018, Navarro threw out felony conspiracy and weapons charges against Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and another man.

The most recent possibility of a major trial disruption emerged this week as Rudnick lied about never having met with Mark Fleming, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Albert Lopez, and a private investigator. When he was recalled to the stand Thursday, Rudnick admitted that he had met with the lawyer and investigator, a former FBI agent, for two hours on an afternoon in November 2017.

Defense attorneys accused government prosecutors of persuading Rudnick to lie about the meeting.

“This witness is incapable of telling the truth,” defense attorney Kathleen Bliss, a former federal prosecutor, told the judge. “This trial has become so unfair and so contaminated as to Rudnick and the government’s complicity. They’ve had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to fix it. You can’t unring the bell of Gary Rudnick.”

In this Dec. 9, 2011 file photo, murder defendant Gary Rudnick enters the courtroom

Lawyers for the other defendants, including Ernesto “Romeo” Manuel Gonzalez, who fired the shot that killed a leader of the Hells Angels, and Pastor Fausto Palafox, the Vagos international president known as “TaTa,” supported Bliss.

The judge asked for arguments from both sides in writing. “I don’t believe the government can prove the case without Rudnick,” said defense attorney Jess Marchese, who represents James “Jimbo” Patrick Gillespie.

Gonzalez’s attorney, Michael Kennedy, called Rudnick a “serial liar,” while Palafox’s lawyer, Amy Jacks, said Rudnick was “completely unreliable.” Han suggested that prosecutors could still prove the charges through other witnesses but added that “obviously there are certain things lost without the testimony of Rudnick.”

More defendants await trial

Prosecutors have said that leaders of Vagos orchestrated the September 2011 killing of a rival Hells Angels leader on the floor of John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Each defendant on trial is from California, ranging in age from 36 to 70.

Thirteen more defendants are awaiting trial in a case that prosecutors allege involves Vagos and crimes in Nevada, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon and Utah.

Prosecutors have written in court papers that Vagos operated as a criminal enterprise and engaged in drug distribution, firearms trafficking, murder, kidnapping, assault, extortion, robbery and witness intimidation.

Video surveillance showed Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew pistol-whipping another man on the casino floor before gunfire broke out.

During the fight, Gonzalez shot and killed Pettigrew, 54, who was known as the “godfather” of the Hells Angels in San Jose, California. Gonzalez was found guilty of murder in state court, but his conviction was overturned, and he was indicted in the federal case while awaiting a retrial.

On Thursday, defense attorneys stopped short of asking for a mistrial before Navarro decided whether to dismiss charges against the defendants.

When Rudnick, who spent time in state prison for his role in the slaying, was called back to the stand, he was cross-examined by Lopez’s lawyer, who asked whether Rudnick ever said the defendant was not part of a conspiracy.

“I know I said something like that to you,” Rudnick testified.

SOURCE: Las Vegas Review Journal