Cop Busted Threatening HA Member

Greeley, Colorado, USA (April 13, 2020) BTN — A lawsuit filed in federal court claims officers of the Greeley Police Department, LaSalle Police Department and Weld County Sheriff’s Office violated the First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights of Anthony Mills, a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club member, during a 2018 traffic stop.

According to Mills’ attorney, Sarah Schielke, he was pulled over by a La Salle police officer for speeding the night of April 8, 2018. He was ticketed for driving 20-25 mph over the speed limit.

But during the 90-plus minute stop, Schielke argues officer and deputies treated her client like a criminal and was harassed strictly for his association to the Hells Angels MC. Schielke says body camera video she obtained through an open records request shows officers abused their power that night.

At one point during the body camera video, an officer is allegedly heard saying, “I’m shooting him. I need some paid vacation.”

“An officer can say, ‘I’m going to shoot him. I need more vacation time!’ and that’s a joke? And that gets laughter,” questioned Schielke.

She also points to a part in the footage that she says reveals the officers wanted the body cameras turned off and the one officer who did have his camera rolling must have done so by mistake.

READ: The lawsuit filed on Mills’ behalf

Schielke says her client wants an apology and to see changes to the departments involved.

“To take police seriously, to trust police to police us, those kinds of conversations can’t happen,” added Schielke.

A check on Mills’ background shows he was charged in 2017 with burglary, witness intimidation and assault. All three charges were dismissed.

In response to the lawsuit, the La Salle Police Department said it launched an internal investigation and the officer involved was notified of that investigation.

A spokesperson from the Weld County Sheriff’s Office said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The Greeley Police Department did not respond to a request for comment as of Friday night.

SOURCE: WKRG

Charges Dropped Against Vagos Members

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (March 29, 2020) BTN — About a month after eight members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club were acquitted in a lengthy racketeering trial, federal prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against each of their co-defendants awaiting trial, except one.

In a three-page court brief, prosecutors dismissed all charges against 11 more defendants.

Prosecutors still are pursuing two counts against one local biker, John Halgat. While a racketeering count against him was dismissed, he still faces charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to the crime charged.

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Last month, after a trial that started in July, jurors acquitted eight members of the club, including its president on federal charges of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise, murder and using a firearm to commit murder.

The Las Vegas trial centered around the fatal September 2011 shooting of a Hells Angels leader inside a Sparks casino during Street Vibrations, an annual motorcycle festival.

SOURCE: Las Vegas Review

Outlaws MC Member Disputes Claim

Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland (March 3, 2020) BTN — A member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club is disputing the RCMP’s depiction of their activities.

Cops seen this belt during the raid, liked it and confiscated it

Operation Barbarian last week resulted in eight cocaine trafficking arrests after the Outlaws Clubhouse in Grand Falls-Windsor was raided last weekend.

Two of the accused were members of the Outlaws and four others were associated with a support group known as the Fallen Few. Police say the investigation continues and more arrests are pending.

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At the time, RCMP warned that while the Outlaws try to depict themselves as motorcycle enthusiasts who give back to the community through charitable acts, their activities are linked to organized crime.

Mark Hancock takes exception to that. He admits they like to “party and have fun,” but says you’ll find people getting into trouble in any group.

He says to-date, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club has not been charged for being organized crime.

SOURCE: CBC

Chapter President Pleads Not Guilty

Providence, Rhode Island, USA (March 2, 2020) BTN —As his legal troubles mount, the president of the Hells Angels Rhode Island chapter is accusing the authorities of trying to entrap him and going easy on a “star witness” with a violent history.

Joseph Lancia, 28, of Smithfield, pleaded not guilty in District Court on Monday morning to two misdemeanors stemming from an altercation at the Cadillac Lounge strip club Saturday night. Police said they saw him punch a man, later identified as a strip club bouncer, in the face.

He will remain locked up because authorities say he violated the conditions of his bail in a case from June, when police said he shot at a man — a former prospect for the motorcycle club — driving by the Hells Angels Providence clubhouse in a truck.

In legal papers filed just days before the strip-club altercation, Lancia’s attorneys launched a number of accusations at the man police said he tried to shoot.

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The man, Richard Starnino, actually pointed a gun at Lancia first, and has threatened Lancia’s life a number of times, the filing says. Nobody was injured in the incident.

“The Grand Jury was never made aware of Richard Starnino’s drug habits, nor were they made aware of his violent criminal history or the numerous death threats he made against Joseph Lancia,” the filing says. “Furthermore, it was never disclosed to the Grand Jury that Starnino was an informant for the State Police, and that Starnino instigated and caused this incident.”

And Starnino has seen his own legal troubles quickly resolve in his favor — because he was cooperating with prosecutors in a long-running investigation into the Hells Angels, Lancia’s lawyer, Joseph Voccola, said.

Voccola said in a court filing that Starnino was arrested in May after beating a woman who’d gotten sand into his vehicle.

But by then, Starnino, 47, was already cooperating with the state police in an investigation into the Hells Angels, and had been for a number of months. So despite the fact that the victim reported suffering broken bones and needing 30 stitches, Starnino was charged only with misdemeanor simple domestic assault, the filing says.

Just days later, Starnino was charged again with violating a no-contact order after another assault, Lancia’s attorneys said. But he again was only charged with a minor offense, and authorities withdrew an accusation that he’d violated his bail on the earlier charge, Voccola said.

The charges against Starnino were eventually dismissed, according to court records.

Lancia now faces an accusation that he violated the terms of his bail in the June case after his arrest at the strip club over the weekend. That differs from the treatment Starnino received, Voccola said. “Everybody should be treated the same,” Voccola said. “That’s not the case here.”

Starnino’s attorney in his latest cases from 2019 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lancia will pursue a self-defense argument and an entrapment defense; the route Starnino took with his truck to drive by the Messer Street clubhouse “doesn’t make sense,” Voccola said.

Maj. Timothy Sanzi of the Rhode Island State Police said he could not comment on the specifics of Lancia’s arguments, but said: “The detectives do a terrific job and we stand by the investigations they produce.”

Lancia is expected to appear in Superior Court on Tuesday to face accusations that he violated the terms of his bail from his arrest at the strip club over the weekend. He rejected a deal that would have resolved the bail violation and the underlying misdemeanors from the weekend but would have resulted in him serving 75 days at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Voccola noted that the victim in the strip club case “doesn’t even want to come forward.”

But police said they saw him punch the victim, so he was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. On Monday, a simple assault charge was added to the case.

SOURCE: TurnTo10