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 

Suspected Outlaws MC Member Arrested After Chase

Brockton, Massachusetts, USA (June 15, 2020) BTN - A 58-year-old Whitman man who police say belongs to the Outlaws motorcycle club was arrested by state troopers for carrying an illegal gun after a high-speed chase through Brockton, according to police.

Troopers assigned to the Massachusetts State Police Troop D Community Action Team saw two motorcycles “traveling much faster than the posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour” on West Chestnut Street in the city of Brockton on Friday.

“Their estimated speed was near 70 miles per hour,” said Massachusetts State Police, in a statement about the arrest that was released on Sunday morning. “As troopers activated their emergency lights in an attempt to stop the motorcycles one of them fled at a high rate of speed toward West Bridgewater.”

State police said they caught up with the motorcyclist, identified as Kenneth McDonald, 58, of Whitman, on Manley Street in West Bridgewater. State police said he is a “suspected member of the Outlaws motorcycle club,” which has been previously designated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation as an outlaw motorcycle gang.

McDonald was armed with an unlicensed handgun, state police said. Troopers seized his BERSA SA .45 firearm, which was “fully loaded” with seven rounds, including one in the chamber, according to state police, which provided a picture of the handgun, along with an Outlaws leather vest and a black Outlaws “1%er” helmet.

“McDonald does not legally possess a license to carry a firearm in Massachusetts,” state police said.

At that point, McDonald was placed under arrest and transported to the state police barracks in Middleboro. McDonald was charged with carrying or possessing a firearm without a license and carrying a loaded firearm or committing a firearm violation for a second offense, state police said. McDonald was also given a “citation warning” for speeding, police said.

McDonald was released over the weekend on $500 bail and is expected to be arraigned Monday in Brockton District Court.

SOURCE: The Enterprise

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

Alleged HA Member Restricted From Friends

Darwin, Australia (May 19, 2020) BTN - An alleged member of a Darwin Hells Angels motorcycle club has been banned from seeing his “friends” or visiting their clubhouse after being charged with drug and weapons offences. Adrian Lyle Cook, 57, faced the Darwin Local Court on a string of charges after allegedly failing a drug test during a traffic stop on Friday.

Cook was bailed after his arrest and prosecutor Erin McAuley applied to have him banned from associating with “any patched members, prospect members or associates of the Hells Angels” or come within 100m of their Darwin clubhouse.

Ms McAuley said ammunition allegedly seized during a raid on Cook’s home was found in “what the police have described as a holding room that was littered with Hells Angels paraphernalia, including the sergeant-at arms motorcycle jacket”.

She said the circumstances of the seizure suggested Cook was “a somewhat trusted member” of the club.

“There are concerns that if these restrictions are not imposed that he will still be able to affiliate with members of the Hells Angels,” she said.

“But also, more concerning perhaps, is the fact that he was found in the possession of ammunition and other items that would assist the motorcycle group in other breaches of the law.”

In opposing the bail variation, Cook’s lawyer Shane McMaster said it was “not a crime to be associated with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club”. “He is associated with that club and closely associated with various members, they are his friends, they are his social group,” he said.

“Because they are his social group a lot of his previous friendship or social group has dissipated (so) these are the people he knows and hangs around with, he fixes motorbikes, he goes on motorbikes with them.”

Mr McMaster said the offences his client had been charged with “have got nothing to do with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club”.

“There are various matters that we’ll be looking at in terms of forensics and weights and things like that but I can indicate that a lot of it is going to proceed by way of plea,” he said.

“The cannabis, your honour, conveniently comes in at one gram over the minimum 50g which would be a traffic-able amount.”

In granting the application, judge Greg Cavanagh said it was “certainly not a crime to be a part of a motorcycle club”. “I have mates who are in such clubs, years ago I used to do legal work for the Hells Angels,” he said.

“Any restriction that is merely premised on being an associate, being friendly with or hanging around with Hells Angels members would not be a just thing to do and I wouldn’t do it merely for that reason.

“But I am going to make the conditions sought because I think it’s a very serious indication of the likelihood of further offences when someone has a safe room containing material – the gun pieces, the ammunition and all that’s contained in the schedule within that room – together with bits and pieces of Hells Angels paraphernalia.”

Cook returns to court on June 15.

SOURCE: NT NEWS