Prez of Gypsy Jokers MC Wants Harley Returned

Portland, Oregon, USA (June 1, 2022) - The president of the Portland chapter of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club, Mark Dencklau, went to trial and was convicted and sentenced to life for planning the kidnapping, torture and killing of ex club member Robert “Bagger” Huggins Jr. in 2015.

As he appeals his sentence, he’s urging a judge to order the government to give him Robert's 2011 Harley-Davidson motorcycle back. Robert was outbad in the club in 2014 and beaten after he stole money from the Portland clubhouse to support a heroin addiction, prosecutors said. Club members took Robert’ motorcycle and truck as well, and Mark eventually obtained the title for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

 

Inside Gypsy Jokers MC Portland Clubhouse - Photo: Court Exhibits

When police raided Marks’s home, they seized the bike. Mark argues he’s the lawful owner of the Harley and police unlawfully took it from his home. But prosecutors say Mark has it all wrong. He stole the motorcycle from Robert and doesn’t deserve to get it back, they argue. The government plans to return the bike to Robert’s family, prosecutors told the court.

Mark’s lawyer cites testimony from his co-defendant, Earl Fisher, who said at trial that Robert signed over the title as part of  “paying the debt for the money he had stolen” from the club. Fisher, who was treasurer of the Portland chapter, said he deposited the title into the club’s treasury.

Mark later approached the club about trading another bike for it, which he did, according to Erik Eklund, Mark’s lawyer. He submitted to the court a copy of the title in Mark’s name, dated June 6, 2014, with what appears to be Robert’s signature. The date of transfer shows June 6, 2014, when the bike’s odometer read 18,500 miles.

“This Court should issue an Order compelling the government to return Mr. Dencklau’s property to him or his designated representative,” Eklund wrote to U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman. According to prosecutors, Robert bought the Harley Davidson motorcycle on July 18, 2013, for $21,638 from Columbia Harley Davidson.

 

Inside Gypsy Jokers MC Portland Clubhouse - Photo: Court Exhibits

In June 2014, the Gypsy Joker club booted Robert out for stealing from the club. Mark testified he suspected Robert had taken about $18,000 from the club. In response, Mark and other club members beat Robert in the club basement for several hours, using batons, weight plates and fists. Members and associates also forced Robert to turn over his motorcycle and truck to the club, according to prosecutors.

“Even if Huggins owed the Club a debt, stealing property from Huggins by force is not a lawful form of recourse,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad wrote to the court. “Dencklau stole this motorcycle. He was not then, and is not now, a lawful owner of this motorcycle.’’

As payback for getting kicked out of the club and forced to relinquish his bike and truck, Robert later robbed Marks’s Woodburn home in June 2015, prosecutors argued at trial. Later that month, club members kidnapped Robert, 56, from a home in Portland, drove him to a shed in Washington state and beat and killed him on June 30, 2015, before dumping his body in a remote field, prosecutors said.

According to Mark’s lawyer, however, co-defendants Tiler Pribbernow and Fisher both described how Robert signed over the title to his motorcycle to satisfy a debt to the club and Mark later exchanged another motorcycle for it with the support of other club members.

“Registering this motorcycle in defendant’s name does not change the facts about how it came into defendant’s possession – he and other club members forced Huggins, during a brutal hours-long beating in the clubhouse basement, to sign over title,” Bolstad responded in her filing.

Hells Angels and Vagos Shoot it Out on Highway

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (May 31, 2022) - A group of Hells Angels motorcycle club members followed members of the Vagos motorcycle club before opening fire on the Vagos on U.S. Highway 95 in Henderson, Nevada.

In total, seven people were shot that shut down the highway for several hours on Sunday. Arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and other charges are Russell Smith, age 26, Stephen Alo, age 46, and Richard Devries, age 66. Henderson police identified Richard Devries as president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Hells Angels. Stephen Alo and Russell Smith are described as prospects for the Las Vegas chapter of the Hells Angels MC.

L-R: Russell Smith, Stephen Alo and Richard Devries 

Photo: Henderson Police Department

The conflict leading to the shooting started early Sunday as members of the Vagos were on a run for the “Flags over Dam” ride in Boulder City near Hoover Dam. “While setting up to start the ride, five Hell’s Angels prospect members were seen riding around,” police wrote.

The Vagos members then went to the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, where the same Hells Angels prospects “drove through the cemetery and began to cause problems,” according to police.

Police said the Vagos members were then driving north on U.S. 95 near Wagon Wheel Drive when multiple Hells Angels members approached. Some of the Hells Angels members pulled up next to the Vagos members and tried to kick the Vagos members over.



One of the Hells Angels members then “stood up on their motorcycle and started shooting” on one of the Vagos members, identified by police as Alejandro Castillo. Five other Vagos members were also wounded. They were identified in the police report as Ricardo Velasquez, Carie Chapin, Michael Stasiewicz, Michael Lempart and Chad Merrill.

Police previously said a seventh person wounded in the shooting showed up at a local hospital later with survivable injuries, although it is not clear what club that person was affiliated with. That shooting victim was not named or mentioned in the Henderson police report.

There is no reference by the police that any Vagos members firing a weapon during the shooting. Police said they found multiple expended casings at the shooting scene stretching from the College Drive exit ramp to the Horizon Drive exit ramp. Henderson police also said some of the events on the highway leading to the shooting were captured on video.

Police received a phone call from an anonymous witness who said they were driving north on the highway from Boulder City to Henderson that morning when they saw multiple Hells Angels members “parked on the side of the freeway and it appeared that they were waiting.”

Police said they obtained a video from the anonymous witness showing a “patched Hells Angel” and three prospects riding around the Vagos members. One of the Hells Angels members is depicted on the video holding something in his hand, according to police.

Pagan's MC Members Convicted of Assault

Milton-Freewater, Oregon, USA, (May 20, 2022) - Two Milton-Freewater men, members of the Pagan's Motorcycle Club were recently convicted of assault in Georgia for attacking a restaurant patron in that state last May.

Dustin L. Wendelin, a corrections officer at the Washington State Penitentiary at the time he was arrested, and Charles Montgomery pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and were found in violation of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act on April 25, according to a Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office release.

 

Both charges are felonies in Georgia. The men were given credit for serving more than five months in jail and could get up to 12 years of probation, the release said.

Wendelin and Montgomery were part of a months-long investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies across the country that began with the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Officials with the agencies traced the men to Walla Walla and contacted the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office to assist in the investigation. Wendelin and Montgomery were arrested on a grand jury indictment in September 2021 and extradited to Georgia to face charges.

According to law enforcement, the two men are members of the Pagan motorcycle club. They hold leadership roles in the local chapter of the club in Umatilla County.

Feds Targeting Hells Angels MC Charter

Vallejo, California, U.S.A (May 19, 2022) BTN  - The FBI is investigating potential “criminal enterprise activities” of the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, including a beating at their clubhouse and the possession of guns, silencers, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammo seized in a series of December raids.

 

A man identified by authorities as a Hells Angels “enforcer” delivers a punch during a bar fight in Vacaville. 

Photo: Eastern District of California Court Records

In a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of California, federal authorities revealed they’ve sought arrest warrants for three Hells Angels members and one “enforcer,” as part of an ongoing investigation into the Vallejo charter of the Hells Angels MC. The FBI appears to be weighing the possibility of seeking an indictment under the RICO Act; Task Force Officer Shane Raftery described the charter as a “criminal enterprise” that lords over other motorcycle clubs and is involved in a territory dispute with rival clubs in Yolo County.

“To perpetuate the enterprise and to maintain and extend its power, Vallejo Hells Angels Motorcycle Club members and associates engage in a pattern of racketeering predicates, including committing and conspiring to commit murder, attempted murder, intimidation, and assault resulting in great bodily injury against individuals who pose a threat to the enterprise or who jeopardize its operations,” Raftery wrote in the criminal complaint.

On Monday, a former Hells Angels prospect named Steve testified he infiltrated the group as an FBI informant, becoming one of three former prospects or members around the Bay Area to cooperate with authorities.

The complaint describes an October 2021 hours-long assault at the Vallejo clubhouse, where roughly a dozen Hells Angels allegedly beat two members of the Union Iron Workers Motorcycle Club, beating one for one hour and 50 minutes that victim said he used a clock on the wall to time the beating.