Six Hell's Angels Plead Guilty Or No Contest And They Lost The Fight
Greg P Carr
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6135538
by Tracy Holenport
Friday, Feb. 23, 2007
Anchorage, Alaska - An Alaska member of the Hell's Angels motorcycle
club is sentenced for his role in a deadly brawl.
Dale Leedom of Two Rivers and his friend, Raymond Foakes of California
were sentenced to 12 to 30 months in Nevada State Prison.
A judge today agreed to let their sentences run concurrently with
federal prison terms they received last week.
The fight was with a rival gang at a Nevada casino in 2002. Three
people were killed and at least a dozen others hurt.
Six of 42 Hells Angels facing prison
Plea deal ends state, federal cases
ByADRIENNE PACKER and K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL
With their case against the Hells Angels unraveling, federal
prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain Wednesday that reduced charges
against the six main defendants and dismissed all charges against
three dozen other members of the infamous motorcycle club.
Forty-two Hells Angels had faced the possibility of life sentences as
a result of a gunbattle with their rival club, the Mongols, in
Harrah's Laughlin during the 2002 River Run motorcycle festival. But
under the deal approved Wednesday, six Hells Angels will serve no more
than 30 months in federal prison, and charges against the remaining
Hells Angels members are dropped.
The agreement extends to a parallel state case in which seven Hells
Angels faced multiple charges, including murder. The sentences levied
in district and federal court will run concurrently.
Opening statements for the federal trial of the first wave of Hells
Angels, 11 members, began in late September. Because the case was so
complex, lawyers expected it would last into next year.
In the opening days, federal prosecutors attempted to show jurors the
Hells Angels are a criminal enterprise that conspired to kill members
of the rival Mongols club. Aside from racketeering, 42 Hells Angels
faced attempted murder charges.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson's case ran into problems
early when defense lawyers challenged whether prosecutors had shared
all the documentation they should have, prompting U.S. District Judge
James Mahan to chide Johnson about how his case appeared to be
foundering.
By the third week of the trial, Mahan had enough and struck from the
record the testimony of former Hells Angel James Richey after defense
attorneys argued that prosecutors allowed Richey to lie on the stand.
Mahan threatened to prohibit two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives agents from testifying. Mahan was furious after
learning on the eve of the testimony that prosecutors didn't give
defense attorneys every video shot of the agents intermingling with
Hells Angels.
After releasing the jury Friday, Mahan called the prosecution's
failure to turn over evidence "out of control."
"The government faced the prospect of sending the case to the jury
with substantially less than all of the evidence against the
defendants than it possessed," U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said in a
prepared statement after the plea agreements were accepted.
"The government concluded under the circumstances that the guilty
pleas by the six most active and culpable participants in the crime
would best serve justice and the public interest."
One defense attorney labeled the government's case a "train wreck."
But attorney David Chesnoff was more diplomatic, saying the two sides
began negotiating Monday after prosecutors conceded "their case was in
difficulty."
"They (prosecutors) were having a very difficult time proving the
Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was a criminal enterprise for one good
reason: It's not," Chesnoff said after District Court Judge Michael
Cherry agreed to the reduced charges.
District Attorney David Roger said, "These sentences were not what we
had envisioned when we filed our case against the Hells Angels. But
based upon the circumstances, we can certainly say that there was
accountability in this case."
While prosecutors contended the Hells Angels planned and executed an
attack against the Mongols at the River Run, the defense told jurors
the Hells Angels simply were defending themselves when shots were
fired on the casino floor at Harrah's Laughlin.
Hells Angels members Jeramie Dean Bell, 27, of Hughson, Calif., and
Robert Emmet Tumelty, 50, of Stockton, Calif., were fatally shot
during the melee, and Mongols member Anthony Salvador Barrera, 43, was
stabbed to death.
Wednesday, in both district and federal courts, Hells Angel James
Hannigan, 39, pleaded guilty to battery with substantial bodily harm,
admitting he stabbed a Mongol.
Calvin Schaefer, 37, pleaded guilty to battery with use of a deadly
weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm. Schaefer is seen on
security video firing his handgun at a Mongol. Schaefer's sentence
will run concurrent with a 5-year sentence he received as a result of
charges in Arizona.
Dale Leedom, 44, who admitted stabbing a Mongol, pleaded guilty in
District Court and no contest in federal court to battery causing
substantial bodily harm. Rodney Cox, 44, who hit a Mongol in the head
with a wrench, pleaded guilty to the same charges.
Raymond Foakes, 43, whose kick of a rival biker started the bloody
brawl, entered a guilty plea to one count of challenge to a fight.
The giddy atmosphere in Cherry's courtroom quickly turned tense when
Cherry asked Hells Angel Maurice "Pete" Eunice, 55, to enter his plea.
Gasps were heard when Eunice paused, then asked: "Could I go on and
challenge my case individually?"
The agreement called for all defendants to plead guilty. If Eunice
backed out, the deal for all 42 Hells Angels would have fallen
through.
Eunice was hustled into a private conference room where attorney Tom
Pitaro and a half-dozen Hells Angels joined him and closed the door.
Several minutes passed before Eunice resurfaced and pleaded no contest
to battery causing substantial bodily harm.
On the security video played in the courtroom during opening arguments
of the federal case, a Mongol is seen shooting at Eunice. Eunice, who
possesses a concealed weapons permit, shot back.
Defense attorneys said Eunice had concerns about the deal because he
is a successful businessman in San Diego and has no criminal history.
On Wednesday afternoon, the biker crowd appeared nervous when Mahan
questioned Eunice about the plea agreement. The judge asked whether
Eunice had any problems with pleading no contest to an assault charge.
"Yes, your honor, I have a lot of problems, but I'm trying to do the
right thing here," said Eunice, who eventually entered the plea.
The six Hells Angels acknowledged they acted as an enterprise by
pleading no contest or not guilty to committing a violent crime in aid
of racketeering. However, the enterprise comprised the six individuals
and not the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Mahan dismissed charges against Michael Smullen, Sohn Regas, Donald
Smith, Ron Arnone and Justin Harrah. Regas also was the seventh Hells
Angels charged in District Court, where charges were dismissed.
"I'm glad it's over," Pitaro said as the defendants and other Hells
Angels members exchanged embraces outside the courtroom.
State prosecutors ran into their own problems with their case against
the Hells Angels early on. The Supreme Court in 2005 stayed the state
indictments to consider the state's conspiracy charges filed against
the motorcyclists.
During the Supreme Court hearing, Chesnoff argued the conspiracy
counts were written to make Hells Angels members potentially guilty of
crimes involving the death of their own gang members.
William Kephart and Chris Owens, both chief deputy district attorneys,
argued that state law says anyone who participates in a challenge to a
fight in which someone dies is responsible for the death, just as if a
party accepted a challenge to a fatal duel.
In March, the Supreme Court tossed out one of the state's murder
indictments against 14 members of the Hell's Angels, leaving two other
murder indictments and lesser charges such as assault and aiding and
abetting.
Federal prosecutors "were first to trial, because the court stayed our
trial. If the Nevada Supreme Court had not intervened, in all
likelihood we would have been the first prosecution to get to trial,"
Roger said.
But once the defendants had been acquitted or convicted in federal
court, he said, there was a legal question as to what the state could
charge them with, because federal and state laws prohibit two
governmental entities from using the same charges or evidence against
defendants.
"There was a chance we would not be able to proceed, and the
defendants didn't want to enter pleas in federal court unless they
received concurrent sentences in state court. So, in an effort to
assist federal prosecutors we agreed to participate in negotiations,"
Roger said.
Owens said he believed the state could have proceeded with murder and
battery charges against members of the group, but said the federal
trial wiped out about two-thirds of their case.
"They (the defense) apparently felt the same way or they wouldn't be
here pleading today," Owens said.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Oct-12-Thu-2006/news/10184606.html
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Besides the two HA killed at the casino another was killed by a
shotgun blast later on that day on the highway on his Harley. The
Bandidos MC are the toughest most violent 1% club in California and
the Hell's Angels know it.