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Interesting HA Story Out Of Illinois.
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Greg Carr
Sep 23, 2017, 3:16:48 PM9/23/17
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By Kristen Zambo
Staff writer
Posted Sep 21, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Updated Sep 21, 2017 at 10:54 PM
ROCKFORD — A jury today acquitted two Cook County men of seven counts of aggravated battery and armed robbery in connection with the alleged beating in 2013 of the former president of Rockford’s Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Prosecutors also dismissed two other criminal charges against Tomasz Lech and Jose P. Vielma Jr., and against three other men accused in the case.
Those three men are in the midst of a simultaneous bench trial being conducted by Chief Judge Joseph McGraw in Winnebago County Circuit Court. Before the jury began deliberations in the Lech and Vielma case, McGraw acquitted all five men on five of the 14 counts they faced. The bench trial on the remaining charges for the three men is expected to conclude next week.
“This was the case in which the jury came to the right decision,” said defense attorney Patrick Campanelli, who defended Lech and Vielma. “There was no evidence other than presumption and assumption by the government to prosecute a person for being a member of a legitimate and legal motorcycle club.”
The five men were members of the Chicago and Rockford chapters of the Hells Angels at the time of the incident. Some remain members. They are accused of beating and stabbing their then-president Josh Johnson, 47, at the former Hells Angels clubhouse at 1109 Rock St.
The defense argues that Johnson, a former Rockford resident, had just been kicked out of the club and that some of the defendants were defending themselves from a man who outweighed them and practiced jiu jitsu.
“They tried to tie my clients into some sort of conspiracy, which had no basis in truth or fact,” Campanelli said.
Defendant John R. Savalick, of Pecatonica, testified today that he did not want to fight the club’s former president, a bigger man and a “trained fighter.”
“He’d kill you in 10 seconds,” Savalick said.
Johnson testified this week that he and a friend were accused during their weekly club meeting on June 27, 2013, of working with the police. He said he was told that’s why they were being kicked out of the club.
Savalick said everyone but Johnson and his friend knew why the members were meeting.
“To vote Josh out for stealing money,” Savalick testified. As the meeting began, Savalick said, ”‘Josh, we’re bringing you up for stealing money.’”
Club members thought Johnson was stealing because the member who kept the books, Bob Bell of Rockford, “said it wasn’t coming out right,” Savalick said. Bell also was charged, but his case was dismissed in March 2016. Savalick said he died.
Savalick said today that when he told Johnson “we’re voting you out,” Savalick and the other members raised their hands.
That’s when the dispute escalated.
Savalick said Johnson stood up and pounded his fist on the table, and then pushed defendant Christopher Lawson out of his way while moving around the table toward Savalick and another member.
Savalick said he was “scared like hell when it happened.”
“He wasn’t gonna hug me goodbye, I knew that,” Savalick said, adding Johnson could hit “you hard enough to kill you.”
Johnson had “a rolling record” of fights, once telling Savalick they totaled 300.
Savalick, who was a club member for 15 years and served as president before Johnson, said he never hit Johnson with anything, including his fists. Johnson’s friend was coming after Savalick, he testified, so Savalick picked up a broken piece of wooden bunk bed and struggled with that man.
The men in the room came together “like a ball of snakes,” Savalick said, likening the chaos to “a bomb going off.” But he said he didn’t see anyone hit Johnson or see Johnson punch any of the men.
The five defendants initially faced kidnapping charges because Johnson’s daughter, then 11 years old, was taken from the clubhouse without his permission just before the beating began. Witnesses testified on Tuesday that she was taken to her baby sitter unharmed.
Kristen Zambo: 815-987-1339; kza...@rrstar.com; @KristenZambo
http://www.rrstar.com/news/20170921/two-acquitted-in-hells-angels-beating-trial-in-rockford
============================================================================
I like the fact the kidnapping charges weren't applied since the young girl was taken away in order to spare her from the violence that was about to ensue around her Dad. This story actually gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling and that doesn't happen often in regards to HAMC. Until today had never heard of the Rockport chapter although the Chicago chapter gets up to a lot of illegal activity.
Staff writer
Posted Sep 21, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Updated Sep 21, 2017 at 10:54 PM
ROCKFORD — A jury today acquitted two Cook County men of seven counts of aggravated battery and armed robbery in connection with the alleged beating in 2013 of the former president of Rockford’s Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Prosecutors also dismissed two other criminal charges against Tomasz Lech and Jose P. Vielma Jr., and against three other men accused in the case.
Those three men are in the midst of a simultaneous bench trial being conducted by Chief Judge Joseph McGraw in Winnebago County Circuit Court. Before the jury began deliberations in the Lech and Vielma case, McGraw acquitted all five men on five of the 14 counts they faced. The bench trial on the remaining charges for the three men is expected to conclude next week.
“This was the case in which the jury came to the right decision,” said defense attorney Patrick Campanelli, who defended Lech and Vielma. “There was no evidence other than presumption and assumption by the government to prosecute a person for being a member of a legitimate and legal motorcycle club.”
The five men were members of the Chicago and Rockford chapters of the Hells Angels at the time of the incident. Some remain members. They are accused of beating and stabbing their then-president Josh Johnson, 47, at the former Hells Angels clubhouse at 1109 Rock St.
The defense argues that Johnson, a former Rockford resident, had just been kicked out of the club and that some of the defendants were defending themselves from a man who outweighed them and practiced jiu jitsu.
“They tried to tie my clients into some sort of conspiracy, which had no basis in truth or fact,” Campanelli said.
Defendant John R. Savalick, of Pecatonica, testified today that he did not want to fight the club’s former president, a bigger man and a “trained fighter.”
“He’d kill you in 10 seconds,” Savalick said.
Johnson testified this week that he and a friend were accused during their weekly club meeting on June 27, 2013, of working with the police. He said he was told that’s why they were being kicked out of the club.
Savalick said everyone but Johnson and his friend knew why the members were meeting.
“To vote Josh out for stealing money,” Savalick testified. As the meeting began, Savalick said, ”‘Josh, we’re bringing you up for stealing money.’”
Club members thought Johnson was stealing because the member who kept the books, Bob Bell of Rockford, “said it wasn’t coming out right,” Savalick said. Bell also was charged, but his case was dismissed in March 2016. Savalick said he died.
Savalick said today that when he told Johnson “we’re voting you out,” Savalick and the other members raised their hands.
That’s when the dispute escalated.
Savalick said Johnson stood up and pounded his fist on the table, and then pushed defendant Christopher Lawson out of his way while moving around the table toward Savalick and another member.
Savalick said he was “scared like hell when it happened.”
“He wasn’t gonna hug me goodbye, I knew that,” Savalick said, adding Johnson could hit “you hard enough to kill you.”
Johnson had “a rolling record” of fights, once telling Savalick they totaled 300.
Savalick, who was a club member for 15 years and served as president before Johnson, said he never hit Johnson with anything, including his fists. Johnson’s friend was coming after Savalick, he testified, so Savalick picked up a broken piece of wooden bunk bed and struggled with that man.
The men in the room came together “like a ball of snakes,” Savalick said, likening the chaos to “a bomb going off.” But he said he didn’t see anyone hit Johnson or see Johnson punch any of the men.
The five defendants initially faced kidnapping charges because Johnson’s daughter, then 11 years old, was taken from the clubhouse without his permission just before the beating began. Witnesses testified on Tuesday that she was taken to her baby sitter unharmed.
Kristen Zambo: 815-987-1339; kza...@rrstar.com; @KristenZambo
http://www.rrstar.com/news/20170921/two-acquitted-in-hells-angels-beating-trial-in-rockford
============================================================================
I like the fact the kidnapping charges weren't applied since the young girl was taken away in order to spare her from the violence that was about to ensue around her Dad. This story actually gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling and that doesn't happen often in regards to HAMC. Until today had never heard of the Rockport chapter although the Chicago chapter gets up to a lot of illegal activity.
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