Peter Edwards
thestar.com
The trial stems from a series of drug busts in 2007. Here, police remove the death head sign from the former headquarters of the downtown Toronto Hells Angels on Eastern Ave.
Jurors and prisoners grinned in court on Friday as senior Hells Angel Larry Pooler got his chance to play lawyer and cross examine a club turncoat.
Pooler was a model of civility in a University Ave. courtroom, dressed in a pinstriped charcoal business jacket, with his long grey hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.
On the witness stand, also dressed like a businessman, was David Atwell, former sergeant-at-arms of the downtown Toronto Hells Angels, who left the club to become a paid police agent. He is the Crown’s star witness and was testifying Friday against Pooler who is facing charges including criminal conspiracy.
Also facing criminal conspiracy charges are John Neal, 60, president of the downtown Toronto Hells Angels, vice-presidents Pooler, 60, and Douglas Myles, 54, and members Mehrdad (Mark) Bahman, 49, and Lorne Campbell, 62.
Pooler asked Atwell to think back to his mother’s death in 2002.
“Did the club not support you? Rally around you? Attend the funeral? That kind of thing?” Pooler asked.
“Some members attended the funeral,” Atwell replied, controlling his emotions.
For much of his two-hour cross-examination that followed, Pooler asked Atwell about club rules against having unpaid bills or cheating people in business transactions.
“Would you not agree . . . that I was a stickler for the rules?” Pooler asked.
“For some rules,” replied Atwell, who’s now in a witness protection program.
Pooler asked Atwell what he considered to be Pooler’s line of work.
“You had a couple of concerts and bike shows,” he replied. “I never attended any of them.”
“So I was a self-employed businessman?”
“Ya, that would be fair.”
“Have you known me to be a drug user?” Pooler continued.
“I thought I seen you smoking a joint. I could be wrong. I never knew you to be a drinker either.”
Pooler asked Atwell if he could remember serving as a bodyguard for a man named Larry.
“That guy who pulled a gun on you?” replied Atwell.
Pooler didn’t flinch at the reply, moving on to the next question on several sheets of notes in front of him.
Some jurors smiled as Pooler carefully followed courtroom protocol, addressing Atwell as “Mr. Atwell,” and at one point saying to Justice Maureen Forestell, “May I approach the witness, your Honour?”
“Yes,” the judge replied.
Atwell earlier testified that men joining the outlaw biker club are required to fill out a form, giving personal information such as the names and addresses of relatives.
Pooler suggested to Atwell that the form might also be useful for non-threatening purposes, like tending to a biker’s personal affairs if he had a motorcycle accident.
“The form also asked if you might have pets or other issues that require attention,” Pooler said.
Atwell responded with a shrug.
Pooler asked Atwell about a business dispute over a vehicle sale while Atwell was working as a police agent.
“Is it true that you took a baseball bat out of your vehicle and proceeded to smash the lights out of that vehicle?” Pooler asked.
“I think it was a bat that was (already) there and it was another vehicle,” Atwell replied.
Pooler quizzed Atwell on whether he managed to settle all of his debts before he disappeared in a witness protection, including one to a man named “Lou.”
“You owed some money to the underworld?” Pooler asked.
“I didn’t,” Atwell said.
“But he (Lou) believed you did?” Pooler continued.
“He can believe anything he wants.”
Pooler asked if Atwell knew if Lou was connected to serious players in the underworld.
“I met Peter Scarcella through him,” Atwell replied, but didn’t elaborate on any alleged underworld debts.
The exchange came in the fourth month of the drugs and weapons trial of the five downtown Toronto Hells Angels, who were arrested as their clubhouse was shut down in April 2007.
