‘Gorilla,’ a jailed Pagan, pleads guilty to attack on rival
Steven "Gorilla" Mondevergine is heading back to prison after pleading guilty Monday to aggravated assault and weapons offenses in the shooting and stabbing of Timothy "Casual" Flood, a rival leader of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, more than three years ago.
Steven "Gorilla" Mondevergine is heading back to prison after pleading guilty Monday to aggravated assault and weapons offenses in the shooting and stabbing of Timothy "Casual" Flood, a rival leader of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, more than three years ago.
Flood, who began cooperating with authorities in 2009, may also be providing information about other acts of violence in the biker underworld, including the January 2005 slaying of a leader of Hells Angels. Authorities have declined to comment about that case.
The Common Pleas Court hearing Monday wrapped up charges leveled last year against Mondevergine. They were believed to be based almost entirely on information supplied by Flood.
Under a plea agreement, Mondevergine, 57, was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison by Common Pleas Court Judge Earl W. Trent.
In exchange for the guilty plea, Assistant District Attorney Brian Grady said his office agreed to drop an attempted-murder charge.
Mondevergine, a former Philadelphia police officer, said little during the hearing, but waved and smiled at family members who had crowded into two rows of the 10th-floor courtroom.
He has been held on $1 million bail since his arrest at his mother's apartment in Washington Township, Gloucester County, in December.
The plea and sentencing came as Mondevergine was about to stand trial for the Jan. 30, 2008, assault in a home in Northeast Philadelphia that authorities said served as a clubhouse for the Pagans.
Flood, 49, was the club president at the time and was part of a group that authorities say was trying to force Mondevergine to give up his colors and relinquish his role as a member of the organization.
At a preliminary hearing this year, Flood testified that he was sitting on a couch in the clubhouse when Mondevergine burst into the room, shot him in a knee, and then stabbed him in the back.
The attack occurred during a period of high tension within the biker underworld.
Several other beatings and shootings were linked to a dispute between the Pagans and Hells Angels, which was attempting to establish a foothold in Philadelphia, long Pagans territory.
Federal authorities, who took part in Mondevergine's arrest in December, are continuing an investigation into the 2005 murder of Thomas Wood, who was gunned down as part of that biker war.
Wood, 36, was a vice president of Hells Angels and one of the top club members in the Philadelphia area. He was killed when the pickup truck he was driving near Vare Avenue and the Schuylkill Expressway was strafed with gunfire from a passing SUV.
No one has been charged in that case, but the arrest of Mondevergine last year led to speculation that authorities were making progress in the Wood slaying.
The key, several sources have said, could be Flood. Flood began cooperating after he was named along with 50 other bikers in a broad racketeering indictment that targeted Pagans activity on the East Coast.
While the case was based in West Virginia, Flood was one of several local Pagans named. He eventually pleaded guilty to a gambling charge and has been cooperating since, according to law enforcement sources.
One of his first acts as a cooperator was to finger Mondevergine as the man who shot and stabbed him. When the incident occurred, Flood told authorities he had been attacked in the parking lot of a bar and did not know his assailant.
Sources said the FBI has also questioned Flood about the Wood shooting.
Grady, the prosecutor in the Mondevergine case, declined to comment Monday about Flood's status as a witness, but said the Wood homicide was "under investigation by the FBI."
Contact staff writer George Anastasia at 856-779-3846 or ganastasia@phillynews.com.
