Jurors get lesson in motorcycle gang etiquette at arson trial

Off the Wire News By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
HARRISONBURG -- Jurors in the Bad Water Bill's Bar-B-Q Barn arson trial were schooled in Pagan Motorcycle Club etiquette by a gang member who spent two hours testifying Thursday morning.
Pagan treasurer James Arthur "Art" Calhoun of White Post was a prosecution witness in the trial of William Wardell Welebir, 56, Port Richey, Fla., who is accused of torching the Strasburg restaurant in 2003.
Calhoun, 51, who was identified Wednesday as the owner of a Stephens City roadside inn that was a Pagans hangout, described Welebir as a club "hang-around."
"I didn't think he was Pagans material," Calhoun testified during the second day of the trial in U.S. District Court.
U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson, who is presiding over the trial, asked "what's Pagans material?" Calhoun replied, "Someone who is a little street savvy."
Welebir had slipped up at a motorcycle event by publicly identifying Calhoun to someone who was not a member of the Pagans, Calhoun said.
Prospective members are schooled in Pagan ways, he said.
Welebir is accused of setting fire to the Strasburg restaurant early in the morning of Oct. 25, 2003, because a Titans motorcycle club event was planned there later in the day. Calhoun identified the Titans as a "duck club," which he compared to a major league baseball farm team, of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
There has been bad blood between the Hells Angels and Pagans for nearly a decade, Calhoun said, but "there's animosity between all 1 percent clubs." Outlaw motorcycle clubs often describe themselves as the 1 percent of motorcyclists who flout the law.
The Pagans wanted to keep the Hells Angels out of the area, Calhoun said.
Calhoun said he watched Bad Water Bill's in the hours before the fire to see if any Hells Angels were there.
"It's not our type of retaliation. We're more one on one, face to face," Calhoun said.
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Original article...
http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2010/02/jurors-get-lesson-in-motorcycle-gang-etiquette-at-arson-trial.php