Kentucky Pagan acquitted of gun possession

OFF THE WIRE
By Andrew Clevenger
The Charleston Gazette
Advertiser

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal jury in Charleston acquitted a Kentucky member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club Tuesday on charges that he possessed a gun during a tense standoff between members of the club's governing body in Virginia in 2008.
The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning its verdict of not guilty.
Kim H. Berryman, 51, of Lancaster, Ky., who was called "Bear" or "Little Bear" in the biker world, was barred from possessing a gun because of a previous felony conviction.
"I know the law. I don't carry a gun," Berryman testified Tuesday.
From the witness stand, Berryman refuted the image of the Pagans as a dangerous outlaw motorcycle gang presented by prosecutors, who maintained that an internal conflict between Mother Club members Floyd B. "Jesse" Moore, of St. Albans, and Michael "White Bear" Grayson, of Barren Spring, Va., produced a tense armed standoff at a mandatory Pagans event in 2008.
"The whole time that I was around [the Pagans], I've never seen any violence. I've never seen anyone get hit, I've never seen anyone get shot," he said. "If I did, do you think I'd let my teenage son around them?"
Berryman said he sometimes brought his wife or son to Pagans events, but didn't bring anyone to the June 2008 gathering because Moore told members under his command that federal agents had warned him that there was a threat to his life.
Ultimately, Berryman, who left the Pagans in the spring of 2009, found all the talk of potential violence between Moore and Grayson a little overblown.
When Moore's contingent, which included Pagans from West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, arrived at the freshly mown hayfield where the event took place and turned off their motorcycles, Grayson hollered, "Welcome to Virginia!" Berryman said.
Berryman said he didn't even know what kind of gun he was supposed to have possessed, he said.
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Blaire Malkin, Berryman said he didn't know anything about a violent clash with members of the Hells Angels, a rival motorcycle gang, on Long Island in 2002. That incident resulted in 73 Pagans being convicted on federal charges.
Berryman said that happened before he joined the club in 2007, and he hadn't heard anyone ever discuss it.