OFF THE WIRE
BY: Andrew Clevenger
Source: sundaygazettemail.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Huntington member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison on racketeering charges, which included participating in a plot to retaliate against a Pagan in prison.
In February, David A. Cremeans, 49, a former treasurer of the Pagans' Charleston chapter, admitted that he acted as a go-between between a guard at the federal prison in Ashland, Ky., and a ranking member of the Pagans as they planned an assault against the imprisoned Pagan, who had cooperated with federal investigators.
Cremeans later testified for the prosecution in the prison guard's trials. A jury convicted the guard, Michael Lloyd Stevens of Huntington, of conspiring to retaliate against a government witness.
The jury heard recordings in which Cremeans, Stevens and Pagans member Ron "Pagan Ronnie" Howerton discussed paying an inmate to assault Vincent "Hot Rod" Morris, a Pagan who was serving a 56-month prison sentence following a bank robbery conviction.
Cremeans and Stevens didn't know that Howerton was working as a confidential informant for the FBI and was recording the conversation.
Cremeans also admitted that in November 2004 he traveled to Portsmouth, Ohio, armed and prepared to use force if necessary, to help the Pagans shut down a smaller, affiliated club, the Road Disciples Motorcycle Club.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Loew asked U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston to give Cremeans a reduced sentence because he had cooperated with the government.
Because of his membership in the Pagans as well as the Last Rebels Motorcycle Club, a smaller support club affiliated with the Pagans, Cremeans was able to provide investigators with useful information regarding the structure of the club, Loew said. Cremeans was also honest about his own involvement, and didn't embellish or tell prosecutors what they wanted to hear, he said.
Johnston said that Cremeans' cooperation will likely sever his ties to the Pagans, and put him at risk of retaliation for a long time.
"I know that the existing Pagans organization that's still out there is well aware of what is going on in this courtroom," the judge said, referring to the current members of the Pagans who sat in the gallery throughout the four Pagans-related trials in August.
Defense attorney David Perry asked Johnston to consider a sentence below the 24 to 30 months in prison recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
"The toughest decision [Cremeans] has had to make ... was the decision to step away from a life that he has known his entire adulthood," he said.
Cremeans apologized for "what I've been involved in."
"I won't go back to anything close to this," he said. "This has hurt not only those folks, but my family. For that, I am truly sorry."
Johnston noted that Cremeans had become heavily involved in the motorcycle club lifestyle.
"It's pretty clear that at the time of the incident with Mr. Stevens, you were playing the role of enforcer," he said. The Pagans organization was involved in a lot of criminal activity, and Cremeans was in the thick of it, he said.
Cremeans has already spent almost a year in custody, and will receive credit for time served.
Cremeans is the third defendant convicted of felony charges to be sentenced in the sweeping racketeering case, unsealed in October 2009, against 55 members and associates of the Pagans Motorcycle Club. The indictment included charges against defendants from Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Many entered into plea deals to vastly reduced charges, and a handful entered into agreements where their charges will be dismissed if they stay out of trouble for a year.
Sentencing for the defendants who were convicted of felonies is scheduled for various dates this fall.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
