By Frank Green | TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Richmond, Va. --
A two-week trial of four Outlaws motorcycle gang members on federal racketeering conspiracy and other charges got under way yesterday with the government cautioning jurors they will not have an easy job.
"You are about to embark on a journey into a world that you can hardly imagine," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Duffey said in his opening statement. He warned that the Outlaws is a gang that "lives, breathes and celebrates violence on a daily basis."
Thomas P. Collins, one of the defense lawyers, countered that contrary to government assertions, the evidence will show that "the Outlaws are not a national criminal enterprise."
In June, more than two dozen current and former members of the Outlaws and an allied gang were named in an indictment for allegedly running a criminal enterprise that involved attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, robbery, extortion, witness intimidation, drug distribution, illegal gambling and weapons offenses.
Fifteen of them have pleaded guilty, six are scheduled to be tried starting Dec. 1, and one had his charges dismissed this week at the request of prosecutors.
The four now on trial, including the Outlaws' national president, Jack "Milwaukee Jack" Rosga, might well be called the "grandfather bikers." Each has gray or graying facial hair, at least three are grandfathers, and two -- including Rosga -- are said to have no criminal records.
The four are: Rosga, 53, of Wisconsin; Mark "Lytnin'" Spradling, 52, treasurer of the gang region that includes Virginia and both Carolinas; Leslie Werth, 47, vice president of a South Carolina chapter; and William "Rebel" Davey, 46, an alleged gang enforcer in North Carolina.
Each is charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiracy to commit violence in the aid of racketeering. Davey and Werth also are charged with violence in the aid of racketeering and firearms violations.
Much of yesterday's proceedings were taken up with selecting a jury of eight women and six men -- two are sitting as alternates -- in U.S. District Court in Richmond. Judge Henry E. Hudson is presiding.
Duffey told jurors yesterday that there are roughly 600 Outlaws members in the U.S., organized into regions and chapters.
Everything in the Outlaws organization, he said, "depends upon expanding, gaining new members and gaining new territory, specifically into Virginia. . . . They do it all by acts of violence, intimidation."
Authorities allege the Outlaws and allies planned to do battle with the rival Hells Angels in the Richmond area.
And Rosga, Duffey said, "is the boss of the Outlaws."
The indictment alleges that with an agreement with the Pagans motorcycle club, the Outlaws moved into Virginia in 2006 with the opening of the Manassas/Shenandoah Valley chapter.
Duffey told the jurors they would hear from three agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who went undercover and infiltrated the gang.
"It's an extraordinary tale of sacrifice and courage on their part," he said. Duffey said the agents were undercover in the Mongols motorcycle gang when they were recruited by the Outlaws.
The investigation started in 2008, and the agents spent months at a time away from their families "in constant danger of being exposed."
The agents set up a new chapter and clubhouse in Petersburg, made surreptitious recordings implicating Outlaws, and drew help from Outlaws in North Carolina and elsewhere.
Duffey also told the jurors they would hear from several of the gang members who have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their former biker comrades.
Claire D. Cardwell, one of Rosga's lawyers, said her client is a father and grandfather who was married to the same woman for 30 years until she died of cancer. She said he has no criminal record and has been gainfully employed by a moving company in Milwaukee since he was a teenager.
"In addition to all those things, Jack Rosga is an avid motorcyclist," she said. Cardwell said the government only can show fewer than three dozen out of 600 Outlaws members have committed crimes.
She conceded, "there is no love lost between some of the clubs."
But, she said, the government will wrongly try to paint the Outlaws as "scary, evil, racist, sexist people." Rosga, she said, did not participate in nor was he present for any lawbreaking.
"He's here today because he's the president, and that's all," she said. The real lawbreakers, she said, are the government's own witnesses.
Collins said the job of the undercover agents is to break up gangs such as the Outlaws. He urged the jury to pay close attention to whether they were collecting evidence or instigating problems.
