Pagans case: School bus driver who helped discard evidence gets 10 months

OFF THE WIRE
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club who admitted that he helped remove evidence from the group's St. Albans clubhouse was sentenced Thursday to five months in jail.

Corey Charles "Mohawk" Hinkle, 30, of Charleston, pleaded guilty on July 8 to aiding and abetting obstruction of justice. He admitted that, in February 2009, under orders from Pagans national vice president Floyd B. "Jesse" Moore, he removed a tote full of clothing and patches commandeered from members of another motorcycle club so that it could be destroyed.

"He was convinced it could be used as evidence against us," Hinkle told U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Loew said the Pagans knew they were under federal investigation, because of several searches conducted by federal agents and several Pagans who had testified before a grand jury.

Hinkle said he had voluntarily left the Pagans not long after the clubhouse incident because he was constantly being pulled between the club and his job as a Kanawha County school bus driver.

His job frequently made him late to Pagans meetings and events, and his employers weren't happy with his involvement with the club, he said.

"I left the club in 2009 so I could better myself and get away from it," he said.

Hinkle's attorney, Herb Hively, noted that after Hinkle was indicted, he was asked to resign from his job as a bus driver, and he did. Hinkle has been changed by the roughly two months he has spent in jail, he said.

"He is quieter, and I think he has [a greater] appreciation of liberty," Hively said.

Johnston said that, other than his association with the Pagans, Hinkle seemed to be a hard-working, law-abiding citizen. He added, though, that his crime required some form of punishment.

"Mr. Hinkle, obstructive behavior like this is an affront to the criminal justice system itself," he said.

Johnston imposed a 10-month sentence, with the first five months to be spent in jail, followed by five more spent on home confinement with electronic monitoring. He also ordered Hinkle to spend three years on supervised release.

Hinkle will receive credit for the time he has spent in custody since his bail was revoked after he was found at a bar past his court-imposed curfew.

Hinkle is the sixth defendant convicted of felony charges to be sentenced in the racketeering case, unsealed in October 2009, against 55 members and associates of the Pagans. 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.

Earlier this month, Johnston rejected a plea deal in the Pagans case, saying that the facts agreed to by the parties did not prove the elements of the crime charged. That case is scheduled for trial next month.

http://wvgazette.com/News/201010281281
[Submitted by WV Fritz]