OFF THE WIRE
http://www2.madison-news.com/news/2010/oct/28/bikegat28-ar-613296/ Update: Outlaws gang trial to resume Friday By Frank Green | TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Published: October 28, 2010
A six-man, six-woman jury will begin deliberations tomorrow morning in the trial of four member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang on federal racketeering-related charges. ¶
The panel was allowed to go home around 4:40 p.m. by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson after spending much of the day listening to instructions on the law and to closing arguments from government prosecutors and the defense lawyers.
Closing arguments are underway in the trial of four member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang on federal racketeering-related charges.
"This is an organization that uses violence, sometimes extreme violence, to promote its self interests," Stephen W. Miller, an assistant U.S. Attorney told the jury today, asking them to find all four guilty on all charges.
On trial are Jack "Milwaukee Jack" Rosga, 53, the national president; William "Rebel" Davey, 46; Mark "Lytnin'" Spradling, 52; and Leslie Werth, 47. Each is charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiracy to commit violence in aid of racketeering.
Davey and Werth also are charged with using violence in the aid of racketeering and firearms offenses.
A 50-page indictment alleges the Outlaws ran a criminal enterprise that engaged in attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, robbery, extortion, witness intimidation, drug distribution, illegal gambling and weapons offenses.
Not so, said Claire G. Cardwell, one of Rosga's lawyers.
"There's an old saying," she told the jurors in her closing remarks: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
The federal government, she said, is convinced the Outlaws are a criminal gang. A great deal of money and time went into the investigation, including the establishment of an Outlaws clubhouse in Petersburg by undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives.
"If the Outlaws Motorcycle Club is such a dangerous, criminal gang, then why did the federal government (set up) a clubhouse and facilitate them coming to Virginia?" she asked.
The evidence, said Cardwell -- "it's just a couple of bar fights and a shooting that they can't credibly connect to Mr. Rosga . . . the cherry on the top."
"The people who dealt drugs, who went hunting (rival hells Angels), who shot people are the government's witnesses in this case," she said of gang members who cooperated with authorities with hopes of lesser prisons senences.
The lawyers for the other three defendants will have their closing arguments this afternoon.
