NEW YORK: Biker informant accused of igniting feud Government denies the charges

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article260580.ece

Biker informant accused of igniting feud Government denies the chargesBy Dan Herbeck

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Published: November 21, 2010, 12:00 AM

Font Size: -2 -1 Standard +1 +2 E-mail Share Print Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Delicious Stumble Upon Digg Fark MySpace Updated: November 21, 2010, 10:03 AM

When FBI agents arrested 20 members of the Chosen Few motorcycle gang last year, they accused the bikers of shootings, beatings and other acts of violence targeting rival gangs, especially the Kingsmen.

But as the case heads toward trial, defense attorneys accuse a biker acting as an FBI informant of committing an act of vandalism that ignited hostilities between the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen. The government denies the charges.

Defense attorneys recently filed court papers asking a judge to hold a pretrial evidentiary hearing to explore the FBI’s dealings with David Ignasiak, a former Chosen Few member who became a government witness in the probe.

The defense has also asked for the entire case to be dismissed because of “outrageous government conduct,” alleging that Ignasiak engaged in numerous wrongdoings in an effort to please the FBI.

“We believe David Ignasiak started a war between the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen because he wanted to make himself more valuable to the FBI as an informant,” said Angelo Musitano, who represents the vice president of the Depew-based Chosen Few. “In 20 years of practicing law, I’ve never seen this kind of misuse of an informant.”

Musitano and other defense attorneys do not claim that the FBI sent Ignasiak out to start a war with the Kingsmen, but they claim that agents failed to control their informant and got false information from him.

The U. S. Attorney’s office denies the allegations and says the case against the bikers is a strong one.

In court papers, federal prosecutors Anthony M. Bruce and John E.

Rogowski said Musitano’s claims are “baseless” and have no “credibility.”

“The defendants’ motions rely on a series of bold but entirely unsubstantiated claims by Angelo Musitano,” the two prosecutors said.

Violence between members of the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen began decades ago— long before Ignasiak ever began assisting the FBI, Bruce and other law enforcement officials said.

But according to Musitano, the most recent warfare between the two gangs began in June 2008, when someone destroyed some tents that were rented by the Chosen Few for a Bikes and Blues festival at Como Park in Lancaster.

Someone used a knife to “slice up” the tents, also using the knife to put the initials of the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club on some of the tents, Musitano said. He said leaders of the Kingsmen have denied vandalizing the tents.

“If you’re going to vandalize somebody’s tent, why would you leave your calling card — your club’s initials—there?” the defense lawyer asked The Buffalo News last week.

According to Musitano, Ignasiak lived a few hundred yards from the park at the time, and he said Ignasiak was also aware of what hours the tents would be left unguarded by the Chosen Few.

“It is the defense contention that Ignasiak caused the damage to the tents and shifted the blame to the so that he could receive benefits from the FBI and start a war,” Musitano said.

Many of the FBI’s charges against Chosen Few members — including the club’s longtime president Alex Koschtschuk — involve incidents and remarks that came after the destruction of the tents.

Prosecutors have revealed in court that Ignasiak became an FBI source in July 2006, and defense lawyers claim he started the war in 2008 because he had been unable to provide helpful information to the FBI for almost two years.

Defense lawyers hint that Ignasiak may have had something to do with the next act of vandalism directed at the Chosen Few, when someone repeatedly fired a shotgun at their Depew clubhouse in August 2008. The gunshots struck and disabled a wire that powered the Chosen Few’s surveillance cameras.

“The location of that particular wiring is known only to members of the . Ignasiak was a member,” Musitano said in court papers.

Bruce countered that a former leader of the Kingsmen, William Slater, has already admitted in court that he shot the clubhouse. That was confirmed by Slater’s attorney, Thomas Eoannou, who said Slater pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment last year and received no prison time.

At the same time, Eoannou agreed with Musitano that the vandalism to the Chosen Few tent appears to have ignited the 2008 battles between the gangs. He said he does not know if Ignasiak was the man who damaged the tents.

Federal prosecutors have charged some Chosen Few members with pulling a Kingsmen member off his motorcycle and beating him with an ax handle after the tent incident. A Chosen Few member is also accused of possessing 31 pipe bombs that were allegedly going to be used to blow up a Kingsmen clubhouse.

A Chosen Few biker is accused of shooting Slater on Buffalo’s West Side in 2005, and prosecutors also claim that the Chosen Few were behind an April 2004 bombing that damaged the Blasdell clubhouse of another gang, the Lonely Ones.

Prosecutors also said state police found diagrams of Kingsmen clubhouses and homes when they raided Koschtschuk’s home during his May 2009 arrest.

Musitano told The News that he is unaware of any hostilities between the Kingsmen and Chosen Few until Ignasiak became an FBI informant, but police agencies have reported a few incidents between them dating back to at least 1996.

In July 1996, state police said a fight between Kingsmen and Chosen Few members in Silver Creek wound up with three Kingsmen going to the hospital.

In September 1997, West Seneca police said a bar fight between the two gangs left one man critically wounded with a gunshot to the chest.

So far, two men associated with the Chosen Few have taken guilty pleas, but about 19 still face trial. No trial date has been scheduled yet because of extensive pretrial proceedings.

Defense attorneys have made it clear that — when the case goes to trial — they will focus their attack on Ignasiak, whose testimony has already been questioned by one judge.

After a two-day hearing in March, U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy refused a government request to revoke the bail of James Lathrop Jr., an indicted Chosen Few biker accused of stalking and making threats against Ignasiak.

After hearing Ignasiak testify, the judge said he found Ignasiak to be “not credible.”

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the hearing revealed Ignasiak to be an untruthful witness,” Lathrop’s attorney, Robert N. Convissar, said. “His credibility will be under a microscope at trial.”

Ignasiak, a former martial arts instructor, told The News after McCarthy’s decision that he has been truthful.

Ignasiak predicted the Chosen Few members will be convicted when the case goes to trial, and said the information will come “not just from me, but from an abundance of people.”

Efforts by The News to reach Ignasiak for comment on Musitano’s allegations were unsuccessful. Musitano represents Alan Segool, identified in court as Chosen Few vice president.