OFF THE WIRE
BY: LARRY O'DELL
Source: wtvr.com
RICHMOND, Va. — A Spotsylvania County man testified Wednesday that a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang punched him without provocation at an area bar in 2008.
Clifford Diggs was the first witness at the trial of five current or former motorcycle gang members, including the national president of the Outlaws. His first racketeering trial ended with a deadlocked jury last month.
One other man was convicted and two were acquitted at the first trial in U.S. District Court. This time, Outlaws president Jack Rosga of Milwaukee is being tried with four other co-defendants including Christopher Timbers, the man Diggs says punched him without provocation.
Federal prosecutors say the Outlaws committed a series of violent crimes, largely in an attempt to gain a foothold in Virginia and an advantage over the rival Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.
"This case is about fear, intimidation, expanding your turf _ it's about racketeering activity," federal prosecutor Dennis Fitzpatrick said in opening statements. "...This is a violent enterprise that lives, breathes and celebrates that violence."
Defense attorneys told the jury that prosecutors will try to portray a handful of isolated incidents as an organized criminal enterprise and suggested the government is trying to dismantle an organization it simply doesn't like.
"This case is really about the government's disapproval of bikers' nonconforming attitude," said Angela Dawn Whitley, an attorney for Mark Jason Fiel, another co-defendant. "They don't like the fact they don't cower to authority."
Along with the racketeering charges, Fiel and Timbers--who both belonged to the Outlaws' chapter in Manassas, Va.--face civil rights charges in the assault on Diggs. That aspect of the case was not part of the first trial.
Diggs, a 49-year-old postal worker, testified that he accidentally bumped into a man while ordering a beer at the Hard Times Cafe in Fredericksburg. He identified Timbers as that man in court.
He said that a few minutes later Timbers and another man summoned him to their table, where Timbers punched him at least twice, breaking his nose, jaw and eye socket. The indictment alleges that Fiel was the man with Timbers, but Diggs was unable to identify him in court.
On cross-examination by Timbers' attorney, Diggs said the men never mentioned the Hell's Angels--a point raised to undermine the government's theory that the criminal enterprise targeted the rival gang.
Also facing racketeering and other charges is Harry McCall of the Outlaws' Lexington, N.C., chapter. Dennis Haldermann, a member of a motorcycle club not affiliated with the Outlaws, is charged with violence in the aid of racketeering.
Twenty-seven current or former members of the Outlaws and other biker gangs were indicted in June. More than half have entered guilty pleas. One was killed in a gun battle with federal agents as they tried to arrest him in MAINE...
