MEDINA, Ohio -- Jury acquits Hells Angel in Medina County assault case

OFF THE WIRE
A Medina County jury acquitted a Hells Angels member Friday of assault charges in a beating of a biker in Montville Township.
The jury, however, will return for additional deliberations Monday in the case of a second Hells Angels member also on trial.

Jurors in Medina County Common Pleas Court found Justin Seliskar not guilty of three charges: complicity to commit felonious assault, complicity to commit attempted felonious assault and complicity to commit assault.

They deliberated for about four hours. But they wanted additional time in the case of Scott Stage, who is charged with felonious assault. Stage and Seliskar were charged in the beating of Steven Keresztesi, a 63-year-old Cleveland man who wanted to re-establish the Coffin Cheaters, bikers who once operated in Northeast Ohio.

Authorities said the Hells Angels wanted the Coffin Cheaters to pay a toll for riding in their territory while wearing patches and insignias. Scott Salisbury, an assistant county prosecutor, said Seliskar set up the meeting Sept. 3 with Keresztesi and a friend behind a restaurant off Ohio 18.

Saltage, 46, and Seliskar, 31, met them about 8:30 p.m. The men shook hands, chatted a few minutes and then Stage punched Keresztesi in the face, Salisbury said. The punch came because Keresztesi said he wouldn't pay the Hells Angels, the prosecutor said. Stage hit Keresztesi again in the head. During the fight, Salisbury said, Seliskar told Keresztesi's friend to stay out of it, "as it wasn't his fight."
Defense attorneys Dominic Vitantonio and David Sheldon attacked the case, saying Keresztesi initiated the meeting, not Seliskar. They also said Keresztesi provoked Stage, and Stage defended himself. They said Keresztesi had a vendetta to get the Hells Angels. They attacked his credibility and said he had spun a web of lies.
"This was the equivalent of a schoolyard fight -- two men had a disagreement, and they came to blows," Vitantonio said. "The only reason that they charged Seliskar is because he's a Hells Angel."
Seliskar remains accused of possessing a weapon as a felon. A date has not been set on when that case would go to trial. Authorities found a gun in his bathroom during a search of his home.

Ralph Buss, an attorney representing the Hells Angels, said in an interview this week that his clients do not force people to pay to ride in a region. He called it a fabrication. Buss was in court to observe the trial.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/jury_acquits_hells_angel_in_me.html