OFF THE WIRE
BY: ROBERT E. KESSLER
newsday.com
From his hospital room in the Westchester County Jail, the vice president of the Long Island chapter of the Pagans motorcycle gang pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to distribute crack and using a handgun in commission of drug trafficking, officials said.
Kenneth Van Diver, 51, had been held in the Valhalla jail's hospital ward since he and 16 other members or associates of the gang were arrested last September when federal agents moved to break up a resurgence of the group on Long Island and to stop an alleged plan to murder members of the rival Hells Angels, according to officials.
Van Diver suffers from an unspecified respiratory illness and requires regular use of an oxygen tank, according to sources familiar with his situation.
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Eastern District Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Hogan said the Marshals Service felt that it was better for Van Diver's health that his plea be taken in the Westchester jail, instead of transporting him by ambulance the 68 miles to the federal courthouse in Central Islip, where he had been indicted.
U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert agreed to travel to the Westchester jail to accept the plea, Hogan said. She was accompanied by a court stenographer, prosecution and defense attorneys and marshals.
Hogan said a plea in a hospital ward was unusual, but not unprecedented.
Under his plea bargain agreement, Van Diver faces 15 to 18 years in prison, according to officials. If he had been convicted of all charges brought against him, including several other gun charges, he could have faced more than 80 years in prison, according to officials.
Van Diver's attorney, Steven Losquadro, could not be reached for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Caffarone, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Van Diver was the first of the 17 Pagans and associates who were arrested last year to enter a plea.
