Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Ablett Case

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
The Ablett Case
If the federal case against Mongol Christopher Bryan “Stoney” Ablett proves anything, it proves that American federal “justice” is a crooked shell game played in a back alley at midnight.
Ablett is accused of killing Hells Angels Frisco charter President Marc “Papa” Guardado a little before 10:30 p.m. on September 2, 2008. Off and on for the last 35-years members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and the Mongols Motorcycle Club have fought when they meet. Outlaw bikers are among the last Americans honor bound to fight duels and sometimes these duels are fatal.
What happened in front of the Dirty Thieves bar at the corner of 24th Street and Treat Avenue in San Francisco that night appears to have been one of those spontaneous confrontations but it has been cynically prosecuted as a very different kind of crime.

The Rumors

For the last three years rumors about what happened between the two men have clouded the horizon like a plague of mosquitoes. So the most prevalent rumors might as well be stated out loud here now. They are that:
1. Ablett was waiting for Guardado like a tethered goat waits for a lion and there were more Mongols waiting in the darkness to ambush Guardado when he took the bait.
2. Guardado went out looking for Ablett or “some Mongols” to provoke a confrontation with him or them.
3. There were five Angels.
4. The fight happened in the bar not the street.
5. Guardado was shot with his own gun.
6. Ablett stabbed Guardado but did not kill him and a second, unnamed assailant shot Guardado.

Secret Justice

Every one of these rumors is at least possible. None of them can be actually dismissed because 37 months after the fight, 36 months after Ablett turned himself in, 27 months after his last California court appearance, and 26 months after he was indicted on federal racketeering charges inspired by the homicide federal authorities continue to conceal as much of their case as possible. That is, assuming that Assistant United States Attorney Christine Y. Wong actually has a case. No one on the outside can actually tell. So far there have been 181 filings in U.S. v Christopher Bryan Ablett. Forty-four of them, about a quarter of the case, remain sealed.
Ablett was originally charged with three federal counts: Murder in aid of racketeering; use of a firearm in a murder; and use of a firearm in furtherance of a racketeering crime of violence. On September 6, 2011, three years and four days after Ablett’s allegedly criminal act, Ms. Wong filed a superseding indictment which further charges Ablett with assault with a deadly weapon. The effect of this superseding indictment is to possibly postpone Ablett’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin October 3 but may now be continued until January 2012.

And John Ciccone

Among the reasons for this contrived delay are to keep a presumably innocent man locked up as long as possible as an example to all the other nonconformists; to allow Wong time to find some proof for the charges she has filed; and to accommodate the busy schedule of an outlaw biker enthusiast and authority named John Ciccone. Ciccone, according to one source, will be too busy to testify during October and November. Then it will be Christmas and Ciccone will be busy shopping. So Ablett can spend yet another Noel decorating his steel cage.
The implication, the big wink-wink, nudge-nudge which characterizes the cruel joke of American justice, is that Ablett deserves to be treated like this because he is a Mongol who might have killed somebody as opposed to a big shot who killed somebody: Like actor Matthew Broderick, desperate housewife Laura Bush, aging seductress Rebecca Gayheart, boxing promoter Don King, or music producer Phil Spector who managed to stay out of his cage for six full years after murdering an aging, vulnerable actress named Lana Clarkson. This is not even to mention iconic American President Andrew Jackson who not only killed a man in a duel but was said to have been shot so many times in gun fights that he “rattled like a bag of marbles.”

The Crime Of Being Accused Of Being A Criminal

Ablett is in jail because he is a Mongol. The crimes for which he is charged assume that the Mongols Motorcycle Club is a criminal organization.
A quarter of the filings in the case are secret because if they were not secret then the criminal organizations called the “Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang” and the “Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang” might know what was going on and be able to openly respond to the implicit and explicit charges that they are “criminal organizations.”
Ablett’s original indictment stated;
“…the Mongols biker gang was a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in among other things, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, narcotics trafficking, robbery, extorition,money laundering and witness intimidation.”
“The Mongols gang is a nationwide organization that has made efforts to expand internationally. The gang is believed to have 500 to 600 members. The Mongols organization is comprised of approximately 68 identified chapters. The chapters are located in different geographical regions throughout California as well as Oklahoma, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Utah, Washington, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Mexico and Canada”
“The Mongols gang, including its leadership, and its associates constituted an enterprise….”
“At all times relevant to this indictment, the members and associates of the Mongols gang included the defendant Christopher Bryan Ablett together with others known and unknown.”
“The purposes of the Mongols criminal enterprise, including its members and associates include, but are not limited to…maintaining the control and authority of the Mongols over the territory claimed by the Mongols and expanding that territory; preserving, protecting and expanding the power of the Mongols through the use of intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assault and murder; promoting and enhancing the authority of the Mongols members and associates.”
“The means and methods by which the defendant and his co-racketeers conduct and participate in the conduct of the affairs of the Mongols include but are not limited to the following: Members of the Mongols commit, attempt and threaten to commit acts of violence including murder to protect and expand the enterprises criminal operation… promote a climate of fear…use the enterprise to murder, attempt to murder, assault and threaten those who pose a threat to the enterprise…members and associates traveled in interstate and foreign commerce to conduct the affairs of the enterprise….”
“On or about September 2, 2008…as consideration for the receipt of and as consideration for a promise and agreement to pay anything of a pecuniary value from the Mongols and for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing his position in the Mongols…the defendant Christopher Bryan Ablett unlawfully and knowingly did murder Mark Guardado….”
It is ludicrous to assume that Ms. Wong somehow learned all this on her own.

Discovery

In all criminal trials, the accused has a basic right to confront his accusers. As an extension of that basic right, the accused and his attorney are usually presumed to be able to see, examine and verify the evidence against them. It is not enough for example, for a prosecutor to say he has a list of 400 known Mongols criminals. In most cases, such a list cannot be used as evidence against an accused Mongol unless he and his attorneys are allowed see the list.
This process of seeing the evidence is called discovery, and most of the delays in the Ablett case are the result of the prosecution’s continued refusal to expose the assumed evidence against Ablett and the evidence that the Mongols Motorcycle Club is actually a criminal enterprise.
The entire Ablett case is based on the accusation that the Mongols is a kind of mafia, that the Hells Angels is also a kind of mafia, and that the homicide of Marc Guardado was a business move in the competition between these two competing mafias. But the government has not yet shown any evidence to indicate that this argument is more than fiction and conjecture.
For the last three years, the former President of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, Ruben “Doc” Cavazos has been betraying his former club brothers. Cavazos was hardly the Hiawatha of the outlaw subculture. Some Hells Angels blame him directly for the escalation of tensions between the two club before the fight in Rosa’s Cantina in Laughlin, Nevada in April 2002. But during Cavazos’ entire three year debriefing, the ATF and the Department of Justice were apparently unable to connect the homicide of Marc Guardado to any official Mongols business.

Who Told Ablett To Kill Guardado

The President of the Mongols at the time Guardado was killed was Hector “Largo” Gonzalez. Gonzalez was one of the last Mongols in the Cavazos case to reach a plea and sentencing agreement with the government and at no point in that agreement is the Guardado murder ever mentioned. Nor is Ablett ever mentioned.
The prosecution’s obdurate refusal to disclose the evidence against Ablett has had consequences. At the beginning of the prosecution Ablett faced the death penalty. But because evidence in death penalty cases must be discovered promptly, that possibility end to the case was eliminated in 2010.
The government dropped the death penalty rather than disclose any evidence it had that Ablett had actually caused Guardado’s death – which is to say that Ablett was even guilty of manslaughter. At this point, it should be assumed that the government cannot prove that Ablett actually killed Guardado rather than simply assaulting him. That is another explanation for the superseding indictment. The government added the only charge it thinks it can prove.
In a sobering motion filed in April 2011, prosecutors argued that “There is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case.”
So if the government does not need to prove that it has evidence of racketeering to charge a man with that crime, the veracity and character of the author of those accusations should at least be relevant. The principal author of those accusations, the man who authored the charges against Ablett in July 2009, seems to be ATF Special Agent John Ciccone

The Author Of These Accusations

These accusations against Ablett were written in the ATF party month when the Cavazos case seemed won. At the time, Agent Ciccone was breaking into cars to steal Mongols insignia. Swat teams were confiscating Mongols bandannas and calendars from old men in wheel chairs. Ciccone was also confiscating “Support Your Local Mongols” tee shirts at a Mongols party at the exact moment that a family motorcycle club party was being shot up at a pizza parlor less than a mile away.
That was around the time Ciccone was telling the late Honorable Florence Marie Cooper that the Mongols case US v Cavazos had to remain largely secret because, he had “learned from a number of sources” that “defendants whose plea agreements have been filed under seal will be threatened with retaliation if their plea agreements are unsealed.”
In reaction to the coverage of that trial by The Aging Rebel, Ciccone told Judge Cooper, “I have learned from more than one source that defendants in this matter and other members of the Mongols gang monitor the Court’s electronic docket and are aware of the terms of the plea agreements that have been publically filed in this matter.”
Despite all that, Ciccone was not too busy to pretend to be a biker and Hells Angels supporter named T-Dogg.
Since it is possible that some defense attorneys who may yet cross examine Special Agent Ciccone have not yet seen these comments, it is probably worth running a lengthy sample of that six-month-long dialogue here. The comments may provide an insight into Ciccone’s psychological motivations for his past and continued investigations of motorcycle clubs. The most annoying, but not all, of the misspellings in Ciccone’s rants have been corrected.

June 29, 2009

With most of the real Mongols retiring or being kicked out during Doc’s rise to power and Doc’s non existent operational security, Doc had completely softened the Mongols for infiltration. When only 1% or so of your membership are actually a real outlaw bikers and not just some gangbanger who thinks that wearing a vest with a 1% patch and MC on it make them a biker, it is pretty easy to see how Billy Queen slipped in. I have seen a couple different documentaries on Queens infiltration which showed some of the surveillance footage of Queen interacting with Mongols during his investigation. I can’t believe those guys actually bought that half-retarded hillbilly’s act. Any real 1%er would have been on to him right away. Luckily for the Mongols, Billy Queen was only average as an undercover agent and John Ciccone was not nearly as smart and wily as he is now and the Mongols escaped relatively unscathed.
That’s right I said John Ciccone. I hate giving cops any sort of recognition, but John Ciccone has chosen the lifestyle he believes is for him, he is committed to it and works hard towards what he believes is the greater good and appears to have maintained some integrity.
While I may not agree with his lifestyle just as he doesn’t agree with mine, I can respect his commitment and dedication. The ATF has been infiltrating outlaw motorcycle clubs for a long time and there is a long list of clubs that have been infiltrated. That said, outlaw motorcycle gang investigation has seen major milestones in the last 10 years, all occurring on the west coast. Starting with the Queen investigation which seem completely when compared to the tactics used by the ATF during Jay Dobbins infiltration of the Hells Angels a few years later. Queen’s initial infiltration of the Mongols resulted in relatively minor charges and sentences for those involved. Dobbins infiltration of the Hells Angels dubbed Operation Black Biscuit, while another investigative milestone it was an embarrassment, with allegations against the case agents, undercover agents and informants of misconduct, use of illegal wiretaps and recording devices, falsified affidavits etc. In the end only a handful of defendant plead guilty to minor offences with the most significant sentence amounting to less than 10 years time. While John Ciccone was not the primary case agent for Operation Black Biscuit, he was involved and consulted throughout the course of the investigation. It appears that Ciccone has studied and learned well from these milestone operations as well as each that he’s worked prior because Operation Black Rain against the Mongols is a work of art compared to any prior outlaw motorcycle club infiltration.
By studying the indictment resulting from Operation Black Rain as well as the search warrant affidavits it is clear that the ATF and Federal Prosecutors tactically planned their investigation with the intent of dismantling and eliminating the Mongols. Thus attack the trademark. The Mongols logo is trademarked. By establishing that the trademarked logo and club name Mongols were used by the club and it’s members as a tool of intimidation to further the criminal enterprise, the Feds will be able to seize control of the Mongols trademark permanently and completely bar the unauthorized use of the Mongols Motorcycle Club name and logo.
Currently the Mongols are not able to fly their patches in public without risking them being taken by law enforcement. Should the Fed’s prove their case, the Mongols trademark may forever be forfeited. As stands now with all the pleas to count one of the indictment “Racketeering” already entered by defendants in the case, it appears the government me be able to start pulling patches in the near future.
Having identified their goal, analyzed the prosecution strategy for the anticipated charges, and planned their investigation around these factors, the ATF went to work gathering evidence. The Mongols made things easy for the ATF. Three ATF agents obtained membership quickly and easily in California Mongols chapters. Even more conveniently, one ATF agent was introduced to the Mongols Reno chapter and given membership without prospecting . To make things even better each of these ATF agents who had become full patch Mongols members also had introduced their “old lady” who was in fact an ATF Agent as well into the club.
Doing their part to help destroy the club, unwitting Mongols members sold methamphetamine and guns to these “Undercover Mongols” on a regular basis. Unlike prior cases the buys were not for a few grams or ounces here and there. Rather, for 2 years, ATF agents posing as Mongols regularly bought 50+ grams- 300+ grams methamphetamines and guns from unsuspecting Mongols. They listened to Mongols confess to crimes such as robbery, assault and murder and in several cases, witnessed these crimes being committed first hand. During each buy, ATF agents were careful to note whether or not the member was wearing a set of Mongols colors, jewelry, belt buckles or clothing bearing the Mongols trademarked logo when the deal took place. This information was then included in each count of the indictment and is being used by the government to prove that the logo and name are a tool of the criminal acts.
Here we are today, watching one of the most elaborate undercover operations ever works its way through the criminal justice system in the form of a groundbreaking indictment that could, for the first time allow the government to pull a motorcycle clubs colors and shut that club down. I’m sure there are some patch holders reading this that think “ fuck that, if the feds try and take my patch, I’ll tattoo them on my bike and ride around with no shirt! ” I would completely agree with you, but the difference is we are real patch-holders….
… That said, these fucking rats (Doc are you one of them? I bet you are) cant do time because Doc has made too many enemies for the Mongols and rats know that the Feds will buy you a knew life if you’ll tell them what they want to hear so anyone going to trial is pretty much fucked if you had anything major to do with any of the 25-35 bitches that have turned rat and taken plea deals….
… And to all the real patch-holders I wish you a life filled with loyalty, honor, respect and brotherhood. Finally, to any citizen who happens to read this, I hope it has caused you to think a little more about the bigger picture and realize that not all 1%ers are uneducated, drug dealing murdering rapists as law enforcement and the media portray us to be, keep an open mind and remember that after the Fed’s destroy our lifestyle, it will be yours next.

July 8, 2009

Oh yeah, Lil Rubes and Al have most likely taken pleas as well. We’ll see when they unseal the rest of the pleas, but there is no reason for them not to since they were both booted out of the club with Doc.

July 20, 2009

Either way, you trying to paint the Mongols as a legitimate MC is just plaint insane. Their former national pres, national Sergeant at arms, a couple chapter presidents and others have all plead guilty to count 1 of the RICO indictment and admitted they are a criminal organization. When your national boss and other officers say you are, the defense of “only 4% of the membership was indicted, so there were just a few bad apples” does not hold water because Doc has admitted he was operating the Mongols as a criminal organization. FYI, Martin Guevara, the current national pres is one of the guys brought in with him when he started the Pick chapter. Martin wasn’t indicted in Black Rain, but what do you want to bet this next round of indictments that will arise out of all the rats will get him and it will also name the Mongols MC as a defendant.

July 22, 2009

Bottom line is I still have my patch and proudly wear it every day wherever I want like any real patch-holder, you can’t do that anymore can you? Who’s the nobody now?

December 1, 2009

Since you chose to feature my post from June in this blog I figured you deserved another comment from me. So here it is: “Put down the crack pipe Rebel, you delusional punk bitch!!!”.
You not only incorrectly called me a cop but you accuse me of being that faggot munchkin bitch Ciccone. Get your facts straight bitch before you post them on your page! I’m not a cop, not a snitch and certainly not John Ciccone, never have been and never will be! You had no problems quoting me accurately and I stand by my opinions that I expressed in those posts. Those opinions are based on years and years as a patch-holder, a lifetime of experience which includes being tormented for a time by that faggot Ciccone when he was after us, a knowledge of the criminal justice system and RICO and the careful consideration of the opinions of other knowledgeable individuals. It is definitely not the opinion of Ciccone. In fact, if you go back and read my posts, I’m pretty sure I blasted not only him but the ATF and their Black Biscuit case.
Bottom line bitch, get your facts straight before you start calling people cops! This ain’t the first time you’ve claimed Ciccone was posting on this site and it makes me wonder how many times before you wrong? I know you’ve got a tiny little excuse for a dick but and it may help you feel a little better by calling people cops when they disagree with your opinion or are not pro-Mongol but do some research before you post so you don’t trash your credibility like you just did because for a lot of us, myself included it was your pecieved credibility that made your site worth reading.
Finally, next time you feel like going for a ride maybe you’ll grow a set and come and see me and we can have this conversation face to face. Until then fuck you and your fucking mother!
T-Dogg
Dear T-Dogg,
Look, Ciccone. I am pretty sure I got you cold, okay? I always know more than I say. I do not underestimate you. You should not underestimate me. Everybody deserves their respect. I am not going to argue with you about it.
Rebel

December 2, 2009

Listen here you know nothing, no dick faggot if I’m Ciccone PROVE IT!!!!!! You claim to know more than you’ve let on, then PROVE IT!!! We both know you can’t and rather than be a man and apologize and admit you called the wrong person a faggot munchkin ATF bitch, you just bury your head in the sand and say you don’t want to argue.
So Rebel you cunt, I say again…Grow a set, be a man and let’s see some evidence that I’m Ciccone!!

December 2, 2009

Listen here Rebel, you know nothing, no dick faggot if I’m Ciccone PROVE IT!!!!!! You claim to know more than you’ve let on, then PROVE IT!!!
We both know you can’t and rather than be a man and apologize and admit you called the wrong person and a patch-holder, a faggot munchkin ATF bitch by saying I’m Ciccone, you just bury your head in the sand and say you don’t want to argue. Let me ask you this, has Ciccone ever gotten this pissed off when you’ve called him out on one of his Internet alias’s before? Pull you head out of your ass you cum gargling bitch!!!
So Rebel you cunt, I say again…Grow a set, be a man and let’s see some evidence that I’m Ciccone!! You ain’t got shit but your head up your ass….
Rebel is really Jay Dobyns and this whole site is just an intelligence gathering and monitoring activity by the ATF, don’t believe anything he says.

December 3, 2009

Rebel,
Like I said out ain’t got shit for proof other than some hearsay from an unnamed source who can’t give you any evidence. You and sled tramp are no better than the ATF, making unfounded accusations against people and then keeping the evidence secret with that self righteous guilty until prove innocent attitude. Then in a feeble attempt to make your statements appear credible you ramble out a bunch of nonsense and claim to have confidential sources. Rebel you bitch, your own words seem to contradict your argument. Hell, now you’re waffling and saying I might be Jenna McGuire or some other agent. How weak is that when you say you can prove I’m Ciccone but now you can’t decide who I am? You must be working with the ATF cause you evidence is as convincing as their bullshit. Heaven forbid when one of your sources provide you with bad info which you can’t back up that invokes a heated response from one of your readers and you have to apologize. Luckily for you this is the Internet because if we were face to face and you called me Ciccone, I would knock you the fuck out and cave your skull in with my steel toes.
Obviously I have made some pretty dangerous statements in my posts and if I was Ciccone and you actually COULD prove I was Ciccone you could become legend in the club world as being the man that cost Ciccone his job. Hell, I fully encourage you to send my posts to the DOJ and ATF with a nice little letter claiming they were written by Ciccone or even an unknown ATF agent and lets see what happens. You’ll probably make the excuse that you don’t want to cost yourself a source. But you and your source can’t prove shit, which is exactly why you haven’t posted shit for evidence, instead choosing to attack my use of punctuation and claim to have a “confidential source”. Hell, I am sure you are logging the IP addresses of the visitors to your site and so I’m wondering why have you not traced my IP address to see if it matches known government IP’s or even if the IP is from a part of the country where Ciccone is.
Well I have a reliable source and they say that you’re a convicted pedophile (you’re not the only one who knows how to do some research) who can’t get a real job because of his conviction so you sit at home on the Internet writing this blog and trying to pick up little boys on MySpace.
Well I heard sled tramp invited you over this weekend to suck his cock and skull fuck that new grandson of his while you wear your Sons of Anarchy cuts. You two have fun!

December 10, 2009

Rebel,
OK you’ve got me laughing my ass of now. We’ve both known you’re a liar and a coward but now you’ve kept running your mouth and gone so far to keep up your lies that you’ve clearly opened yourself up to a Libel suit by Ciccone and the ATF for knowingly and maliciously publishing false statements about Ciccone.
In a time where almost every major club has been infiltrated by the ATF in recent years and turning rat has become common as club members forget the true meanings of honor and brotherhood, there is no more inflammatory or disrespectful comment than to wrongfully call a patch-holder a cop as you did me. You could have handled this situation when I pointed out your error with a simple “I was wrong, I’m sorry.”
Instead you chose to be disrespectful and rely on your sources and continue to label me not only a cop but Ciccone, probably the most hated cop by the MC community. I have challenged you to prove that I’m Ciccone and you have failed to produce any evidence because you simply can’t since I’m not Ciccone, another ATF agent or a cop trying to stir the pot.
What I am is what I have always been, an educated man with an opinion that differs from yours. As a result of me expressing that opinion, you label me as a cop, John Ciccone. I denied this accusation from the start and demanded proof. I called you on your bullshit and told you I would meet you at the Hyatt. You’ve made excuses about not being able to meet me at specific times and kept your bitch mouth running, not once have you been a man and made the offer to print a retraction after we meet at the Hyatt. Seems like that would be fair. Instead, knowing you’re wrong about me being Ciccone and your credibility is shit, you do the smoke and mirrors dance the cops and bullshit media like you are famous for and write another bullshit piece to try and make your lies appear credible. Again, you claim you can prove that Ciccone made the statements I made and insisting that I’m Ciccone but offer no proof. How is that any different that the government not turning over the Grand Jury testimony or witness lists??
You’ve made libelous statements on this site regarding agent Ciccone and the ATF. Since we both know you’re a liar and have at least incorrectly labeled me Ciccone I have serious doubts now whether Ciccone has actually ever wasted his time reading this site, but if he does I would imagine that you will have a nice tort claim filed against you by Ciccone and the ATF, all funded by our tax dollars and all because you couldn’t be a man and admit your wrong. If that happens it will all come out in the wash that you were wrong and a liar.
The other alternative is the defense in the Mongols case will want to use these posts to impeach Ciccone during trial. To do that they will more than likely subpoena you and your so called evidence. The defense experts will scrutinize this evidence to authenticate it and when they determine the posts were made by me, not Ciccone or some fucking cop it will have been clearly established that you are a liar. On top of that, you may have pissed off some of the defendants in the Mongols case as you will have wasted several thousands of dollars of their money to pay for the attorney’s and experts who wasted their time because of your bullshit.
Either way it will be proven that you’re a liar who labels people cops when you have no proof.
You see Rebel, the difference between you and I is smarts. You may understand punctuation better than me, but you’re fucking stupid. As offensive as some of my statements may have been, they were made about towards unidentified individuals who used Internet alias’s to ensure their anonymity. As offensive as my statements were, your actions to protect your anonymity by use of an alias allows my statements to be protected by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. Unfortunately for you, your dumb-ass claims it to be fact that a well known, ATF agent who you’ve specifically identified as John Ciccone made potentially career ending statements and you can prove it. There is no 1st Amendment protection for you because you’ve identified a specific person. Oops.

T-Dogg Postscript

The Aging Rebel has not yet been sued for libel by the ATF or by Special Agent John Ciccone. In October 2010, in a face to face encounter, Ciccone laughed out loud when the author of this page broached the subject and the author took the laugh to mean that the exchange was meant as a joke. This page has not disclosed, nor will it disclose, the names of the two sources who confirmed that Special Agent John Ciccone was T-Dogg. This page has never disclosed nor been asked to disclose, the computer forensics information that suggested that T-Dogg was an ATF Special Agent in Glendale, California. And, to the best knowledge of the author of this page, the computer and PDA on which Ciccone entered his comments have never been forensically examined by the ATF or any other agency. A Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the author of this page to the ATF inquiring about statements John Ciccone made while assuming the persona of T-Dogg was ignored. This page has been told, but has been unable to confirm, that T-Dogg was a name used by Ciccone, who is white, during the investigation of Death Row Records.

John Ciccone In This Case

In a motion filed on August 15, 2011 Ablett’s attorneys, Richard B. Mazer and Michael N. Burt, asked in part for the government “to provide the defense with all exculpatory and impeachment material contained in the personnel files of ATF agent John Ciccone, the government’s proposed expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs….”
In a reply a week later, the prosecution said Ciccone would testify about:
The “history of the Mongols motorcycle gang, including that it originated out of the Los Angeles area, and it has chapters throughout California, as well as Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, Florida, Mexico, Canada and Italy; the structure and organization of the Mongols, including that there is the ‘mother chapter,’ made up of the national officers who run the gang, and chapters affiliated with different geographical regions with similar hierarchy, including having a president, vice president, sergeant at arms, and secretary/treasurer; how the chapters hold regular meetings, including weekly chapter meetings, monthly meetings with the national officers, and national ‘runs’ at which members of different chapters meet; how individual chapters are formed, namely by having five or six individuals who are interested in forming a chapter; how individuals become members of the Mongols, including an explanation of ‘prospecting’ or ‘probating’; how Mongols identify themselves, including the type of clothing they are allowed to wear and symbols on the clothing, for example, the leather vest with ‘Mongols’ written on it, with the Genghis Khan character in the middle, and a bottom patch which depicts the state that the member is from; the purpose and rules of the Mongols, including the existence of a constitution, as well as other unwritten rules, including confronting all rival gang members and not backing down from confrontation; the longstanding rivalry with Hells Angels’ members, and the mutual hatred between the Hells Angels and Mongols; the criminal activities that Mongols’ members are involved with, including drug and gun trafficking, extortion, and violent crimes; a Mongols member who commits an act of violence against rival gang members will be awarded a ‘patch’, including the ‘Respect few, Fear none’ patch and ‘skull and crossbones’ patch, and may have his status elevated in the gang; a Mongols member is required to respond to acts of ‘disrespect’ from the general public in order to maintain his status in the gang; the Mongols will set up a legal defense fund for a Mongols member who has committed a crime on behalf of the gang, but not for a member who has a personal issue unrelated to the gang; and a Mongols member who has engaged in a confrontation with a rival gang is required to inform his chapter leaders immediately, who will, in turn, contact the national officers and let them know of the incident to determine whether a ‘Code 55’ should be disseminated, which prohibits members and prospects from wearing their Mongol paraphernalia to avoid being easy targets for retaliation and law enforcement.
“The Government also provided a nine-page curriculum vitae for Special Agent Ciccone, detailing the training and experience upon which his testimony will be based.”
The government did not state whether Ciccone will testify about the seminar he taught with ATF friendly author Julian Sher titled “Behind the Cuts” and whether he or Sher were personally enriched by Ciccone’s supposed expertise.

Is This Legal

The primary issue in the Ablett case is whether it is legal in this country to charge Ablett as a racketeer simply because he is a member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club.
It is an important issue because if someone like John Ciccone can simply decide that the Mongols are a criminal racket based on his “training and experience” what is to stop him from deciding that the Lutheran Church is a criminal racket the next time a Lutheran gets arrested?
The Ablett indictment is not just an allegation that Christopher Ablett violated the law. The entire indictment is a statement that his guilt is a foregone conclusion and that conclusion is based entirely on what John Ciccone has said about the people with whom Ablett associated.
Maybe it is finally time to charge Ciccone with something.