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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

CA - Biker Gang Members Fight Customer At Taco Shop


OFF THE WIRE
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Two members of a biker group are in jail Wednesday morning following a fight with a customer at a Chula Vista Taco Shop.
The fight broke out just after 2:00 a.m. Wednesday at Roberto's Taco Shop on Broadway near H Street. Police said a man was inside ordering food with his female cousin when one of the bikers made insulting comments directed toward her. Police said the biker also swung a leather strap with keys on the end at the woman. When her cousin confronted the biker things quickly turned violent.
The taco shop was packed at the time with customers and several members of "The Chosen Few" biker club.
"The officers arrived and they saw the physical fight outside," Chula Vista Police Sgt. Carlos Valdidia said. "It was a one-on-one fight. When the officers arrived they saw the combatants one on top of the other, punching him in the head."
Police said the biker was wearing several spiked rings when he punched the man in the face. The victim is expected to recover but he suffered serious head injuries.
http://www.10news.com/news/30568340/detail.html

VMMC Special Event

Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:11:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Veterans Museum and Memorial Center <info@veteranmuseum.org>
 Subject: VMMC Special Event
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> Dear Art,
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> We have two special events in March.  Women's Military History Day on Sunday, March
> 4th and American Ex-Prisoners of War Recognition and Display Day on Saturday, March
> 10th.
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> Please join us to learn about the contributions of Women and the experiences of
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> WOMEN'S MILITARY HISTORY DAY
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> Come and celebrate the contributions and evolution of Women in the Military.  Visit
> the Women's Military History Gallery and attend this special program honoring Women.
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> Time and Date:  Sunday, March 4th
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> 10 am to 4 pm
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> Program
> 10:00 am- 12:45 pm
> Documentary Films on
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> Women Veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Southwest Asia tell their personal
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> Authors Peg Trout and
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> Norma Kipp-Avendano
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> Veterans Museum and Memorial Center
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> Balboa Park - East side of Park Blvd
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> 2115 Park Blvd.
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> San Diego, CA 92101
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> American Ex-Prisoner of War Recognition and Display Day
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> American Ex-Prisoners  of War  Recognition and Display Day on Saturday,  March 10th,
> at 10 am.
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> The  San Diego chapter of the American Ex-POWs will gather at the  Veterans Museum
>  to share their stories about their capture and  incarceration during  WWII, Korea
> and Vietnam.
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> experienced it.   The Ex-POWs will  bring in their artifacts, photos, maps to bring
>  their stories to life.
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> Veterans Museum and Memorial Center
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> Balboa Park - East side of Park Blvd
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> 2115 Park Blvd.
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> San Diego, CA 92101
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> Women's Military History
> Day
> Sunday,
> March 4th
> 10 am - 4 pm
>
> American Ex-POW Recognition and
> Display Day
> Saturday, March 10th
> 10 am - 4 pm
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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CA - Information From Senator Anderson Concerning Appointments

OFF THE WIRE
Dear Friends:

 Governor Brown is seeking qualified, capable people to serve as members of state boards and commissions. I wanted to make sure that my constituents were fully informed of this upcoming opportunity to learn more about the process of applying for an appointment from the Governor.

 There are outstanding people throughout my district who would serve the public well in one of these positions.

 On Friday, March 2 at 12:00 PM, Mona Pasquil, Appointments Secretary to Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., will lead a workshop in room 447 of the State Capitol in Sacramento for persons wishing to be appointed to a committee or board by the Governor. The workshop will provide you with critical information about the appointments process, and the knowledge you need about the appointments application. The workshop will be hosted by the Capitol Fellows Alumni Association.

 If you are planning to attend, please let me know as soon as possible (by emailing senator.anderson@senate.ca.gov) and my staff will make sure we get your RSVP in for the meeting.

 If you have a particular board or commission on which you're interested in serving, please send me an email to inform me of that as well.

 Thank you,
 Joel

MARINE SUPPORT PARTY

Flash Colorado River Vagos Bust

OFF THE WIRE
The Aging Rebel has learned that multiple police departments arrested ten members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club in Laughlin, Nevada, Bullhead City, Arizona and Lake Havasu City, Arizona earlier today.
Charges include possession of stolen property, which usually means motorcycles, and possession of drugs.
Details of the arrests are not yet available.

AUSTRALIA - Labor pledges bikie law support

OFF THE WIRE
A Labor pledged yesterday to support the Government's anti- association laws designed to smash bikie gangs but warned the legislation could be struck down by the High Court unless Opposition amendments were adopted.
The Criminal Organisation Control Bill entered the first stages of debate in State Parliament yesterday after the Government introduced it late last year.
Shadow attorney-general John Quigley said the Opposition agreed with 90 per cent of the proposed legislation, which would allow a judge to declare bikie gangs criminal organisations and prevent members associating with each other.
But he said Labor believed allowing a judge to make declarations on "mere suspicion", paving the way for mandatory jail for members of declared organisations, would render the Bill unconstitutional. "We will be making small amendments with a view to securing its constitutionality," Mr Quigley said.
"What Labor wants to see is robust laws in relation to the control of criminal organisations.
"What the Attorney-General wants to see is a great big headline saying he's the toughest in Australia. By going the extra yard he risks the whole Bill.
"If our amendments are not accepted, we won't oppose the Bill, we'll let the Government run the gauntlet in the High Court."
Mr Porter said "all the best advice" indicated the Bill would withstand constitutional challenge.
"Having listened intently to Mr Quigley, so far I cannot see that he has explained why our legal advice is incorrect," he said.
Mr Porter later told Parliament he would not accept any amendments that would adjust the structure of the Bill.
Premier Colin Barnett said police needed extra powers to disrupt bikie gangs.
Under the proposed laws, breaches of "control orders" preventing members of declared organisations from associating with each other would be punishable by two years jail
for a first offence and five years for a second. A new offence of instructing an offence for the benefit of a criminal organisation would attract 20 years jail.


http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13042878/labor-pledges-bikie-law-support/

NEVEDA - The Sparks Duel

OFF THE WIRE.
agingrebel.com
Cesar Villagrana, one of three men charged with participating in a fatal, prearranged duel in a Sparks, Nevada casino, moved last Thursday to have his case severed from that of two Vagos charged with the same offense for the same incident.
The charges against all three men stem from what rational human beings understand to have been a spontaneous, deadly fight between about a dozen Hells Angels and about 60 Vagos at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada on September 23.
One man, San Jose Hells Angel Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, died. Vagos Leonard Ramirez and Diego Garcia were shot during the fight. A Vago named Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez is charged with shooting and killing Pettigrew. A former Vago named Stuart Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick is charged with issuing the challenge that resulted in the duel.

Duels and Lynchings

All three men are charged with “conspiracy to engage in an affray.” “Affray,” a variation on the words “terror” and “affright,” commonly means a fight in a public place that terrorizes innocent bystanders. The charge was invented in the Middle Ages to discourage men from fighting in church. During the 18th and 19th Centuries the word was a legal euphemism for a public duel. The charge of “conspiracy to engage in an affray” was originally intended to punish “seconds” and other assistants in deadly duels as accessories to those homicides.
The use of the charge in this instance is very creative. It is intended to assist prosecutors in the revival of another old fashioned and mostly discredited practice – lynching.
Rudnick is charged because he allegedly insulted Pettigrew until Pettigrew became enraged and began to fight. Gonzalez is charged because he allegedly fired the shots that killed Pettigrew. Villagrana is charged because he fired a gun during the fight.
All three men are charged because prosecutors apparently believe it gives them the greatest possible chance to condemn all three men to life in prison. Duels were often deadly fights over matters of honor. The participants on both sides of the Sparks fight were all bound by a code of honor to fight to protect one another. The prosecutors who led a grand jury to make the “conspiracy to engage in an affray” accusation have in effect charged all the defendants with conspiracy to live by a code of honor.
In a nation that seems increasingly divided and cynical, the notion of criminalizing the concept of “one for all and all for one” is fulsome.

One Bag

The “conspiracy to commit affray charge” is also a blatant attempt to tie adversaries together in the same bag in hopes that eventually their opposing self-interests will force them to destroy each other.
Villagrana is represented by attorney David Z. Chesnoff who may be most famous for representing Paris Hilton and Mike Tyson. In his severance motion last week Chesnoff quoted grand jury testimony from a former Vago who, acting in his own self-interest, agreed with prosecutors that the Vagos are an “outlaw gang” that is “involved in criminal activity” including “murder, rape, robbery” and “drugs.”
“If this information is presented at trial,” Chesnoff argued, “it would be clearly prejudicial to Mr. Villagrana because the jury may be led to believe that all motorcycle clubs operate the way the Vagos club does.” Chesnoff said his client “responded to an onslaught of violence in self-defense.”
Chesnoff also told Judge Connie Steinheimer the obvious truth about the absurd legal fiction that makes all three defendants co-conspirators. “For the jury to believe one version of events, it will necessarily have to disbelieve the other, thereby precluding acquittal of one of the defendants,” Chesnoff wrote. “It will therefore be unnecessary for the prosecution to prove anything. The Vagos will prosecute the Hells Angels and the Hells Angels will prosecute the Vagos.”

Prosecuting The Other Club

Chesnoff then got down to the dirty business of prosecuting the other motorcycle club. He said that the fight between Pettigrew and Rudnick, “erupted into what was actually a larger-scale, pre-meditated attack by Vagos members on Hells Angels members.”
It is exactly the sort of thing prosecutors want the opposing attorneys to say to a jury if Judge Steinheimer, a former probation officer and assistant district attorney, denies the severance. She might.
In his response to the motion for severance, prosecutor Karl Hall told the judge that there is no point in separating Vagos from Hells Angels because they are all part of the same criminal “culture.”
“Each gang has relatively equal gang history,” Hall wrote – managing to use the word “gang” twice in a seven word sentence. “Steeped in gang culture, each group willingly entered into battle.”

CALIFORNIA - Ex-Hells Angel member to be charged in shooting a Hells Angel member at a San Jose funeral..

OFF THE WIRE
By Lisa Fernandez
A man arrested at a Fremont motel Saturday in connection with the shooting death of a Hells Angel member is expected to be charged with homicide Wednesday at Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Steven Ruiz, 38, is expected to face charges that he killed Steve Tausan on Oct. 15 while both were attending the Oak Hill Cemetery service of San Jose Hells Angel chapter president Jeff "Jethro" Pettigrew. Pettigrew was fatally shot in a Nevada casino a month earlier, allegedly by a member of the rival Vagos gang.
Pettigrew and Tausan were close friends.
A Hells Angel named Boston Ron called this newspaper Monday to say that Ruiz is now considered an ex-Hells Angel, stemming from Tausan's shooting death.
No motive has been revealed in Tausan's killing. Sources have previously said a fist fight erupted between Tausan and Ruiz at the funeral, where Ruiz allegedly drew a hangun, shot Tausan and fled.
San Jose police have been looking for Ruiz since the funeral, which was attended by about 3,000 Hells Angels supporters and was being watched closely by police. Ruiz evaded capture until Saturday about 7:30 p.m. at the Days Inn Motel on Warms Springs Boulevard in Fremont.
A manager there who asked that his name not be used said a man who identified himself as "John Ruiz of Livermore" checked into the motel at 4:37 p.m. on Saturday with a woman. When police arrived about three hours later and showed a picture of Ruiz, the manager confirmed a man that fit that description was in one of the rooms. "Mostly we are a business motel and don't have people from the Bay Area staying here," the manager said.

Ruiz came out and surrendered to police, the manager said. He is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail.
Meanwhile, in Reno, the Associated Press reported Monday that lawyers for a Hells Angels member charged in connection with Pettigrew's killing say he should be tried separately from two members of the rival Vagos gang partly because the Vagos are a criminal gang and the Hells Angels a legitimate motorcycle club.
Cesar Villagrana, 36, of Gilroy, is accused with Gary Rudnick, the vice president of the Vagos Los Angeles chapter, of taunting of Pettigrew, instigating a fracas on Sept. 23.
Villagrana won't get a fair trial if the same jury decides his fate along with Rudnick and Ernesto Gonzalez, 53, the president of the Vagos chapter in Nicaragua who lives in San Francisco and is accused of shooting Pettigrew in the back, his lawyers said in court filings last week.
Attorney David Chesnoff of Las Vegas said testimony about Vagos would lead the jury to believe "all motorcylce clubs" operate as Vagos do. However, Deputy District Attorney Karl Hall said the Hells Angels do operate that way.
"Each gang has relatively equal gang history," he wrote in an opposition motion. "If anything, the Hells Angels criminality is more prolific."

USA - FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling.

OFF THE WIRE
By Julia Angwin
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.
Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.
These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.
After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.
Mr. Weissmann said that the FBI is now working to develop new guidelines for the use of GPS devices. He said the agency is also working on guidelines to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond GPS devices.
For instance, he said, agency is now “wrestling” with the legality of whether agents can lift up the lid of a trash can without committing trespass. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones held that the agents had trespassed when placing the GPS device on a car without warrant.
He said the agency is also considering the implications of the concurring justices – whose arguments were largely based on the idea that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the totality of their movements, even if those movements are in public.
“From a law enforcement perspective, even though its not technically holding, we have to anticipate how it’s going to go down the road,” Mr. Weissmann said.

CALIFORNIA - HA a club, Vagos a gang

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/hollister-gilroy/Gilroy-biker-s-lawyer-Vagos-is-a-gang-Hells-Angels-is-a-club/-/5738758/9141764/-/x4whli/-/index.html
Gilroy biker's lawyer: Vagos is a gang, Hells Angels is a club...
Students describe alleged gunman as sweet, sad .awyers for a Gilroy Hells Angels member charged in connection with a fatal shootout at a Nevada casino say he should be tried separately from two members of the rival Vagos gang partly because the Vagos are a criminal gang and the Hells Angels a legitimate motorcycle club.
Cesar Villagrana, 36, of Gilroy, is accused of shooting two Vagos members during the Sept. 23, 2011 gun battle.
Villagrana won't get a fair trial if the same jury decides his fate along with the two other Vagos members accused in the killing of Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew, who was president of the Hells Angels chapter in San Jose, his lawyers said in court filings last week.
Attorney David Chesnoff of Las Vegas said a confidential witness who identified himself as a 27-year, high-ranking member of the Vagos testified before a Washoe County grand jury in November that the Vagos are a gang.
That witness, who has left the Vagos and now is in a protection program, said the Vagos were involved in significant criminal activities, including murder, rape, robbery and drug trafficking, Chesnoff noted.
"If this information is presented at trial," Chesnoff wrote in a motion to sever the trial, "it would be clearly prejudicial to Mr. Villagrana because the jury may be led to believe that all motorcycle clubs operate the way the Vagos club does."
However, Deputy District Attorney Karl Hall said the Hells Angels do operate that way.
"Each gang has relatively equal gang history," he wrote in an opposition motion. "If anything, the Hells Angels criminality is more prolific."
Chesnoff said Villagrana "responded to an onslaught of violence in self-defense" at John Ascuaga's hotel-casino in Sparks and was minimally involved compared to the other two men he's scheduled to stand trial with on Oct. 29 before Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer.
Ernesto Gonzalez, 53, the president of the Vagos chapter in Nicaragua who lives in San Francisco, is accused of fatally shooting Pettigrew in the back. He's the only one of three defendants formally charged with murder.
Villagrana and Gary Rudnick, the vice president of the Vagos Los Angeles chapter who is accused of instigating the fracas with his taunting of Pettigrew, both are charged with conspiracy to engage in an affray and challenge to fight resulting in death.
Under Nevada law, the challenge to fight charge is equivalent to first-degree murder and carries the same maximum possible penalty of life in prison.
Under conspiracy and aiding and abetting theories, Villagrana is responsible for the death of Pettigrew, Hall said.
Villagrana is free on a $300,000 bail bond, while the other two men remain jailed.
Hall said trying the three together would save time and money. With two trials, most of the same witnesses would have to testify twice and each trial would require costly, heavy security, he said.
Chesnoff said Villagrana can't get a fair trial if his legal team has to sit at the same defense table with the public defenders representing the Vagos members because both sides inevitably will claim the other was responsible for the melee.
"For the jury to believe one version of events, it will necessarily have to disbelieve the other, thereby precluding acquittal of one of the defendants," he said. "It will therefore be unnecessary for the prosecution to prove anything. The Vagos will prosecute the Hells Angels and the Hells Angels will prosecute the Vagos."
The confidential witness told the grand jury that Rudnick, nicknamed "Jabbers," was responsible for provoking a fight with Pettigrew that turned the casino floor into a shooting gallery.
Chesnoff said that while it may have appeared Rudnick initially was a one-on-one aggressor toward Pettigrew, "the ensuing altercation erupted into what was actually a larger-scale, pre-meditated attack by Vagos members on Hells Angels members."
"The state's theory that the Hells Angels and the Vagos somehow conspired together or aided and abetted each other in the commission of the fight makes no sense," he said.
Hall said there was a conspiracy because Rudnick effectively invited Pettigrew to fight, Pettigrew accepted and members of each gang understood their obligation to join in.
"Steeped in gang culture," Hall said, "each group willingly entered into battle."

NV casino shootout legal jousting; gangs or clubs?

OFF THE WIRE
SCOTT SONNER
 mercurynews.com
RENO, Nev.—Lawyers for a Hells Angels member charged in connection with a fatal shootout at a Nevada casino say he should be tried separately from two members of the rival Vagos gang partly because the Vagos are a criminal gang and the Hells Angels a legitimate motorcycle club.
Cesar Villagrana, who is accused of shooting two Vagos members during the Sept. 23 gun battle, won't get a fair trial if the same jury decides his fate along with the two other Vagos members accused in the killing of Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew, who was president of the Hells Angels chapter in San Jose, Calif., his lawyers said in court filings last week.
Attorney David Chesnoff of Las Vegas said a confidential witness who identified himself as a 27-year, high-ranking member of the Vagos testified before a Washoe County grand jury in November that the Vagos are a gang.
That witness, who has left the Vagos and now is in a protection program, said the Vagos were involved in significant criminal activities, including murder, rape, robbery and drug trafficking, Chesnoff noted.
"If this information is presented at trial," Chesnoff wrote in a motion to sever the trial, "it would be clearly prejudicial to Mr. Villagrana because the jury may be led to believe that all motorcycle clubs operate the way the Vagos club does."
However, Deputy District Attorney Karl Hall said the Hells Angels do operate that way'
"Each gang has relatively equal gang history," he wrote in an opposition motion.
"If anything, the Hells Angels criminality is more prolific."
Chesnoff said Villagrana, 36, of Gilroy, Calif., "responded to an onslaught of violence in self-defense" at John Ascuaga's hotel-casino in Sparks and was minimally involved compared to the other two men he's scheduled to stand trial with on Oct. 29 before Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer.
Ernesto Gonzalez, 53, the president of the Vagos chapter in Nicaragua who lives in San Francisco, is accused of fatally shooting Pettigrew in the back. He's the only one of three defendants formally charged with murder.
Villagrana and Gary Rudnick, the vice president of the Vagos Los Angeles chapter who is accused of instigating the fracas with his taunting of Pettigrew, both are charged with conspiracy to engage in an affray and challenge to fight resulting in death.
Under Nevada law, the challenge to fight charge is equivalent to first-degree murder and carries the same maximum possible penalty of life in prison.
Under conspiracy and aiding and abetting theories, Villagrana is responsible for the death of Pettigrew, Hall said.
Villagrana is free on a $300,000 bail bond, while the other two men remain jailed.
Hall said trying the three together would save time and money. With two trials, most of the same witnesses would have to testify twice and each trial would require costly, heavy security, he said.
Chesnoff said Villagrana can't get a fair trial if his legal team has to sit at the same defense table with the public defenders representing the Vagos members because both sides inevitably will claim the other was responsible for the melee.
"For the jury to believe one version of events, it will necessarily have to disbelieve the other, thereby precluding acquittal of one of the defendants," he said. "It will therefore be unnecessary for the prosecution to prove anything. The Vagos will prosecute the Hells Angels and the Hells Angels will prosecute the Vagos."
The confidential witness told the grand jury that Rudnick, nicknamed "Jabbers," was responsible for provoking a fight with Pettigrew that turned the casino floor into a shooting gallery.
Chesnoff said that while it may have appeared Rudnick initially was a one-on-one aggressor toward Pettigrew, "the ensuing altercation erupted into what was actually a larger-scale, pre-meditated attack by Vagos members on Hells Angels members."
"The state's theory that the Hells Angels and the Vagos somehow conspired together or aided and abetted each other in the commission of the fight makes no sense," he said.
Hall said there was a conspiracy because Rudnick effectively invited Pettigrew to fight, Pettigrew accepted and members of each gang understood their obligation to join in.
"Steeped in gang culture," Hall said, "each group willingly entered into battle."

NEW YORK - Rochester HA Case

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com

Another shoe dropped a couple of weeks ago in a case against members and associates of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Rochester, New York.
In the inverted world of federal justice, the real investigations never get started until sometime after the arrests. Prosecutors usually tell judges that the defendants cannot be freed because a superseding indictment is “imminent.” In fed-speak imminent usually means about the time it takes for an elephant to have a baby. The long delay between the first and subsequent indictments also gives prosecutors multiple chances for headlines.
A superseding indictment in the case titled USA et al. v. Moran et al. exemplifies that investigative and public relations strategy.

First Indictment
The first indictment, unsealed on April 28, 2011 after six months of grand jury testimony, charged five defendants with racketeering. Like most federal indictments it is a wonderful tale crafted of magical prose that is sure to remind readers of Harry Potter. And, there is no better way to summarize the tone and substance of its accusations than to directly quote from the document. So live with it.
The first indictment begins:
“At all times material to this Indictment: The defendants, Robert W. Moran, Jr. a/k/a Bugsy, and James Henry McAuley, Jr. a/k/a Mitch a/k/a MTM a/k/a Mitch the Mooch a/k/a Mitch the Menace, and Richard E. Riedman a/k/a Eric, and Timothy M. Stone a/k/a Tim Bob, not named herein as defendants, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, were members and associates of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club, Rochester Charter (hereinafter ‘Hell’s Angels’), who were an enterprise, as defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1959(b)(2), namely a group of individuals associated in fact that was engaged in, and the activities of which affected, interstate commerce (hereinafter ‘Hell’s Angels Enterprise’). The Hell’s Angels Enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members functioned as a continuing unit for a common purpose of facilitating their criminal activity.”

Confederation Of Clubs
So, to summarize so far, some guys with great nicknames belonged to a motorcycle club and sometimes, like everybody else in America, one or more of them broke one of our nation’s many laws. Further, after all these years prosecutors and others still insist that the Hells Angels don’t know how to spell their own name.
Back to the first indictment.
“Members of the Hell’s Angels Enterprise claim to control a territory within New York extending from Rochester, New York, to Interstate 81 near Syracuse, New York. Within this territory, the Hell’s Angels Enterprise expected other motorcycle clubs to request and receive their permission to ‘fly their colors.’ As a prerequisite to receiving their permission, members of the Hell’s Angels Enterprise required members of other motorcycle clubs to support the Hell’s Angels by attending events that they sponsored, purchasing items that they offered for sale, and paying dues to the ‘Rochester Area Coalition,’ which was a coalition of motorcycle clubs in the greater Rochester area led by the Hell’s Angels. Members and associates of the Hell’s Angels Enterprise used violence and threats of violence to promote and protect the criminal activity engaged in by various members of the enterprise, to discipline enterprise members and associates who violate Hell’s Angels rules, to punish Hell’s Angels members and associates who have fallen into disfavor, to retaliate against rival gangs, to punish those who did not show proper ‘respect’ to the Hell’s Angels, to punish those who informed law enforcement authorities of illegal activities engaged in by Hell’s Angels members and associates, to establish and control their territory, and to promote and enhance the Hell’s Angels’ prestige, reputation and position in the community.”

Baseball Bat
So again, to translate, the Rochester Hells Angels is a preeminent motorcycle club that acts just like every other motorcycle club or fried chicken franchise in that they claim a territory. They adhere to a certain moral and ethical code that is adhered to by every other motorcycle club in the world including the Night Wolves in Russia who never get indicted. They like it when people go their parties and since they believe in peace, not war, they want other clubs to join their local confederation of clubs.
Finally, this fine example of prosecutorial prose gets to the point:
On May 31, 2006, the defendant, Robert W. Moran, Jr. a/k/a Bugsy, and an individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury, drove to Spenders bar, located at 1600 Lyell Avenue, Rochester, New York, in Moran’s 1995 Dodge RAM 2500 pick-up truck. On May 31, 2006, after the defendant, Robert W. Moran, Jr. a/k/a Bugsy, and an individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury entered Spenders bar, the defendant, Gina Tata, indicated, in sum and substance, that one of the patrons at the bar, Victim 1, a person known to the Grand Jury, had threatened to kill a member of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club. On May 31, 2006, the defendant, Robert W. Moran, Jr. a/k/a Bugsy, repeatedly struck Victim 1 in the head and body with a baseball bat.”
Additional members of this motorcycle club heard rumors of the alleged assault and failed to immediately report the rumors to the police.

The Second Indictment
The first indictment hung over the defendant’s heads like a rusty axe until a sealed, superseding indictment was returned by another grand jury on February 16. The grand jury that rubber stamped that one wasn’t even impaneled until six months after the first indictment was returned. The government connects the two sets of accusations because both indictments mention the Rochester Angels and some of the defendants are the same. Specifically, it alleges that:
“…James Henry McAuley, Jr. a/k/a Mitch a/k/a MTM a/k/a Mitch the Mooch a/k/a Mitch the Menace, Richard W. Mar a/k/a Rick a/k/a Chief a/k/a The Professor a/k/a Hoki Jamoki, Donna Boon a/k/a Donna L. McAuley a/k/a Dot a/k/a The Queen, Richard E. Redman a/k/a Eric, Gordon L. Montgomery a/k/a Gordy a/k/a Nixon, Jeffrey A. Tyler a/k/a Moses and Paul S. Griffin a/k/a Derby, did knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully combine, conspire, and agree together and with others, known and unknown, to commit the following offenses, that is, to possess with intent to distribute, and distribute, 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine.”
So to summarize again, some Rochester Angels and one in California (Rick Mar) shared new school among themselves and their friends. And somewhere in this mix is an unnamed “individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury.”

Newz
The new accusations of drug consumption were immediately announced to the local press. The local ABC affiliate reported that the bar patron was assaulted because “he made disparaging remarks about motorcycle gangs.” The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported the superseding indictment as if it was an original indictment. Dozens of news outlets including the Wall Street Journal reported the superseding indictment as if it was breaking news instead of simply an attempt to bolster a weak case with additional headlines.
All of these  news accounts were based on the same press release. The release, as is customary, states, “The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”
The disclaimer did not make it into a single television or newspaper account.


Rochester HA Case

CALIFORNIA - Prosecutors Want to Make Ex-Cop Do Time

OFF THE WIRE
Selling law enforcement information to a Hell's Angel should get a former cop prison.
A former Santa Clara police officer deserves a prison term for aiding a Hell's Angels motorcycle gang member, according to federal prosecutors working on the case.
Clay Rojas, 38, was arrested in 2010 on 12 felony counts after he fed information to William "Billy" Bettencourt, a convicted felon who rides with the Santa Cruz chapter of the Hell's Angels. He was convicted of leaking to Bettencourt criminal histories, DMV records and other "privileged internal law enforcement information" in order to pay off a debt of several thousand dollars, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Rojas, a five-year veteran of the Santa Clara police department, was fired in 2010 following his arrest. Prosecutors say he deserves a prison term of three years or more for his crimes, according to the newspaper.
Rojas, who served as a Marine in Iraq and now works for a company that handles military contracts for the federal government and NATO, fed Bettencourt information because of a "lapse" in judgment, he told the court.
He also didn't sell the information to pay off his debt, according to his defense attorney -- a strange claim given his saying so to police brass at the time.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh is expected to sentence him in San Jose federal court sometime soon.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Ex-Cop-Deserves-Years-in-Prison-For-Helping-Hells-Angels-Prosecutors-Say-140758003.html

HERE WE GO....Idaho OKs Seizure of Protesters' Property

OFF THE WIRE
courthousenews.com
By PHILIP A. JANQUART 


BOISE, Idaho (CN) - Occupy Boise sued Gov. Butch Otter, claiming a new law aimed at them allows the state to seize private property without a warrant, without probable cause and without suspicion of a crime.
     Occupy Boise was formed in October 2011, a month after the protest movement began on Wall Street in New York City.
     On Nov. 5, 2011, about 50 Boise residents began pitching tents on land in front of the city's old Ada County courthouse, in view of the Idaho Statehouse.
     Members of Occupy Boise said in their federal complaint that they erected the tent city because conventional methods such as marches, rallies and public meetings did not "appear as effective as the Occupy vigil encampments that were taking place throughout the world."
     Lead plaintiff Edward Watters says Occupy Boise took every precaution to "preserve health, safety and peaceful assembly" at the site, including sending a letter to the Idaho Department of Administration, notifying it of its intentions; meeting with the department's director and co-defendant Teresa Luna, to discuss logistics; meeting with Brig. Gen. Alan Gayhart, of the Idaho National Guard; writing a 42-page operational manual for the Occupy Boise vigil; sending letter to the Idaho State Police, providing all-hours contact information for Occupy Boise representatives and attorneys; and holding many other meetings to discuss meal, toiletry and power plans.
     In reaction, the complaint states, Idaho House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke introduced a bill on Jan. 18 to prohibit camping on state land, and authorize government agents and contractors to "take and destroy private property without notice or hearing."
     Bedke, a Republican, told The Associated Press that "the right place for people to exercise free speech is on the Capitol Steps," not in a "tent city."
     House Bill 404 was passed into law on Feb. 17. It gives authorities the right to disperse the protesters and seize their possessions.
     H.B. 404 states, in part: "State agency personnel or contractors may remove any unauthorized personal property used to camp or while camping in violation of the provisions of this section. Personal property removed pursuant to this section shall be considered litter and shall be disposed of by persons tasked with enforcing this section. Such authorized persons seizing or disposing of such property shall be immune from legal liability for the seizing and disposing of such property."
     Those possessions include two large military tents for political and general assemblies, woodstoves, a kitchen and dining area, counters and cabinetry, a pantry with donated food and supplies, a "free store" with warm clothing, footwear and other goods, tents containing a library, art center and medical treatment, and an area for religious worship.
     There is also a communications tent, with computer equipment, a wireless transceiver and other electronics.
     Occupy Boise members say the total value of onsite property is about $10,000.
     They claim H.B. 404 violates the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments: that it permits unreasonable seizure of private property without a warrant, probable cause or suspicion of a crime.
     Authorizing the seizure of private property without just compensation "violates the protection against takings of private property guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution," the complaint states.
     "The defendants also can take and destroy private property without any opportunity for a hearing, either before of after the government seizure and destruction," according to the complaint. "The complete lack of any hearing to protect private property violates the procedural due process guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
     The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment and wants HB 404 enjoined as "unconstitutional, void, without effect and unenforceable."
     They are represented by Brian Walker, of Obsidian Law. 

Alabama - Motorcycle club member, co-defendant sentenced in marijuana case...

OFF THE WIRE

 Brendan Kirby
 Press-Register
 blog.al.com

MOBILE, Alabama -- A federal judge in Mobile last week sentenced a reputed motorcycle gang member and a co-defendant to prison for their part in a conspiracy involving more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.
U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade sentenced Johnny Blake Clanton to a year and 9 months in prison, followed by 3 years on supervised release.
She sentenced Loverne Bollwage Blackledge to 2 years and 3 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.
According to testimony in an October trial, Clanton was a member of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club. The jury convicted the Foley man of being an unlawful drug user in
possession of a firearm, but acquitted him of a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and 2 counts of using a cell phone to facilitate the conspiracy.
The jury convicted Blackledge, of Gulf Shores, on conspiracy and facilitation charges.
In April, Foley police followed Blackledge from Affordable Auto Repair on Baldwin County 12 to Alabama 59, where they found 2.5 ounces of marijuana in her truck. The resulting investigation led to convictions of the business owner, his wife, daughter and 4 others — including 2 illegal immigrants from Mexico.
The owner, James Kenneth Spencer, admitted that he sold marijuana to Clanton on a regular basis.
A search of Clanton’s home turned up drug paraphernalia, small amounts of marijuana and 3 guns, according to testimony.

Loverne Blackledge.jpg
Loverne Bollwage Blackledge ... sentenced to more than 2 years in prison.
Johnny Clanton.jpg
Johnny Blake Clanton ... sentenced to almost 2 years in prison.

WASHINGTON - Biker convicted in ‘no-body’ Ravensdale killing headed for new trial


OFF THE WIRE
Appeals Court tossed murder conviction against ‘Nazi John’; second trial likely
A 40-year-old outlaw biker previously convicted in a Ravensdale killing where no body was recovered is back in King County jail and likely on his way to a second trial.
John Price – known as "Nazi John" to the Ghost Riders, the biker gxxg to which he belonged – was previously convicted of first-degree murder in the the December 2004 slaying of Don Jessup at a Ravensdale trailer. Though Jessup's body has not been found, prosecutors successfully argued Price beat him with an ax handle before shooting him in the head.
Sentenced to 35 years in prison in January 2009, Price appealed the conviction and ultimately won a reversal from the state Court of Appeals.
The appellate court threw out Price’s conviction because Price was not in the room when potential jurors were dismissed because they would not be able to serve on the jury for personal reasons. Prosecutors asserted Price had agreed not to attend jury selection proceedings that day, and that the state Supreme Court erred when it ruled that defendants’ due process rights are violated when they aren’t able to watch the early phases of jury selection.
Price was returned to the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center on Friday, having spent the past two years in state prison. King County prosecutors are now preparing to retry the alleged killer.
Proving the case against Price was made more difficult because Jessup’s body was never recovered. Still, the prosecution was able to prevail largely because of the testimony of two women who claim to have been in the trailer when Price killed Jessup. Their testimony – in addition to dozens of letters and phone calls Price made from jail – is the strongest evidence in a case where no murder weapon or forensic evidence was recovered.
At trial in 2008, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole drew on Price's letters to witnesses in the killing. Price, the prosecutor said, shot Jessup in the face after an argument at a Ravensdale home where Price was living with his girlfriend.
Jessup, a past president of the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle gxxg, arrived at the home for dinner. During the meal, witnesses told police, Jessup taunted Price by offering to sell Price a motorcycle that had been stolen from the home weeks before.
Enraged, Price left and returned with a handgun. Prosecutors say he attacked Jessup with an ax handle, then shot him in the mouth as he sat on the floor.
"There can be no doubt," O'Toole said at the time, "that when the defendant walked back into that house, he had an ax handle in his hand, a gun in his waistband and murder on his mind."
Relaying conversations they'd had with Price, witnesses told King County sheriff's deputies that two other Ghost Riders gxxg members helped Price clean the house and dispose of Jessup's body. One of the men, William Renner, has since pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment for threatening and offering a $500 bribe to one of the witnesses.
In addition to the murder charge, Price was convicted on two counts of witness tampering stemming from threats he allegedly made against two of the prosecution’s witnesses.
Granting Price’s request for a new trial, the state Court of Appeals, Division 1, tossed out the conviction for what it deemed a procedural error during jury selection.
When selecting a jury, a judge often begins by asking members of the jury pool – in Price’s case about 200 people – whether jury service presents any particular hardship on them. Potential jurors who claim service would cause them undue trouble are then excused, usually before prosecutors and the defense begins questioning them about possible biases or connections they may have that would preclude them from serving on the jury.
Defendants have the right to be present during any critical stage of the proceedings against them, including jury selection. Denying a defendant that ability has been held to be grounds for reversal.
According to the Appeals Court opinion, Price voluntarily waived his presence during the initial period of jury selection – when jurors were asked if they had significant personal reasons not be serve on the jury. All told, 80 of the potential jurors were dismissed, all but two on the grounds that service presented a particular hardship to them.
Issuing its opinion in July, the appellate court found Price’s attorney failed to inform him that the early phase of jury selection was still a critical stage of the trial. Though the judge noted it was, the Court of Appeals found Price was in effect denied the opportunity to be in court for the jurors’ dismissals, and threw out the verdict.
“We conclude that Price did not make a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of his constitutional rights,” Judge Ronald Cox said in the three-judge panel’s unanimous decision.
“The fundamental purpose of a defendant’s right to be present during jury selection is to allow him or her to give advice or suggestions to counsel or even to supersede counsel’s decisions,” Cox continued. “Here, because Price was not present for this portion of jury selection, he was unable to exercise that right.”
Fighting the appeal, King County prosecutors argued the judge’s decision had no practical impact on the case or the jury’s verdict. Even with those two jurors gone, Price and his attorney had 120 more candidates to choose from.
Price, who remains charged with first-degree murder and two counts of witness tampering, is expected in King County Superior Court on Friday. A trial date has not yet been set.
Check the Seattle 911 crime blog for more Seattle crime news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Biker-convicted-in-no-body-Ravensdale-3359849.php

USA - Critics of Indefinite Detention Gain Traction to Stop NDAA

OFF THE WIRE
COURTHOUSENEWS .COM
By ADAM KLASFELD 
Critics of Indefinite Detention Gain Traction to Stop NDAA
MANHATTAN (CN) - A hearing to block the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain, without charge or trial, anybody accused of planning or supporting terrorism anywhere in the world, may occur as early as Thursday, a federal judge ruled.
     President Barack Obama signed the legislation, colloquially known as the Homeland Battlefield Bill, into law on New Year's Eve.
     Two weeks later, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges filed a lawsuit against Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, claiming that the law threatens reporters with life imprisonment for interviewing people whom the United States classifies as terrorists.
     The case lay dormant until last week, when U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest - an Obama appointee - said there is no indication Hedges served the defendants in the case.
     Hedges' lawyers must give the defendants 72-hours' notice before seeking a temporary restraining order, which the parties may argue as early as Thursday, she said.
     The Demand Progress political action committee announced the possible intervention in the case by several noted experts, including Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pentagon Papers source Daniel Ellsberg and Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir. These rumors remain unconfirmed.
     Critics of the law should not hold their breath for a legal victory, according to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
     "It is a hopeless case for lots of reasons," committee executive director Shahid Buttar said in a phone conference, explaining that the judge could toss the case for lack of standing or governmental state-secrets privilege.
     "We can't sue or click our way out of this problem," Buttar said. "It's going to have to be a movement of millions to re-assert and restore the principles that have long made this country great."
     Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official under President Ronald Reagan, agreed with Buttar's prognosis during the phone conference. He added, nevertheless, that the lawsuit could be a "useful educational vehicle" to draw public and media attention.
     "The media is preoccupied, candidly, with drivel," Fein said. "A lawsuit at least has a sense of drama to it."
     Fein serves as a legal adviser to the presidential campaign of Ron Paul, the Republican congressman who is prominent critic of the NDAA but was absent when the bill came to a vote.
     Participants in the conference focused on how to oppose the bill on the local level.
     Bill Dwight, a Democratic city councilor from Northampton, Mass., spoke about how his city became the first in the nation to pass a symbolic resolution against the NDAA.
     "It snowballed and communities in New York and Los Angeles followed our lead," Dwight said.
     Two Republican U.S. representatives for Washington state, Matt Shea and Jason Overstreet, passed House Bill 2759, prohibiting local and state forces not to comply with the NDAA.
     "How is it that we can have local elected officials and state elected officials who can see this act clearly for what it is, and we have only a handful of congressmen and senators that do?" Overstreet said during the conference.
     Peggy Littleton, the Republican commissioner of El Paso County, joined the call from an Air Force base where she reported many soldiers are alarmed about the law.
     "They can't imagine being put in a position to take away a person's habeus corpus rights," Littleton said.
     Naomi Wolf, a noted feminist author who now writes for the Guardian, applauded the politicians and organizers participating in the conference for reaching across ideologies and party lines.
     The call marked a peculiar alliance of organizers from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a civil libertarian group sparked in opposition to the Patriot Act, and the Tenth Amendment Center, a think tank with a "state's rights" orientation, more traditionally embraced by conservatives.
     "I'm delighted that organizations from across the political spectrum are uniting on this," Wolf said. "It's our only hope."
     In her book "The End of America," Wolf proposed that there are 10 steps to the subversion of democracies.
     NDAA represents the final step outlined in the book, "Suspend the rule of law," she told reporters.
     "Once governments can take people in without charge or trial, journalists aren't safe," she said. "Union leaders aren't safe. Clergy aren't safe. Activists aren't safe. Nobody's safe."
     Other governments likely would follow suit, Wolf warned.
     "When America abandons its historic role as a benchmark for human rights and democracy, all bets are off," Wolf said.
     Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Army, cited U.S. law to justify the indefinite detention of suspected Palestinian militant Khader Adnan, Wolf noted.
     Adnan won his freedom after his 66-day hunger strike sparked international outrage about his confinement, which Israel insisted was necessary for public safety.
     Fein, who once worked for the traditionally conservative American Enterprise Institute, blasted the notion of pitting safety against civil liberties.
     "The NDAA is part of this larger culture of seeking a risk-free existence by destroying freedom and liberty everywhere, and having a juvenile thrill of a nation able to tell anybody, any time, any place, that they have to do anything the United States tells them to do at the point of a bayonet, or at the end of a predator drone," Fein said. "What is international law today?" he asked later. "It's exactly what we say it is."
     Without a temporary restraining order, the NDAA will go into effect on Saturday, according to an article Hedges wrote for Truthdig.com. 

Color of Law Abuses

OFF THE WIRE

Gavel

U.S. law enforcement officers and other officials like judges, prosecutors, and security guards have been given tremendous power by local, state, and federal government agencies—authority they must have to enforce the law and ensure justice in our country. These powers include the authority to detain and arrest suspects, to search and seize property, to bring criminal charges, to make rulings in court, and to use deadly force in certain situations.
Preventing abuse of this authority, however, is equally necessary to the health of our nation’s democracy. That’s why it’s a federal crime for anyone acting under “color of law” willfully to deprive or conspire to deprive a person of a right protected by the Constitution or U.S. law. “Color of law” simply means that the person is using authority given to him or her by a local, state, or federal government agency.
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating color of law abuses, which include acts carried out by government officials operating both within and beyond the limits of their lawful authority. Off-duty conduct may be covered if the perpetrator asserted his or her official status in some way.
During 2009, the FBI investigated 385 color of law cases. Most of these crimes fall into five broad areas:
  • Excessive force;
  • Sexual assaults;
  • False arrest and fabrication of evidence;
  • Deprivation of property; and
  • Failure to keep from harm.
Excessive force: In making arrests, maintaining order, and defending life, law enforcement officers are allowed to use whatever force is "reasonably" necessary. The breadth and scope of the use of force is vast—from just the physical presence of the officer…to the use of deadly force. Violations of federal law occur when it can be shown that the force used was willfully "unreasonable" or "excessive."
Sexual assaults by officials acting under color of law can happen in jails, during traffic stops, or in other settings where officials might use their position of authority to coerce an individual into sexual compliance. The compliance is generally gained because of a threat of an official action against the person if he or she doesn’t comply.
False arrest and fabrication of evidence: The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right against unreasonable searches or seizures. A law enforcement official using authority provided under the color of law is allowed to stop individuals and, under certain circumstances, to search them and retain their property. It is in the abuse of that discretionary power—such as an unlawful detention or illegal confiscation of property—that a violation of a person's civil rights may occur.
Fabricating evidence against or falsely arresting an individual also violates the color of law statute, taking away the person’s rights of due process and unreasonable seizure. In the case of deprivation of property, the color of law statute would be violated by unlawfully obtaining or maintaining a person’s property, which oversteps or misapplies the official’s authority.
The Fourteenth Amendment secures the right to due process; the Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment. During an arrest or detention, these rights can be violated by the use of force amounting to punishment (summary judgment). The person accused of a crime must be allowed the opportunity to have a trial and should not be subjected to punishment without having been afforded the opportunity of the legal process.
Failure to keep from harm: The public counts on its law enforcement officials to protect local communities. If it’s shown that an official willfully failed to keep an individual from harm, that official could be in violation of the color of law statute.
Filing a Complaint
To file a color of law complaint, contact your local FBI office by telephone, in writing, or in person. The following information should be provided:
  • All identifying information for the victim(s);
  • As much identifying information as possible for the subject(s), including position, rank, and agency employed;
  • Date and time of incident;
  • Location of incident;
  • Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of any witness(es);
  • A complete chronology of events; and
  • Any report numbers and charges with respect to the incident.
You may also contact the United States Attorney's Office in your district or send a written complaint to:
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
Criminal Section
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest
Washington, DC 20530
FBI investigations vary in length. Once our investigation is complete, we forward the findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office within the local jurisdiction and to the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., which decide whether or not to proceed toward prosecution and handle any prosecutions that follow.
Civil Applications
Title 42, U.S.C., Section 14141 makes it unlawful for state or local law enforcement agencies to allow officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or U.S. laws. This law, commonly referred to as the Police Misconduct Statute, gives the Department of Justice authority to seek civil remedies in cases where law enforcement agencies have policies or practices that foster a pattern of misconduct by employees. This action is directed against an agency, not against individual officers. The types of issues which may initiate a pattern and practice investigation include:
  • Lack of supervision/monitoring of officers' actions;
  • Lack of justification or reporting by officers on incidents involving the use of force;
  • Lack of, or improper training of, officers; and
  • Citizen complaint processes that treat complainants as adversaries.
Under Title 42, U.S.C., Section 1997, the Department of Justice has the ability to initiate civil actions against mental hospitals, retardation facilities, jails, prisons, nursing homes, and juvenile detention facilities when there are allegations of systemic derivations of the constitutional rights of institutionalized persons.
Report Civil Rights Violations
Resources

Do you have to show an ID to a cop? How do you refuse a search on your car?

OFF THE WIRE
Do you legally have to produce an ID if cop ask for it? How can you legally refuse a search to your car? We get the answers and more with Attorney Alan Lowe.

VIDEO - http://youtu.be/R7b5slUEw4U

Can you legally film a cop or TSA agent? Can you film your own trial? Part 1
VIDEO - http://youtu.be/hwVdjLwjVIA

Cops & Judges Caught Using Secret Codes On Tickets  -
VIDEO - http://youtu.be/Zb9VnvbYGak

Military Checkpoints in U.S.A - Wake Up America
VIDEO - http://youtu.be/gOz6kWBQvqw
http://www.myspace.com/tree0fliberty.................
...............................................................................
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (today the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States.The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act during peacetime.

USA - Biker Tax break?

OFF THE WIRE
This must apply to men and women equally

 http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/staffer-refers-mustache-bill-committee-without-congressmans-consent_632956.html
  a well-deserved $250 annual tax deduction for every Mustached American for expenditures on mustache grooming supplies
 The American Mustache institute earlier today made this surprising announcement:
After barnstorming the Nation’s Capitol in support of the proposed Stache Act (details and white paper here), the office of of [sic] Maryland 6th district U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett informed the American Mustache Institute that the congressman has begun the process of ensuring the‘Stache Act becomes law by passing the proposal to the House Ways and Means Committee for study — an essential first step for tax legislation.
The surprising thing is not that a congressman—Rep. Bartlett, a Republican—would support the creation of another tax loophole. “The Stache Act (Stimulus to Allow for Critical Hair Expenses) aims to earn a well-deserved $250 annual tax deduction for every Mustached American for expenditures on mustache grooming supplies,” the website reads.
Instead, it was odd that Bartlett would even participate in what clearly seems to be an elaborate parody of Washington, D.C., think tanks and advocacy groups—and Congress. (The group is, after all, holding a rally on Capitol Hill on April 1.)
So I called Bartlett’s office to see if something so silly could possibly be real. Sure enough, it is—but there’s a wrinkle: Congressman Bartlett was never aware that the bill had been referred to the committee in his name.
“Congressman Bartlett has referred their proposal to the Ways and Means Committee, without commenting on the merit of the bill,” Lisa Wright, Bartlett’s press secretary, told me. The House Ways and Means Committee, Wright explained, has jurisdiction since the Stache Act is a tax bill.
Wright was then asked that since Bartlett referred the bill with comment, would she be able to comment on her boss’s opinion of the proposed legislation. “Congressman Bartlett merely referred it without recommendation,” Wright told me after a big pause.
Indeed, Wright conceded, when asked whether it’s a waste of the congressman’s time to be toying with legislative stunts like this one, that Bartlett actually knew nothing about the bill he supposedly had referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.
“I did not raise it with him,” Wright admitted. “Actually it’s a staff referral . . . I did it, I referred it.” When asked whether Congressman Bartlett knew about the referral, Wright sheepishly said, “I don’t think I told him yet.”
This sort of action, say staffers on the Hill, is almost unheard of “unless there is some sort of special relationship between the staffer and the boss, which it doesn’t sound like there is in this case,” a senior House aide says.

Neveda - Las Vegas - Helmet law enforcement lawsuit gets tossed..........

bikerhelmet-lead-1305391651

OFF THE WIRE
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging how Southern Nevada police departments enforce the Nevada motorcycle helmet law.
A dozen motorcyclists filed suit in September against Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City. They complained police were regularly issuing tickets without probable cause to motorcyclists for failing to wear helmets.
Their suit sought to represent more than 40,000 motorcycle riders in the county.
As the suit progressed, it became clear that the riders believed they could wear "skull caps," "novelty helmets" — including some that look like crowns — and even what police describe as a 3- or 4-inch ceramic disc worn on the top of the head and equipped with a chin strap.
The riders argued police departments failed to specify what exactly is a "helmet" under Nevada’s law requiring the use of helmets, and had failed to train officers in determining what is a legal helmet and what is not.
Some police agencies, however, say they follow guidelines spelled out in a U.S. Transportation Department brochure called "How to Identify Unsafe Motorcycle Helmets."
The brochure says helmets should weigh about three pounds and meet standards for thickness of the inner liner. It says they should have a sturdy chin strap and appropriate labeling showing they meet federal standards. Unsafe "novelty helmets" typically don’t have the preferred full-face design, the brochure says.
After September’s lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the cities and Clark County asked that it be dismissed because it was so vague the defendants couldn’t understand what they were accused of doing that would violate the riders’ rights.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro agreed and dismissed the suit Tuesday.
"Defendants correctly argue that plaintiffs’ complaint is void of factual allegations of specific conduct by particular defendants, but is instead a 'conglomeration of generalized allegations of legal violations,' without specific allegations of a single event, on any identified date, in any jurisdiction, by any named defendant,” Pro wrote in his dismissal order.
Here is the link to Cycle Source http://cyclesource.com/newsblog/2012/02/24/helmet-law-enforcement-lawsuit-gets-tossed?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheCycleSourceMagazineWorldReport+%28The+Cycle+Source+Magazine+World+Report%29

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Retired SDPD Officer Says He Was Victim Of Racial Profiling


OFF THE WIRE
Timothy Newell Says He Was Repeatedly Questioned By Sgt. Elizabeth Palmer.
Timothy Newell
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A retired San Diego police officer claims he was the victim of racial profiling, police misconduct and unlawful search and seizure after he was detained outside the Chula Vista Courthouse on Nov. 29.
Timothy Newell filed a complaint against the deputies involved and said he plans to file a civil suit after the incident that he called a "public humiliation" and a violation of his 4th Amendment rights.
Newell – who now operates a private security firm – said he had gone to the courthouse parking lot to check on a used police vehicle to use for patrols.

He parked in a handicapped spot and took a picture of what he believed was the white Crown Victoria he wanted to buy when he says a woman walked up to him and challenged his right to park there.

Newell claims he showed her his handicap placard and told her the reason for his visit. He identified himself to the woman, telling her that he is a retired police officer.

According to Newell, the woman – who still had not identified herself – called him a liar and took both his keys and his cell phone.

When Newell told the woman his wallet containing both his driver's license and retired police badge was on the front seat of his car, she ordered him to, "Sit your ass on the back of your bumper and don't move."

At that point, Newell said she dialed a number on her own cell phone, telling someone, "I need help out here now." Seconds later, Newell saw three sheriff's deputies running from the courthouse to the parking lot, surrounding him.

"She never identified herself," Newell told 10News reporter Allison Ash. "I didn't know who she was." Newell said one of the responding deputies told him she was his supervisor.

Newell claims he was questioned repeatedly over the next three hours by the woman, who was identified as Sgt. Elizabeth Palmer.

Newell said Palmer went through his wallet, glove compartment and even looked at his mail. He said it was when she scrolled through the names of contacts on his cell phone that she became especially accusatory.

Among the names in his phone were some that sounded Middle-Eastern.

"She wanted to know where they're from… what ethnicity," said Newell. "I got the impression as if she was treating me like I was a terrorist."

Throughout the confrontation, Newell said Palmer called him a liar.

"I felt like I was a suspect, like on parole," said Newell, who called Palmer's behavior both unprofessional and unethical.

Newell claims his picture was taken and then Palmer told him there was a warrant for his arrest and that he was driving on a suspended license. Neither accusation was true, said Newell.

Newell told Ash he believed Palmer was trying to "set him up" and baiting him to react in a negative way so she could have a reason to arrest him. He said he did not take the bait and stayed calm. However, he admitted he was becoming increasingly nervous and fearful.

Newell said Palmer finally let him go but refused to give back his keys or his driver's license.

The next day, Newell returned to the courthouse to get the names of all four deputies involved. Newell said as one of the deputies wrote the names on the back of a business card, Palmer – now in uniform – pulled him close, saying, "Please don't do this. I am old school and I did you a favor and did not tow your car."

Newell believes she was asking him not to file a complaint.

The internal affairs bureau of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department is now investigating the complaint but a spokesperson for the department told 10News she is very limited in the kind of information she can release in a personnel action.

According to Newell's attorney, the department has 45 days to accept or deny Newell's claim against Palmer.

Newell claims he has also spoken with the FBI, which is forwarding his case to the California Attorney General's Office for possible charges.

Another man, 24-year-old Lee Lacy, told 10News he was beaten up an arrested outside the same courthouse in November of 2010. He claims Sgt. Palmer was involved in that incident as well.

Lacy was trying to take care of a fix-it ticket, and claims the woman behind the counter was unhelpful. After making a rude comment to the female deputy, he was ordered to leave. Outside the courthouse, Lacy claims he was beaten up by a swarm of deputies and arrested for four felonies.

All four felonies were dropped to a single misdemeanor.

When Newell saw Lacy's story on 10News, he said he was shocked.

"I thought it was just one incident, but it seems like to me that there's some issues here," he said.

When asked if he thought there was a pattern, Newell said yes.

"I think it needs to be dealt with before it gets out of hand," he said.

CA - Biker Gang Fugitive Surrounded by Police at Motel


OFF THE WIRE
A Hells Angels motorcycle gang member suspected of slaying another member during a funeral service in San Jose has been arrested this past Sunday.
Stephen Ruiz, 38, known to be the “biker gang fugitive” was taken into custody at the Days Inn motel for the October 15 murder of Hells Angels member Steve Tausun, 52. According to the San Jose Police Department spokesman Jason Dwy, "The victim and suspect...reportedly became involved in a physical altercation,” and the alleged suspect Ruiz, pulled a firearm and fatally shot Tausun.
A worker at the Days Inn hotel Rey Bayangos reported to MSNBC on the arrest saying, "They used the phone at the front desk, called and asked him to surrender peacefully, and he did surrender," The suspect Stephen Ruiz
The funeral the two were attending was for Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew. He was the president of Tausun and Ruiz’s Hells Angels chapter and at age 51 was gunned down by a rival Vagos motorcycle gang member during a fight last September at a Nevada casino.
The U.S. Justice Department labeled both the Vagos and Hells Angel gangs as outlaw clubs involved in drug, weapons trafficking and other criminal activities. The two have had an ongoing slew of gang rivalry related crimes against each other- a January fight at a Santa Cruz Starbucks and another incident in August led to five individuals with gunshot wounds in Chino Valley. Pettigrew would be found dead almost a year later.
The biker gang fugitive is just one member of an estimated 2000, spread out across the word in 230 chapters. Their primary motto is "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets."
Tensions between the two gangs are on the rise but these recent crimes and deaths will surely be remembered.

http://www.collegenews.com/article/biker_gang_fugitive_surrounded_by_police_at_motel2

The Prospect

The Prospect is a reality meets survivor motorcycle club show in San Francisco California.
VIDEO -     http://youtu.be/anbirghojL8

CALIFORNIA - Steve Ruiz In Custody

OFF THE WIRE
Steve Ruiz In Custody
agingrebel.com
San Jose police took former Hells Angel Steve Ruiz (booking photo above) into custody about 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at a Days Inn in Fremont, California.
Last December San Jose police announced that Ruiz was “hiding” in either San Jose, Campbell, Fremont or Gilroy, California. “We believe he’s in any one of those cities,” a police spokesman said.

Steve Tausan

Ruiz is a suspect in the shooting death of a Hells Angel named Steve Martin “187” Tausan at a club funeral for San Jose charter President Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew in San Jose’s Oak Hill Memorial Park October 15, 2011. Tausan was former member of the San Jose charter and the Sergeant at Arms for the club’s Santa Cruz charter.
Approximately 3,000 mourners attended Pettigrew’s funeral and the cemetery was surrounded by police. Tausan became embroiled in an argument with another Hells Angel at the service. Tausan knocked the man down. The man shot Tausan and was immediately disarmed by other mourners and stripped of his colors.
Some mourners carried Tausan to the police perimeter seeking first aid for the wounded man. Witnesses have accused San Jose police of delaying that aid. Tausan died within the hour and was buried in the same cemetery on October 29.

The Search

After Pettigrew’s funeral, police assumed Tausan’s killer had been murdered and his body had been concealed in Pettgrew’s coffin so Pettigrew was exhumed.
The next day police announced Ruiz was their only suspect. They stated that he was “actively avoiding arrest” with a woman named Christel Renee Trujillo and that the two were probably in a gold or pewter Chevrolet Suburban. At the time police said they believed Ruiz might have fled to New York or Arizona.
Police changed their story within days and announced that Ruiz was probably still in or around San Jose. Militarized police wrecked a house in Stockton on October 22 in an attempt to locate Ruiz.

The Capture

Ruiz checked into the motel about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. A press announcement released Sunday morning simply stated, “On Saturday, February 25th, 2012, San Jose Police Homicide Detectives developed information in their investigation revealing Suspect Ruiz’s location.”
Two hours after Ruiz checked in at least 12 members of the San Jose Police “Covert Response Unit” arrived and surrounded the motel. One of the cops then called Ruiz from a phone in the motel lobby.
At a news conference Sunday, San Jose Police Sergeant Jason Dwyer said “They surrounded the Days Inn Motel, called him and he came out and surrendered without incident.” Dwyer also said, “It’s ironic that he didn’t flee very far.”
Dwyer was closed mouthed about how police found Ruiz other than to say that the officers who apprehended him had “worked 28 hours straight.” Dwyer added, “If someone helped him evade capture, we’re going to come after them.”
Ruiz was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail.

USA - Drones with an eye on US public cleared to fly......

OFF THE WIRE
Aerial photographer Daniel Garate with the joystick that controls his hexacopter.
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)

THE NEW YORK TIMES

LOS ANGELES —  Daniel Garate's career came crashing to earth a few weeks ago. That's when the Los Angeles Police Department warned local real estate agents not to hire photographers like Garate, who was helping sell luxury property by using a drone to shoot sumptuous aerial movies. Flying drones for commercial purposes, the police said, violated federal aviation rules.
'I was paying the bills with this," said Garate, who recently gave an unpaid demonstration of his drone in suburban Woodland Hills.
His career will soon get back on track. A new federal law, signed by the president Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency services will also be freer to send up their own drones.
But while businesses, and drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating the opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial vehicles, the law raises fresh worries about how much detail the drones will capture about lives down below — and what will be done with that information. Safety concerns such as midair collisions and property damage on the ground are also an issue.
U.S. courts have generally permitted surveillance of private property from public airspace. But scholars of privacy law expect that the likely proliferation of drones will force Americans to reexamine how much surveillance they are comfortable with.
''As privacy law stands today, you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy while out in public, nor almost anywhere visible from a public vantage," said Ryan Calo, director of privacy and robotics at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. "I don't think this doctrine makes sense, and I think the widespread availability of drones will drive home why to lawmakers, courts and the public."
Some questions likely to come up: Can a drone flying over a house pick up heat from a lamp used to grow marijuana inside, or take pictures from outside someone's third-floor fire escape? Can images taken from a drone be sold to a third party, and how long can they be kept?
Drone proponents say the privacy concerns are overblown. Randy McDaniel, chief deputy of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department in Conroe, Texas, near Houston, whose agency purchased a drone to use for various law-enforcement operations, dismissed worries about surveillance, saying everyone everywhere can be photographed with cellphone cameras anyway.
"We don't spy on people," he said. "We worry about criminal elements."
Still, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups are calling for new protections against what the ACLU has said could be "routine aerial surveillance of American life."
The language, which was inserted into a broader funding bill for the FAA, came after intense lobbying by drone makers and potential customers
Under the new law, within 90 days, the FAA must allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds, as long as they keep them under 400 feet and meet other requirements. The agency must also allow for "the safe integration" of all kinds of drones into U.S. airspace, including those for commercial uses, by Sept. 30, 2015. It must also come up with a plan for certifying operators and handling airspace safety issues, among other rules.
The agency probably will not be making privacy rules for drones. Although federal law until now had prohibited drones except for recreational use or for some waiver-specific law-enforcement purposes, the agency has issued only warnings, never penalties, for unauthorized uses, a spokeswoman said. The agency was reviewing the law's language, she added.
For drone makers, the change in the law comes at a particularly good time. With the winding down of the war in Afghanistan, where drones have been used to gather intelligence and fire missiles, these manufacturers have been awaiting lucrative new opportunities at home.
The market for drones is valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade, according to industry figures. Drones can cost millions of dollars for the most sophisticated varieties to as little as $300 for one that can be piloted from an iPhone.
''We see a huge potential market," said Ben Gielow of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a drone maker trade group.
For Patrick Egan, who represents small businesses and others in his work for the Remote Control Aerial Photography Association in Sacramento, Calif., the new law also can't come fast enough. Until 2007, when the federal agency began warning against nonrecreational use of drones, he made up to $2,000 an hour using a drone to photograph crops for farmers, helping them spot irrigation leaks.
''I've got organic farmers screaming for me to come out," he said.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department in Texas bought its 50-pound drone in October from Vanguard Defense Industries, a company founded by Michael Buscher, who built drones for the army, and then sold them to an oil company whose ships were threatened by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
The company custom-built the drone, which takes pictures by day and senses heat sources at night. It cost $300,000, a fraction of the cost of a helicopter.
McDaniel said his SWAT team could use it for reconnaissance, or to manage road traffic after a big accident. He said he regretted that he didn't have it a few months ago, to search for a missing person in a densely wooded area.
Buscher, meanwhile, said he was negotiating with several police agencies.
"There is tremendous potential," he said. "We see agencies dipping their toes."
The possibilities for drones appear limitless. Last year, Cy Brown of Bunkie, La., began hunting feral pigs at night by outfitting a model airplane with a heat-sensing camera that soared around his brother's rice farm, feeding live aerial images of the pigs to Brown on the ground. Brown relayed the pigs' locations by radio to a friend with a shotgun.
He calls his plane the Dehogaflier, and says it saves him time wandering in the muck looking for skittish pigs.
''Now you can know in 15 minutes if it's worth going out," said Brown, an electrical engineer.
Earlier this month, in Woodland Hills, Garate, the photographer, demonstrated his drone by flicking a handheld joystick and sending the $5,000 machine hovering high above a tennis court. A camera beneath the drone recorded lush, high-definition video of the surrounding property.
Bill Kerbox, a real estate agent in Malibu who hired Garate for several shoots before the LAPD crackdown, said that aerial video had helped him stand out from his competitors, and that the loss of it had been painful.
Garate, for now, plans to work mainly in his native Peru, where he has used his drone to shoot commercials for banks. He said he was approached by paparazzi last year about filming reality television star Kim Kardashian's wedding using a drone but turned down the offer.
''Maybe the FAA should give a driver's license for this, with a flight test," he said. "Do a background check to make sure I'm not a terrorist."