Testimony is expected to begin Tuesday, Sept. 25, in the trial of a Temecula
businessman accused of threatening to sic his fellow Hells Angels on
subcontractors with whom he had payment disputes.
James A. Bradley, 49, a general contractor, has pleaded not guilty to criminal threats, possession of anabolic steroids and criminal gaxxx allegations, court records show. Bradley, who has been free on bond, was indicted by a grand jury in 2011.
“This case is about a bully who doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” prosecutor Burke Strunsky said Monday, Sept. 24, during his opening statement at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley.
Prosecutors said they plan to give jurors a primer on the Hells Angels to show why they consider the club a criminal street gaxxx and why the threats Bradley is accused of making benefitted the gaxxx.
As an active Hells Angels member, Bradley’s threats carried great weight, Strunsky said. His business was enmeshed with the club, he said, explaining that Bradley was a regular financial contributor to a Hells Angels criminal defense fund.
The people Bradley targeted knew he had close friends and club members with a history of violence to back up the threats and they lived in fear because of it, Strunsky said.
“The victims and their families paid a price,” he said. “They were terrorized.”
The threats were reported to Murrieta police in 2010. One subcontractor told officers that Bradley, of the Temecula-based J.A. Bradley Construction & Restoration, cursed at him and threatened to have “150 Hells Angels” come after him, court records say. Two other subcontractors told investigators similar stories, court records state.
Defense attorneys Brett Greenfield and David Kenner, who have represented Hells Angels in many criminal cases, have said Bradley’s membership in the Hells Angels is not in question.
The defense did not present an opening statement Monday, but they argued to the judge that the prosecutor, during his opening statement, had prejudiced jurors by showing photos of one of Bradley’s tattoos and describing it as a Nazi lightning-bolt “SS” symbol commonly used by Hells Angels.
The jury went home thinking Bradley is “not only a Hells Angel but a Nazi,” Kenner said.
Bradley got the tattoo decades ago, he said, before he joined the Hells Angels.
If convicted on all charges Bradley faces the possibility of more than 13 years in prison, prosecutors said.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/temecula/temecula-headlines-index/20120924-french-valley-trial-for-hells-angels-member-begins.ece
James A. Bradley, 49, a general contractor, has pleaded not guilty to criminal threats, possession of anabolic steroids and criminal gaxxx allegations, court records show. Bradley, who has been free on bond, was indicted by a grand jury in 2011.
“This case is about a bully who doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” prosecutor Burke Strunsky said Monday, Sept. 24, during his opening statement at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley.
Prosecutors said they plan to give jurors a primer on the Hells Angels to show why they consider the club a criminal street gaxxx and why the threats Bradley is accused of making benefitted the gaxxx.
As an active Hells Angels member, Bradley’s threats carried great weight, Strunsky said. His business was enmeshed with the club, he said, explaining that Bradley was a regular financial contributor to a Hells Angels criminal defense fund.
The people Bradley targeted knew he had close friends and club members with a history of violence to back up the threats and they lived in fear because of it, Strunsky said.
“The victims and their families paid a price,” he said. “They were terrorized.”
The threats were reported to Murrieta police in 2010. One subcontractor told officers that Bradley, of the Temecula-based J.A. Bradley Construction & Restoration, cursed at him and threatened to have “150 Hells Angels” come after him, court records say. Two other subcontractors told investigators similar stories, court records state.
Defense attorneys Brett Greenfield and David Kenner, who have represented Hells Angels in many criminal cases, have said Bradley’s membership in the Hells Angels is not in question.
The defense did not present an opening statement Monday, but they argued to the judge that the prosecutor, during his opening statement, had prejudiced jurors by showing photos of one of Bradley’s tattoos and describing it as a Nazi lightning-bolt “SS” symbol commonly used by Hells Angels.
The jury went home thinking Bradley is “not only a Hells Angel but a Nazi,” Kenner said.
Bradley got the tattoo decades ago, he said, before he joined the Hells Angels.
If convicted on all charges Bradley faces the possibility of more than 13 years in prison, prosecutors said.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/temecula/temecula-headlines-index/20120924-french-valley-trial-for-hells-angels-member-begins.ece