OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
The Mongols case may never end. They should teach it in law school. It should
be a required course. They should call it Introduction to Zombie
Prosecutions.
It isn’t even a case. It is a keepsake box of cases including U.S. v.
Cavazos et al.; Ramon Rivera v Kenneth E. Melson, Actiong Director,
Bureau of alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, John A. Torres, Special
Agent in Charge ATF Los Angeles Field Division, Eric H. Holder, United States
Attorney General et al. and United States of America v. Assorted
Firearms, Motorcycles and Other Personal Property.
The case officially began four years ago on October 9, 2008 when an Assistant
United States Attorney named Christopher Brunwin gave a federal grand jury an
indictment to return. Coincidentally this was a few mere hours after a Mongol
named Manuel Vincent “Hitman” Martin was shot off his motorcycle on the Glendale
Freeway. This murder, anyone who does not work for the ATF might agree, was
suspicious.
The indictment was proceeded by an ATF investigation that lasted at least
three years and that involved the fulltime efforts of at least 13 undercover ATF
agents, an unknown number greater than eight of paid confidential informants,
numerous Tactical Field Officers, many Sources of Information. Then there were
the wiretaps, the stand-by Swat Teams, the Mission Impossible gadgets and the
prostitution of the American press. The case sprawled like Kudzu and became a
model for additional cases against the Pagans Motorcycle Club and the American
Outlaws Association. As most readers here know, a tiny fraction of this made it
into a slim book called Out Bad.
The idea of the Mongols case was to work out a portfolio of procedures,
protocols and precedents that would make it possible to outlaw outlaw motorcycle
clubs. It almost worked. In Russia or China or Syria the case would have died of
shame by now but the United States Department of Justice has no shame. And so
today, day 1462, this case is still making news.
Paying The Lawyers
The press release that announced the beginning of the Mongols case asserted
“If any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be
authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his
back.” And, this claim was true although the keyword in this pronouncement was
“authorized” and the press release did not go on to explain that these assaults
and thefts were authorized by the poltergeist of Joseph Stalin. Several federal
judges eventually noticed that the criminalization of the Mongols symbols was
unconstitutional but the key case was brought by an humble, stolid and
unprepossessing Mongol in San Diego named Ramon Rivera.
Rivera was represented in his lawsuit against all the bastards by David
Blair-Loy of the American Civil Liberties Union. Rivera and Loy won the case. An
Assistant U.S. Attorney named Steven R. Welk who is the Chief of the Los Angeles
area Asset Forfeiture Division lost. A Federal District judge named David O.
Carter, who fears neither anti-Obama birthers nor conmen like Welk, declared the
Mongols’ victory on January 4, 2011. “What they (meaning Welk, Brunwin and their
associates) did was an outrageous violation of the First Amendment, and an
absolute abuse of forfeiture and trademark laws,” Blair-Loy told Michael Doyle
of McClatchy Newspapers for a story published today.
Welk appealed. Thirteen months later, on February 12, 2012 Carter wrote a
15-page memo that among other things ordered the United States to pay Blair-Loy,
another attorney named Alan Mansfield and an unnamed paralegal $243,824 in
professional fees, $8,642 in additional fees and $740.78 in costs. “They fought
us tooth and nail, every step of the way,” Loy told Doyle, “and they forced us
to work all those hours and incur all those costs.” You can read Doyle’s article here.
Forfeiture Case
Welk was at it again this morning in the Assorted Firearms, Motorcycles
and Other Personal Property case before Judge Carter in the Federal
Courthouse in Santa Ana. The theory of that case, simply stated, is that Welk
may steal the personal belongings of innocent and uncharged citizens if they
happen to belong to the Mongols Motorcycle Club or if they know or are related
to someone who is a Mongol.
Last May 16, Carter told all the attorneys involved in the case to settle it
before today but it remains on the docket.
There have been a flurry of filings leading up to this trial including “the
Declaration of AUSA Steven R. Welk in support of the government’s request.”
Apparently Welk knows so many state secrets about the undercover investigation
of and the operation of the Mongols Motorcycle Club that ATF agents would have
no choice but to put Welk on a motorcycle and shoot him if he let the American
people know what he knows.
There were also filings by former Mongol indictee Alfonso Solis. Solis spent
14 months in jail on a variety of trumped-up charges related to him riding with
the Mongols.
He prevailed in his case by firing his lawyer and using the money to hire a
private detective to reinvestigate the charges against him. One by one the
accusations against Solis crumbled like sand castles but the government, in this
case Chris Brunwin, refused to give up for reasons that might best be understood
by a professional psychotherapist. Eventually Solis made a back room deal with
Brunwin to plead guilty to possession of about eight grams of marijuana just to
end the ordeal.
Solis avoided a felony conviction but Welk kept his “Harley Davidson
motorcycle, license number 16S9100,” “$2380.00 in U.S. currency,” Solis’
“Leather vest with club insignia,” “Several personal photographs” and
“Miscellaneous personal items.”
Solis wants his property back. So do other Mongols. It has been four years.
Welk never learned to play fair. America has fallen into the hands of grown men
who never learned to play fair. So the Mongols case continues.
