OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
There is still no justice in the federal racketeering case in South Carolina
titled US v Bifield et al. but the North Korean style soap opera
continues. Bifield and his fellow defendants are all members or in some way
associated with the Hells Angels or Red Devils Motorcycle Clubs and as is
typical in federal biker cases, the prosecution has proclaimed the defendants
guilty and proceeded to punish them.
A month long trial is not scheduled to begin until February 11, 2013. But,
the accused have all been punished, often severely, since June 7 when they were
rounded up like Polish Jews. Late last week the presiding judge of this
inquisition, Cameron McGowan Currie, ordered the Department of Justice to tell
the defense lawyers by Pearl Harbor Day what they know about the two snitches
who made the government’s case. For the time being, the court adheres rigidly to
the North Korean interpretation of the common law rule that citizens have the
right to confront their accusers.
Even the names of the accusers in the case still remain officially secret.
Their names are Joe Dillulio and Marty “Cowboy” Deloach. No paper in South
Carolina will report them. Both men’s motives have been carefully obscured. The
54-year-old Dillulio did owe $1 million in penalties to the government. Deloach,
who did most of his mischief with the Red Devils, may not have had much more of
a motive than an identification with and an admiration of the police.
The point of punishing federal defendants while they are still, technically,
innocent is to inflate prosecutors’ batting averages. One way to accomplish that
is to continues to elaborate and embellish the charges against the defendants
while they are locked up. The original indictment in this case was returned May
17. A 97 page superseding indictment was filed September 19. Deloach appears to
be a key source in a rumored, pending second superseding indictment that is
somehow, secretly, connected to an existing secret indictment in neighboring
North Carolina. That indictment is officially called Case 3:12-mj-186 WDNC. It
is anybody’s guess if and when the government will pull that fresh, new
portfolio of accusations out of its shiny, carpetbagger top hat.
Surreal Paranoia
The week before Halloween the government issued “Sealed Proposed Plea
Agreement(s)” to defendants Daniel Eugene Bifield, Mark William Baker, David
Channing Oiler, Bruce James Long, Richard Thrower, Robert David Pryor, Frederick
Keach, Jr., Frank Enriquez, Jr., Donald Boersma, Lisa Ellen Bifield, Johanna
Looper, Kerry Chitwood, Carlos Hernandez, Ronald Dean Byrum, Jr., James Rhodus,
Bruce Ranson Wilson, Thomas McManus Plyler, Jamie Hobbs Long, Somying Anderson
and Trent Allen Brown.
The deals are sealed in order to pressure defendants into incriminating one
another and particularly lead defendant Diamond Dan Bifield. The written deals
all ask defendants to substantiate the accusations against their co-defendants
for sentences that may be as little as time served or as much as 20 years in
prison depending on whether their attorneys are good or bad horse traders. Dan
Bifield was offered 20 years in prison for a guilty plea to count two of the
indictment. His faces an additional five years in prison if he goes to trial and
loses. So far, none of the defendants has been desperate enough to snatch the
bait.
The idea is to prevent a public trial. Federal defendants are fish in a
barrel. At least 93 percent of federal defendants are coerced into forgoing a
trial by a jury of their peers. The odds are so stacked against these people
that nine out of 10 can expect to be convicted and punished severely for
inconveniencing the federal courts if they do demand a trial.
Bifield Locked Down
In the meantime the lead defendant is in solitary confinement 23 hours a day.
He has virtually no human contact. It is not unusual for technically innocent,
federal prisoners to be treated like this. Bifield, by all accounts, seems to
endure this deprivation stoically. But it is also not unusual for jailers to
routinely begin administering anti-psychotic drugs to prisoners who have been
kept in solitary as long as Bifield has. No one seems to think any of this is
cruel or unusual.
Eleven days ago Bifield’s government appointed attorney, Allen B. Burnside,
petitioned the court to allow the lead defendant “access to any co-defendants
who want to participate in a common and mutual defense. In support of this
motion, the defendant would show the following: (1) That since his arrest he has
been kept separated from all of his co-defendants, including his wife, Lisa
Bifield; (2) The defendant submits that he and many of the co-defendants desire
to present a common defense; and (3) In order to present a common defense, the
defendants need to be allowed to meet with each other to discuss strategy and to
test their recollection of shared events.”
Burnside told the judge “that complete denial of all access to his
codefendants would deprive him of his due process rights under the Fifth
Amendment to the Constitution.”
Judge Currie has not yet ruled on that motion.
