OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
George Christie, arguably the second best known of all the Hells Angels, goes
on trial next week. If he wins, Christie who is now 65 will have earned the
right to spend the rest of his days watching his youngest son grow into manhood
and enjoying the company of his devoted wife in his spacious but not
extravagant, middle class home in Ventura. If he loses he will probably die
alone in a cage.
The government of the United States has brought this case against George
Christie now because it has been trying to convict him of something for 30
years. And now that he has retired from his old motorcycle club this may be the
federal governments its final opportunity to punish him – and also punish the
people who love, like or admire him.
“He’s fair. He’s truthful. He’s kind. Law enforcement has it completely
wrong. How could he be so evil? He’s such a nice guy,” Nikki Christie, the old
outlaw’s pretty and articulate wife said months ago. ““I’m not his bitch. He
doesn’t call me his old lady…. I get this horrible overwhelming feeling of him
being gone forever so I’m not coping with that part very well…. I know he didn’t
do anything wrong and I believe in him. We’re gonna win…. I didn’t know what
indictment meant. I didn’t know anything. I thought the cops told the truth. I
thought the newspaper told the truth. I had no idea how corrupt everything could
be.”
For people who are not in the punishment business, this Christie case can
seem shocking, mindlessly cruel and disillusioning. It may in fact epitomize
what a young lawyer named Andrew Carlon called “The Sadistic State:” “a state
run amok. It is a state that has decided that, since its unique function is the
power to punish, it must pursue punishment as an intrinsic good, independent of
desert (or, indeed, of the other, more consequentialist aims of punishment),
transforming itself into a ‘punishment machine.’ But as we have seen, punishment
without desert reduces to sadism. We get the “sadistic state,” which wields
power, most fully realized through the infliction of pain, as an end in itself,
the human beings in its power merely means to that
that awful end.”
The Crime Of Seeming Reasonable
Because he is a bright and reasonable man, Christie became a spokesman for
the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club more than three decades ago. Because he was a
Hells Angel, policemen who never met him decided that his intelligent
reasonableness must be a criminal trick to avoid punishment.
“He’s so clean,” a law enforcement analyst complained to the Los Angeles
Times. “He keeps himself removed. He’s not supposed to be doing the
dirty business.”
Christie has been in serious legal trouble twice before. In 1987, a heroin
addict recruited by police accused Christie and another man of soliciting the
murder of a drug dealer. After a year in jail a jury found him innocent. After
the trial, one of the jurors told a reporter her opinion of the charge against
Christie. “He was set up.”
In 1998, Christie was charged with 59 separate counts for masterminding a
perceived conspiracy in which he was alleged to have sold hundreds of thousands
of prescription pills. He spent a year in jail before he pled guilty to
conspiracy to sell prescription drugs and no contest to a charge of filing a
false tax return. As is usual in federal cases, he was released as soon as he
signed his government drafted confession.
Conspiracy
Christie’s current prosecution is reminiscent of his earlier adventures with
federal cops. He is not charged with actually performing an illegal act but
rather of conspiring to perform illegal acts. Simply stated the government has
told the judge it intends to prove that Christie conspired “to interfere with
(interstate) commerce by extortion;” attempted “to interfere with commerce by
extortion;” conspired “to use fire or an explosive to damage property;” and was
part of a conspiracy that used “ fire or an explosive to damage property.”
The actual events that underlie these charges are the fire bombings of two
Ventura, California tattoo shops called Scratch the Surface and Twisted Ink.
Christie owns a tattoo shop in the same city called The Ink House so he had a
plausible motive for putting his competitors out of business. Implicit in the
government’s case is the idea that the Hells Angels is a for profit business and
that club members engage in various conspiracies to enrich and benefit one
another. To buttress this conspiracy theory the prosecution will call the
reptilian Jorge Gil-Blanco – a “motorcycle gang expert” who is available to
testify for the prosecution virtually anywhere and anytime.
In this trial, according to court documents, Gil Blanco will testify about”
the “general history of the Hells Angels; breadth as an International
organization; the Hells Angel’s reputation for violence; process for membership;
actions required of a prospect; how criminal activities and acts of violence
affect a member’s status; the role of a president of a Hells Angel chapter and
his influence upon members; the organization of the Hells Angel’s Ventura
chapter;” and his “ultimate opinion that only a Hell’s Angel member of
significant status such as defendant Christie, could have authorized the
shutting down of tattoo shops within the City of Ventura.”
The prosecution also intends to prove that Christie has instigated and led
conspiracies to drive his competitors out of business before. Although he has
never been charged, prosecutors will allege that Christie was responsible for an
arson at another Ventura tattoo parlor named Slingers a dozen years ago.
Prosecutors also will allege that Christie extorted payments from other tattoo
shops in Ventura County.
Who Says
All of these accusations are based on statements made by two men named James
David Ivans, Jr. and Jared Ostrum “Crash” Plomell.
The official narrative of the prosecution’s case goes:
“On an unknown date prior to July 6, 2007, George Christie, a high-ranking
member of the Ventura Chapter of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club,
contacted a known co-conspirator (Ivans) about damaging or completely destroying
Twisted Ink and Scratch the Surface, each a tattoo parlor in direct competition
with The Ink House a tattoo parlor owned and operated by Christie. (Ivans) then
met with another known co-conspirator (Plomell) and told him that Ivans would
pay Plomell to burn down Twisted Ink and Scratch the Surface. Plomell then met
with another known co-conspirator (“co-conspirator #3”), and together on July 6,
2007, they drove to Twisted Ink and Scratch the Surface, where they threw a lit
Molotov cocktail into each business with the intent of burning down or causing
damage to each business. Plomell and co-conspirator #3 then met with Ivans to
receive payment for their work in attempting to burn down Twisted Ink and
Scratch the Surface. For this conduct, the government charged George
Christie….”
Christie’s lawyer, W. Michael Mayock, has already raised a couple of
interesting objections to the government’s case against his client.
Interstate Proof
In a motion filed last week Mayock noted that “prior to their arrests in the
case” Ivans and Plomell exonerated themselves “and implicated Mr. Christie.
(Ivans and Plomell) also implicated Mr. Christie as the leader in these events.
(Ivans and Plomell) prior to their arrests were cooperating with the government,
as informants, conducting undercover recordings and calling in reports of
purported ‘incidents’ to various governmental agencies and continue to be
cooperating with the government against Mr. Christie, and others. In exchange
for having incriminated Mr. Christie, cooperators have all received compensation
from the government in the form of financial compensation, as well as charging
and sentencing considerations.”
Mayock reiterates a long standing rumor that has befouled the government’s
case, “that if Mr. Christie is convicted, the cooperators sentences will be
further reduced. In view of the compensation…. It has also been reported, should
the cooperators fail to testify against Mr. Christie as instructed, the
cooperators have been threatened with long term federal charges and life
sentences.”
Mayock has also raised the most obvious question about this case which is:
Even if he “directed” the firebombing of his competitors, why is George Christie
being tried in federal rather than state court? The learned council phrases the
question differently: As “whether an arson committed against a small business,
namely a tattoo parlor, that operates as a stand-alone business servicing a
local community falls within the scope of the interstate commerce element of the
arson statute charged in this Indictment…. Mr. Christie contends that the two
tattoo parlors, which are the alleged victims of the charged arsons, do not
qualify as property ‘used in’ interstate commerce or interstate
commerce-affecting activity, as required (under the law….) Accordingly, the
application of (the statute under which Christie is charged) to the tattoo
parlors in this case exceeds the authority vested in Congress under the Commerce
Clause of the Constitution…. On this basis, an arson committed against the
tattoo parlors in this case is not subject to federal prosecution.”
George Christie’s trial begins January 29.
VIDEO
http://youtu.be/BL0LCHxcTDg
