Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Columbia, South Carolina - The Rock Hill Informants

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
The RICO case against members and associates of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Columbia, South Carolina is Orwellian. The post-arrest, pretrial trap the prosecution built and baited for the lead defendant in the Case, Daniel Eugene “Diamond Dan” Bifield, proves that. O’Brien (first name redacted for reasons of state security) would have been proud.
Dan Bifield, who was the principal target of simultaneous federal investigations in North and South Carolina, pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy on January 3. He confessed his guilt, in his own words, to “help Lisa.” Bifield, who maintains he was entrapped and lied about, explained why he agreed to plead guilty.

What Dan Bifield Thought
“I’m taking a plea deal,” he wrote. “I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing it for my wife Lisa.”
“They have offered my wife 14 years to plead guilty and if she goes to trial and gets found guilty they’ll ask for the 20 years. Her lawyer, family and friends are telling her to take the deal and not go to trial. Lisa is so afraid and worried about not seeing or being with her 14-year-old daughter! I feel so bad for her and I am so worried about her. Being the man I am and her husband I have no choice but to help her.
“So I am pleading guilty to conspiracy to RICO and I will receive 20 years. They will drop all charges against my wife except for one gun charge which she will plead guilty to and be sentenced to five years. But, she should be home in about three years or maybe less if the judge decides! I really didn’t like the deal because I wanted her to go home with no more time or very little time. But this is a one time deal only and they gave me a week to decide. It’s more like extortion than a plea deal!
“I told the lawyers I wanted to see and talk to my wife before I did anything so they set up a visit for us on Thursday (December 27, 2012). My lawyers were there, the prosecutors, my wife and her lawyer. I asked everybody to leave the room so I could talk to Lisa. They left one person to watch us.
“I asked Lisa what she wanted to do. She said ‘Please take the deal so I can go home to my daughter again.’ She said, ‘I am so scared to go to trial and that we’ll lose!’ She said, ‘I’ll always love you and when I come home I’ll come see you and take care of you.’
“So I kissed her and I signed the plea agreement.”

Justice In Hell
Lisa Bifield, Dan Bifield’s wife, had already helped herself. She made a secret deal with the inquisitors supervising the case last July. The deal, simply stated was, “Take him, not me. I promise I’ll give you anything you want.”
Dan Bifield found out last Friday. Friends described him as “surprised.” Reliable sources have said his lawyers were also surprised.
The prosecutors – starting with United States Attorney William N. Nettles – whose jobs are to seek justice and truth on behalf of all the people and who are all officially presumed to be truthful in the course of their duties, turn out to be a cabal of lying sons of bitches. An informed source said that it is easy to underestimate “to what extent Lisa, her attorney, and the Feds went to hide her deal and that she was cooperating They all lied to Dan and his attorneys to pressure Dan to plea. He thought he was helping Lisa and her deal was already made. They all lied to Dan and his attorney’s to get him to plead.”
Another source said that Mrs. Bifield may be as immoral as a federal prosecutor. “I think she flipped because she cares about only one person…herself.” Whatever her motivations are, her cooperation was essential to the production of a superseding indictment last September.
There are strong indications that three other defendants in the case may also be cooperating with prosecutors. It is at least possible that these defendants are also victims of prosecutorial psychopathy. They may or may not have been blackmailed or duped into testifying. Whatever they do or don’t say, they did not make the case.
The case against Dan and Lisa Bifield and 18 other defendants was made by a small cadre of five informants who were paid to find what prosecutors wanted them to find. The names of all five are still officially secret. They are all identified in legally obtained documents as Confidential Human Sources. Their names, and a taste of official statements about their parts in the investigation follow.

CHS-1
The investigation began with a tip from Confidential Human Source Number 1. CHS-1 was Rodger ‘Screwy’ Totherow, the manager of a Rock Hill, South Carolina nightclub.
“CHS-1 stated “in December 2009 he sold an ‘8-ball’ of cocaine to Bifield. CHS-1 began working as a confidential source for the FBI in October 2010 and continued cooperating until he was deactivated as a source in December 2010.”
“CHS-1’s primary motivation was financial gain. However, CHS-1 first began working as a source to receive law enforcement assistance with gun and drug charges. CHS-1 confirmed Bifield’s leadership….”

CHS-2
“CHS-2 (Marty ‘Cowboy’ Deloach) began working as a confidential source for the FBI in March 2011. CHS-2’s primary motivations have been financial gain and the betterment of the community.”

CHS-3
“In March 2011 CHS-3 (Joseph Dilulio) was interviewed. CHS-3 knows Bifield and other HAs….”
“CHS-3 advised that Dan Bifield, Bruce Long and Jason Fogle were selling what CHS-3 believed was stolen property (gold) to him during the previous two or three months.”
“CHS-3 borrowed $10,000 through Bifield and Long. Bifield demanded that CHS-3 pay $500 in interest every week.”
“CHS-3 advised that Bifield would meet various people at CHS-3’s store and pass out envelopes with money in them. Bifield told CHS-3 that he was sellin ‘8-balls.’
“During a January 5, 2012 meeting, CHS-3 arranged to buy 8 ounces of “clear” (which Agent Mahoney explained is code for methamphetamine) for $16,000.”
“…in a recorded meeting, CHS-3 paid Oiler $36,000 in advance for a kilogram of cocaine.”

CHS-4
“In April 2011 CHS-4, (Anthony Lang acting with his girlfriend Brandy Mitchum) began working as a confidential source for the FBI and continued until May 2011.”
“CHS-4’s primary motivation has been financial gain, however he first began working as a source to receive law enforcement assistance with state larceny charges.”
“CHS-4 was made aware that he would be required to testify when he purchased contraband under the direction of agents.”
“CHS-4’s girlfriend told Bifield that CHS-4 has stolen electronics from cars in Rock Hill.”
“Bifield told CHS-4 that he wanted him to steal electronics for him. Bifield said he would pay CHS-4 with stolen jewelry.”
“CHS-4 said Bifield asked him about transporting a big load of meth.”
“CHS-4, provided information that Kerry Chitwood of the Southern Gentlemen purchased cocaine from someone named Carlos. Although CHS-4 did not know Carlos’s last name, he did know that Carlos owned a business named Hi-Tech Stucco and that Carlos’s workers delivered cocaine while driving Hi-Tech Stucco work trucks. CHS-4 also revealed that Carlos’s employees had transported methamphetamine in a Hi-Tech Stucco work truck to Chitwood at the Southern Gentlemen clubhouse.”
“The information provided by CHS-4 supported probable Cause.”
“CHS-4 was not an anonymous tipster but an individual identified by officers as a potential trial witness. CHS-4 provided information about Kerry Chitwood despite his fear of motorcycle gangs. The willingness of CHS-4 to provide this information and potentially serve as a witness also supports the credibility of his statements; when CHS-4 does testify at trial, his identity will be revealed to the defendants. It is less likely that an informant will provide false information about individuals whom the informant fears when the informant knows that his identity may have to be disclosed to those individuals.”
“Materials concerning this individual shall be produced by the Government to defense counsel five (5) business days prior to the individual being called as a witness in the trial of this matter.”