agingrebel.com
Four months after the fact, the Arizona Department of Public Safety finally named the Iron Brotherhood members who attacked a civilian in a Prescott bar last Christmas.
The assailants were Phoenix Police Department Community Action Officer Eric “Guido” Amato and an Ajo, Arizona ambulance service supervisor named Greg “Top Gun” Kaufmann. The victim was 23-year-old Justin Stafford of Glendale, Arizona. Stafford was intoxicated and was attacked because he asked Iron Brotherhood chapter president and Prescott Valley Police Chief Bill “Tarzan” Fessler about his vest. An Iron Brotherhood Sergeant at Arms and DPS officer named Bryce “Deuce” Bigelow told DPS investigators that Stafford also made fun of the way Fessler danced.
The names appear in a 2,196 page document dump released by the DPS yesterday. You can download and read the documents for yourself at the Prescott Daily Courier website.
More Names
Reports in the released documents indicate that Fessler and the Iron Brotherhood Whiskey Row chapter vice-president, a former Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant and Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking Commander named Bill “Mongo” Suttle, obstructed justice and made false statements to investigating officers. Suttle resigned from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office on March 17th. Fessler quit his job on March 18. The documents recommend that Amato and Kaufmann be charged with assault and disorderly conduct. The investigators also recommended that Stafford be charged with disorderly conduct.
Former Yavapai County Sheriff’s Captain Marc Schmidt, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Boan, Prescott Valley Police Corporal Jason Kaufman, Central Yavapai Fire District Captain Al Camacho, Bullhead City Police Officer Troy “Heat” Teske, Arizona Department of Economic Security Investigator Frank Mendoza, and El Mirage Police Officer Michael Borrello were all present at the assault during a drunken Christmas carousing along the One Hundred Block of South Montezuma Street in Prescott – which locals call Whiskey Row.
During the wassailing, club members displayed both patches and badges simultaneously. Multiple Iron Brotherhood members were armed and one pulled a knife during the assault on Stafford in a bar named Moctezuma’s.
The documents include a long interview with Prescott Deputy Police Chief Andy “Double Time” Reinhardt. Reinhardt told investigators he was not present for the fight and knows nothing about it. Reinhardt doesn’t seem to know much about anything at all. At one point DPS investigators Matthew Murray and Jeff Brown asked Reinhardt about his patch.
DPS – “Okay, um, is that – are you familiar with the term three-piece-patch?”
Reinhardt – “I am…I…I think what I described is probably a three-piece, I guess, I don’t know.”
Attention John Ciccone
Several documents, including a “Boan Report” and a “Suttle Report” “found several similarities between this club (the Iron Brotherhood) and what are known as outlaw motorcycle clubs, or OMG’s.”
Passages in the reports read like racketeering indictments. For example:
“Both this club and OMG’s have a national organization to which dues are paid and local outlets they both call ‘chapters.’ Both have an hierarchy, and at the chapter level, both identify a ‘president’ ‘vice president,’ ‘secretary,’ ‘treasurer’ or ‘accountant,’ and ‘sergeant at arms.’ Membership in the clubs requires an application and a period of getting to know the person, then approval by the executive board. Membership in both clubs puts stipulations on what type of motorcycle one can ride. The Hells Angels require the motorcycle to be American made and 750 cc or larger, and the Iron Brotherhood requires you ride a Harley Davidson or American made bike.”
“Both wear vests with a three piece patch on the rear that both identify or call ‘rockers.’ It is widely known in both the OMG social circles and law enforcement that motorcycle clubs who wear three piece patch are identified with or known as ‘outlaw motorcycle clubs’ It was common knowledge that the Hells Angels regulate who can wear a three piece patch through the federation of clubs. The Iron Brotherhood patches, or patch system mirrors or emulates that of OMG clubs in that the top rocker identifies the club name, the middle patch is the club’s symbol and the bottom rocker states the region or area where they are from. Most other motorcycle clubs wear only a one or two patch vest. There are some, but few clubs not identified with OMG’s that wear a three piece patch.”
“There was a Letter to the Editor posted in the Prescottnews.com site where the Vice President of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Yavapai County, Michael Trevor Koepke, made a public challenge to the Iron Brotherhood to fight him in a three minute boxing match. Koepke offers that if the Iron Brotherhood wins, the Hells Angels will donate $1000.00 to the charity of choice. If Koepke wins, the Iron Brotherhood would agree to disband in the state of Arizona.”
None of the Iron Brotherhood patch holders have yet been charged or disciplined. DPS investigators wrote “All conclusions relative to this criminal investigation will be formulated by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office upon review of the criminal case.”
The DPS refused to comment on the documents for The Associated Press.
