OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
Back in February, Mike Koepke, the Vice-President of the Hells Angels Arizona
Nomads charter, sent an open letter to the local Iron Brotherhood Motorcycle
Club’s Whiskey Row chapter in Prescott. Koepke’s letter began:
“I am very concerned with the recent events pertaining to the Iron
Brotherhood Motorcycle Gang. I am very displeased with the ‘bully’ nature of
said law enforcement officers. I belong to a real motorcycle club that holds
events in Yavapai County periodically. Most notably, the ‘Chino Valley Shootout
Boxing Smoker.’”
Koepke went on to invite any member of Whiskey Row chapter to go three rounds
in a boxing ring with him on March 31st. Koepke promised to “donate $1,000.00 to
a charity of their choosing. If I win, the Iron Brotherhood Motorcycle Gang will
officially disband in the state of Arizona.”
To no one’s surprise the Iron Brotherhood ignored the challenge although
every member of the club knew about it. Arizona Department of Public Safety
detectives who were investigating the Whiskey Row chapter knew about it. As it
turned out, Koepke didn’t have to thump anybody.
Mother Speaks
After the results of Arizona DPS were made public late last month, the
national Iron Brotherhood website issued the following statement on its front
page:
“The Iron Brotherhood Nation is a professional Law Enforcement Motorcycle
Club, who’s (sic) members are dedicated to our profession and our Brotherhood.
The IBMC does not condone or promote any behavior by its members that would
reflect negatively on our club or our profession as Law Enforcement Officers.
Should members of our club be involved in any incident that would put them in
bad standing with their respected Law Enforcement Agency or this club that
member will be terminated as a member of this club. While recent reports in the
Arizona news media report on a (sic) incident involving members of our club, not
all the facts surrounding this incident have been covered by the media. A number
of reports from the media include innacurate (sic) information which include
information about our members and their reported involvement in this incident.
All the while the media failed to report on the background and associations on
the other party involved in this incident. The recently released Arizona DPS
report covers this information.
“The Whiskey Row Chapter of the Iron Brotherhood Nation from this point on no
longer exist. (sic)
“Iron Brotherhood National Board”
Out Bad
The 2196 page DPS report says a Phoenix cop named Eric “Guido” Amato and an
Ajo, Arizona paramedic named Greg “Top Gun” Kaufmann assaulted Justin Stafford
of Glendale, Arizona at a club party in downtown Prescott last December so
presumably Amato and Kaufmann no longer wear a patch. The report also says that
former Prescott Valley Police Chief Bill “Tarzan” Fessler and former Yavapai
County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Bill “Mongo” Suttle obstructed justice so
presumably they are also out of the club.
The report also said that Yavapai County Sheriff’s Captain Marc “Loki”
Schmidt was “deceitful” and that his integrity was questionable. Schmidt told
detectives he never saw the fight and doubted that a fight had actually
occurred. He also said:
“…we understand that being a club that flies – flies a three piece patch
there’s always suspicion of our behavior. And we’ve always talked about that
from the time I joined the – initially joined the club. I mean when your – your
agency, um, in – in gang classes – our guys go down to gang classes – and we get
lumped into, you know, uh, outlaw motorcycle groups. So we understand that and
that’s why we try to police up and we try not to cause any problems. Um, so, um,
that would surprise me if it happened. And I would say that it’s probably a
fabrication. But, um, that’s my opinion. I don’t see anybody doing that that’s
in our club.”
It’s anybody’s guess whether Schmidt still flies a patch or not.
The Victim
The IBMC National Board’s innuendo that “the media failed to report on the
background and associations on the other party involved in this incident”
apparently refers to an incident in November 2009 when Stafford was cited for
underage drinking. At the time he was accompanied by a man named Andrew Goodall
who was arrested for having an “improvised explosive device” in his car.
The report does not state whether the “improvised explosive device” was a
homemade cherry bomb or a homemade anti-tank mine. The use of the term
“improvised explosive device” instead of, say, “homemade bomb” is apparently
intended, like virtually every other official police statement, to obfuscate the
truth and dramatically equate civilian cops with soldiers in a foreign war.
According to official reports, Fessler was there when Goodall was arrested
and Stafford was cited. Although The Aging Rebel has not previously
reported this incident it was reported in the Prescott Daily
Courier.
And, the following is buried in the very long DPS report.
“Stafford described when he was arrested in 2009 for the alcohol violation.
He had just met (Andrew Goodall) that night and used his car to take another
person home. Stafford said following the incident he saw (Goodall) one time
about a year later but did not keep in touch with him and did not want anything
to do with him after that. Stafford said he was out at the scene (of the vehicle
with the IED) for approximately ten minutes before he was taken to the PVPD.
Stafford said there were “three or four” officers who came into the PVPD to ask
him questions; some were in uniform, some were not. Stafford said he did not
recognize anyone from the IBMC as having been involved in his arrest in 2009.
Stafford said he had never encountered any of the IBMC members before.”
