Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Mongol Nation Part Two

OFF THE WIRE
The widely misreported, entirely ridiculous Mongol Nation trial resumes Tuesday in a federal court in Santa Ana, California.
On December 13, after listening to Assistant United States Attorneys Steven Reuben Welk and Christopher Michael Brunwin and a parade of prosecution witnesses bloviate, exaggerate and lie for five weeks; and after listening to a parade of defense witnesses that included media personality Jesse Ventura (Ventura was once a Mongol named “Dirty” Jim Janos) protest that “it isn’t like that in motorcycle clubs at all;” a nine-woman, three-man jury found the turn of phrase “Mongol Nation” guilty of five racketeering acts including conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine a decade ago; the beating death of a man named Leon Huddleston in 2007, and the attempted murder of two Hells Angel prospects in 2008.
The Mongols Motorcycle Club was not on trial. “Mongol Nation” which prosecutors told the jury comprised Mongols patch holders, prospects, hang arounds and “club associates,” was on trial. Not even the prosecution’s own witnesses could agree on what a “Mongols associate” was.

Mongol Nation

The idea of putting “Mongol Nation” on trial originated with a federal district judge named Otis D. Wright II. Accusing “Mongol Nation” made the subsequent prosecution possible for technical, legal reasons. The short version is that racketeering prosecutions require a “RICO person” and a “RICO enterprise.” In this case the Mongols Motorcycle Club is the RICO enterprise and Mongol Nation is the named defendant rather than some actual person the law can put in jail.
Judge Wright eventually threw in the towel and resigned from the case. He literally threw his hands in the air and told the Mongols lawyer, Joe Yanny, “You win Mr. Yanny.” The current judge, David O. Carter eventually inherited the case and dismissed it. Welk and Brunwin appealed and a couple of years ago the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that there was sufficient distinction between the Mongols Motorcycle Club and Mongols Nation for the case to go to trial.
So it did and Mongol Nation lost. Nobody is going to jail. There is nobody to put in jail. Mongol Nation cannot be imprisoned because Mongol Nation is an idea. About the best the government can hope for is to put tangible expressions of that idea, like patches and tee-shirts, in virtual jail. And, that is what this new phase of the Mongol Nation case will be about.

Forbidden Speech

Welk, who is “chief” of the asset forfeiture section in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, and Brunwin will try to describe certain tangible assets that Mongol Nation used to further its crimes. Those assets will probably include any motorcycles the federal government is holding that have already been seized from Mongols, firearms and some vests. All the world expects Welk will try to seize ownership of the Mongols name and insignia and try to forbid the motorcycle club from using them.
For all practical purposes, the jury is being asked to consider whether the Mongols Motorcycle Club is good or bad. That’s what most motorcycle club trials boil down to: Is club “A,” “B,” or “C” good or bad? What sort of men join bad motorcycle clubs? Good men or bad men? Let’s take a vote!
Given its previous verdict, this jury seems likely to swallow whole the idea that the Mongols Motorcycle Club is “bad,” that it should not be allowed to exist, and that the government can, essentially, outlaw it by forbidding its members to wear their club insignia.
It is essentially a totalitarian idea: Some speech is allowed, some speech is forbidden and random juries decide which is which.
The forfeiture phase of this trial should be over this week. Judge Carter may then rule on the constitutionality of the jury’s verdict.



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