Daily Archives: May 19, 2015

Attorneys on Monday agreed to a stipulation that kept a Stanislaus County judge off the witness stand in a contempt-of-court hearing for a chief prosecutor and an investigator.

The attorneys for Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Harris and District Attorney’s Office Investigator Steve Jacobson agreed not to cross-examine Superior Court Judge Scott Steffen. On Friday, the attorneys said they wanted to question Steffen about what happened during a Jan. 8 hearing.

In exchange, Jared Beeson, a research attorney representing the court, agreed to withdraw from evidence a declaration about claims of improper conduct written by Steffen. The judge’s declaration initially was the basis for the contempt charges against Harris and Jacobson.

The incident is said to have occurred in the trial of Aleo John Pontillo, a Modesto bail bondsman acquitted of kidnapping for extortion and bail-forfeiture fraud charges Dec. 10.

Harris is accused of failing to promptly notify the court that Jacobson had improper contact with an alternate juror. Jacobson is accused of speaking to the alternate juror while the jury was deliberating in Pontillo’s trial.

Officers of the court know you don’t do it.

Defense attorney Frank Carson, about approaching a juror before a trial ends

Beeson said in court that there is still sufficient evidence to support the contempt charges based on declarations from the alternate juror, Jolinda Reddy, and Frank Carson, Pontillo’s attorney. Beeson also said Harris’ written response to the allegations and a transcript of a Jan. 8 hearing are submitted as evidence to support the charges.

In Harris’ response to allegations that Jacobson inappropriately spoke to the alternate juror, the prosecutor wrote that he told the investigator not to talk to anyone anymore about the issue until after the jury was done. Harris also explained to Jacobson that if the alternate had to be seated on the jury, they would then tell the court.

The stipulation included a statement from Beeson that Steffen never expressly ordered Jacobson not to speak to the jurors before the jury had concluded deliberation. Based on that statement, Michael Rains, Jacobson’s attorney, asked the court to dismiss the contempt charge against his client. He argued that nothing indicates Jacobson violated a court order, because there never was a court order directing the investigator not to speak to jurors.

Judge Linda McFadden denied Rains’ motion to dismiss, telling the attorney that the charge against the investigator is based on accusations of unlawful interference of the court process. “It’s the process of the court that we’re talking about here, not an order given to your client,” McFadden said.

Jurors are ordered not to talk to any witnesses during a trial. The judge said Jacobson going to the jury area to question three alternate jurors about the suspicion that they were being photographed put those people in a situation that they could violate a court order.

Reddy testified that she remembered Jacobson from when he testified in Pontillo’s trial.

Rains argued that jurors are ordered not to discuss anything about the case. He said Reddy testified that Jacobson never said anything about the case during his brief conversation with the alternate juror, only the suspected photo incident.

He also argued that Reddy testified that Jacobson never asked whether they were bothered that one of Pontillo’s supporters had photographed them in the courthouse hallway, as Carson claims.

Beeson argued that Jacobson is an experienced prosecution investigator who should have known it would be inappropriate to speak to an alternate juror before the trial had concluded. He also said asking about the suspected photographing could have been perceived by the jurors as someone in the courthouse hallway trying to intimidate them by taking their pictures.

The court’s attorney told McFadden that Jacobson’s questioning was related to the trial, was interfering with the jury process and could have harmed the integrity of the verdict.

Carson argued that the inquiry about the photo incident should have been conducted by the court through the bailiff, but that Harris and Jacobson never told the court about the allegation. “Officers of the court know you don’t do it,” Carson said about approaching a juror before the trial ends.

 

 

 

The Hells Angels are more likely to make news for suing the film “Wild Hogs” than the kind of drug-fueled bacchanalia for which they were once famous.

But Sunday’s bloody confrontation in Waco, Texas, is a jolting reminder that some motorcycle gangs are still a violent force in some parts of the country.

“This is not a bunch of doctors and dentists and lawyers riding Harleys,” said Waco police Sgt. Patrick Swanton.

The Department of Justice has identified seven motorcycle clubs that it believes are highly structured criminal enterprises, many of them allied in one form or another against the best-known gang, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

A Justice Department report classifies such organizations as outlaw motorcycle gangs, and federal law enforcement authorities are focused on their alleged drug activity and possible connections to Mexican cartels.

The Mongols

The Southern California-centered Mongols Motorcycle Club has earned a reputation for violence since taking Los Angeles area turf from the Hells Angels, according to the Justice Department.

“A majority of the Mongols membership consists of Hispanic males who live in the Los Angeles area, and many are former street gang members with a long history of using violence to settle grievances,” according to the report.

The Mongols have allied themselves with the Bandidos, Outlaws, Sons of Silence and the Pagans to compete for territory and members with the Hells Angels, the report says.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it considers the Mongols the most violent motorcycle club.

The Bandidos

The 900-member Bandidos Motorcycle Club is one of the two largest operating in the U.S., according to the Justice Department. The Bandidos are centered in the West and South.

“The Bandidos are expanding in each of these regions by forming additional chapters and allowing members from supporting clubs, known as ‘puppet’ or ‘duck’ club members,’ to join,” according to the Justice Department report.

Such members wear the colors and patches of a small local club but do the “dirty work” of the larger “mother club,” the government said. The smaller clubs can eventually become a new chapter of the larger club, in this case, the Bandidos.

The Outlaws

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club has 700 members in 86 chapters and is centered in the upper Midwest, where they compete with Hells Angels for members. Some Outlaws chapter members have been accused of murder and kidnapping, and federal authorities say they believe much of the club’s money is generated through the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine.

The Outlaws’ “support club,” the Black Pistons MC, was established as recently as 2002 but quickly expanded across the U.S. and into Europe. “The Outlaws also use the Black Pistons chapters to conduct criminal activity, especially for the transportation and distribution of drugs,” according to the federal report.

Hells Angels

Photos of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club shown here. (U.S. Department of Justice)

The best known motorcycle club may no longer be the largest. The Hells Angels has 800 members and the Justice Department says it suspects that some members are leading extortion rings, committing murders and moving drugs.

The Pagans

Primarily concerned with trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and PCP, the smaller Pagans Motorcycle Club has 200 to 250 members who operate in 11 Mid-Atlantic states, according to the Justice Department.

The Pagans are tied to criminal enterprises in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and are connected to extortion rings, arson and murder, the government says.

Sons of Silence

Centered in the Midwest, the Sons of Silence are small but have a reputation for violence, according to the Justice Department. Numbering fewer than 250, the Sons of Silence have chapters in 30 states, and are dangerous enough that the Justice Department named them to its four motorcycle clubs of greatest concern.

“[Sons of Silence] have been implicated in numerous criminal activities, including murder, assault, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, prostitution operations, money laundering, weapons trafficking, and motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft,” according to the Justice Department.

Vagos

Operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, the Vagos Motorcycle Club is active in the West and Southwest. Primarily concerned with the production and distribution of methamphetamine, Vagos members have also been charged with money laundering and insurance fraud, as well as more violent crimes, the Justice Department says.

The Cossacks

Though less is known about the Cossacks, one of the groups connected with Sunday’s violence in Waco, they have a history with the Bandidos dating to at least 2013.

On Nov. 2, 2013, a fight broke out between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside Logan’s Roadhouse in Abilene. Five men were injured. A grand jury later indicted two men on suspicion of assault. One of them was the leader of the Bandidos.

The Cossacks were not cited in the Justice Department report.