Sons Of Anarchy Foolish Pronouncements

Sons of Anarchy co-star Mark Boone Junior (Bobby)

It would seem that AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong, isn’t the only person making inexcusable blunders that goes far beyond foolish.

Huh?

Let me provide some context.  

You might recall how the AOL CEO whined last week  that two “distressed babies” had cost his company a million dollars each. That pronouncement was widely criticized, especially because it seemed Armstrong (who was paid over $12M last year) was trying to shift the baby care costs onto the Internet company’s employees. Armstrong cited it as a reason AOL had decided to change, but later reinstated, its 401(k) match.  One of the “distressed babies” mothers spoke out (HERE). 

And speaking about gaffes and foolishness… we now have the Sons of Anarchy co-star Mark Boone Junior, (Bobby) taking credit for and stating that the TV show “basically saved Harley” to Susan Carpenter of The Hollywood Reporter.

“Sons” co-star Mark Boone Junior (Bobby) Rides?

By any measure, “Sons” is a disturbingly violent TV show  that includes a theme of rape, torture, brutal assaults, and bath tubs full of human excrement.  It’s about a 1% motorcycle club — which creator Kurt Sutter readily admits has always traded in “blood and guts” – with “actors,” many of which don’t know how to ride a motorcycle – now proclaiming that he (Boone Junior) and his fellow cast members are the reason that Harley-Davidson recovered from the financial collapse and economic meltdown.

Only in the make believe world of Charming, California.

Let’s get real here. Saved Harley-Davidson?  That is ridiculous!  It’s more than just a bit of a stretch and goes far beyond foolish.  It’s almost as out of touch with reality as the “distressed babies” claim.

Hey Bobby, I’ve got news for you.  Get ready, because it’s an emotional gut punch. The faux outlaw motorcycle gang drama that you co-star and “ACT” in didn’t save Harley!

However, I do wonder how Harley-Davidson management reconciles profiting off violence  as they cozy up and work to be affiliated with an uber-violent TV show.  Basically a TV gang, most of whom are governed by violent criminals.  Sure it’s an imaginary world, but seems out of step.  And, Jennifer Hoyer, (Harley-Davidson Media Relations Manager) explains it well:  “Our relationship with SOA has been mostly beneficial from our side, as we have enjoyed getting many of the cast members all to be real riders — showing them the freedom that Harley-Davidson motorcycles bring to their lives.”

Real riders!  We got the point already. 

Note: To be fair, the Harley-Davidson Foundation does a significant amount of community outreach.  For example, working with the Sojourner Family Peace Center to break the cycle of family violence in Milwaukee, Disabled Vets, Big Brothers Big Sisters, MDA and YMCA to name just a few.

In the spirit of the SOA outlaw I copied the photos from FX Networks without permission.

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Jay Dobyns

It’s a popular saying and loosely defined as life is so unfair that a person is more likely to get into some sort of trouble than be rewarded if they attempt to do a good deed.

That might be what Jay Dobyns has on his mind these days.  Who is Dobyns?  I posted an article previously on his soon to be released tell all book “No Angel” which detailed his years working undercover as an ATF Special Agent who penetrated the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC).  Dobyns was the lead agent in Operation Black Biscuit which resulted in the gathering of 1,600 pieces of evidence, the seizure of 650 guns, more than 100 explosive items including grenades, napalm and 30,000 rounds of ammunition.  Fifty people were indicted as a result of the undercover sting.  In Arizona alone, the government assembled 800 hours of bugged conversations, 92,000 phone calls and 8,500 seized documents in an effort to prove that the HAMC is a criminal enterprise. Dobyns received a top cop award by the National Association of Police Organizations.  CNN has a video snippet with more information HERE and HERE.

The news is the Arizona Republic is now reporting that Dobyns is suing the ATF for failing to protect his family from various death threats. The dispute and subsequent filing of a $4.5M claim against the ATF seems to be supported by an Inspector General’s finding late last year that the ATF has a pattern of agent neglect and failed to provide security or fully investigate a series of threats against Dobyns and his family.  If these facts hold up it’s a sad testimony on the ATF as he put a lot on the line and deserves better!   On his own dime Dobyns has moved himself and family several times to elude people who’ve threatened to kill him or harm his family. He filed a claim with the ATF for the emotional stress and financial burden he’s endured.

It would be easy to speculate that when the press spotlight faded on “Biscuit” the ATF somehow didn’t have the motivation, funds or struggled to deal with the complexity of undercover work and how to best manage agents when they’re back in the LE world.  However in 2004 the agency received indefinite annual funding for the establishment of the Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) which was designed to reduce homicides and other firearm-related violent crimes in 20 cities. In 2006, the VCIT/ATF received $20M to identify, target and arrest the “worst-of-the-worst” offenders.  Is funding really an issue?

I’ll follow the Dobyns situation and provide updates as appropriate.

UPDATE: February 5, 2009 – Good interview and summary written by Leo W. Banks of the Tucson Weekly.

Photo courtesy Jay Dobyns and AZ Republic.

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No Angel

There are many ways to talk about the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC); as a reporter illuminating the record, as an advocate praising their actions or as an undercover agent providing clear insight into the mind of a biker enterprise.  Sure, not everyone agrees with the mission and tactics of law enforcement just like not everyone is going to praise OMG. It’s the way of the world.

Much thanks to G. Walker (Det. Retired) who provided me a preview of the book “No Angel” by Jay Dobyns and Nils Johnson-Shelton.  I wanted to pass this along because as the preview suggests, this is going to be one great read!

“No Angel – My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels”

ATF Special Agent Jay Dobyns and Nils Johnson-Shelton

(Crown Publishers, 2009)

      ATF Special Agent Jay Dobyns sat with his back to me.  He was furiously typing on a well-used keyboard.  He wore a white wife-beater t-shirt and both his exposed arms were fully “sleeved”, or covered with tattoo work.  Pulled down low over his bald skull was a dirty blue knit cap.  I quietly watched him as his fingers danced over the keyboard, wondering how no one else at the outlaw motorcycle gang conference I was attending hadn’t spotted this brazen infiltrator who was even now probably sending license plate numbers and other handy information to whichever 1%er club he belonged to.

      It had happened before.  Two full patch members of the Vagos MC had openly walked into a past OMG conference presentation, the room filled with cops and investigators.  The Vagos went unnoticed for several minutes before being identified and ushered out of the hotel.

      I found the conference coordinator and shared my concern about the tough-looking b*astard using the business room Internet service.  “Oh,” he replied, “that’s just Jay…Jay Dobyns.  He’s our ATF guest speaker on the Hells Angels.”

      Well f*ck me…

      Later in the conference I listened to Dobyns speak about his role in Operation Black Biscuit, a two-year ATF undercover operation against the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Arizona.  Pacing back and forth in front of a table featuring some of the OMG props he and his ATF team of UC bikers, known as the “Solo Angels”, had used to gain introduction and then admittance into the inner sanctum of the HAMC, Jay’s rapid-fire account of the deepest UC thrust into the heart of the Angels’ organization came alive.

      Today Jay Dobyns, in conjunction with co-author Nils Johnson-Shelton, has written the true story of both his greatest professional and near personally ruinous achievement – riding shoulder to shoulder with the Hells Angels to include the ultimate Angel himself, Ralph “Sonny” Barger.  It is a book the Red & White won’t appreciate; however in all fairness, it’s also a book some in the ATF will hate with equal passion.

      Whether brokering deals for illegal automatic weapons, taking on murder for hire contracts, arming up to do battle with the rival Banditos on behalf of the “81”, or riding 18″ off the rear wheel of an Angel juggernaut Jay Dobyns shoves us down the slippery steep steps that lead to the glowing red inferno that is the world of the Hells Angels.

      Finely woven throughout the book is the agent’s personal decent into the madness of both the investigation and his increasing loss of identity as a human being.  He writes “As I said, dark days.  I turned to the only things I had left: God, friend, and family…It wasn’t my job, it wasn’t ATF, and it wasn’t the Hells Angels that had transformed me into the worst version of myself.  It was I alone who had done that.”

      There have been several previous books on the HAMC and Operation Black Biscuit but none comes close to the knife-edge reality and factual accuracy of Jay’s memoir.  Of the Hells Angels he observes “I realized in that single moment that the brotherhood the Hells Angels claimed to be part of was nothing more than a support group for misunderstood loners held together by hate and money…I’d thought I was the one infiltrating them.  I had it backwards.  They were the ones who had infiltrated me.”

      In mid-2003 Operation Black Biscuit was brought to closure in a series of search warrants and arrests.  The case, however, was gutted by squabbles among prosecutors and the decision makers at the ATF and by 2006 “Black Biscuit” looked more like Brier Rabbit’s badass tar baby.  Earlier, in 2004, the Angels put a contract on Dobyns’ head.  In 2008 his home mysteriously caught on fire and while no one was injured the implications were obvious to the man once draped with the Angel’s coveted Deathhead for “killing” a rival Mongol down Mexico way, an elaborate mock murder that brought Dobyns to the goal he’d always thought he wanted – to become a fully patched Hells Angel as an undercover ATF agent.

      You can advance order your copy of “No Angel” through Amazon.com. The book will be released this February.  Warning! Once you’ve opened its cover and entered the world of Special Agent Jay “Bird” Dobyns there’s no putting it down.  This is one 5-star weekend’s reading about the man who dared enter the innermost sanctuaries of the Hells Angels and returned with his soul singed but intact.

More information available on Jay Dobyns web site.  Book pre-order information from Amazon.

Previous posts on 1%er bikers (1, 2, 3, 4).

UPDATE: February 5, 2009 – Good interview and summary written by Leo W. Banks of the Tucson Weekly.

Book cover photo used with permission.

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Operation Black Rain Nets Oregon Mongols

It looks like a new “chapter” is about to be written for Ruben “Doc” Cavazos (former Mongol Motorcycle “Club” President).  Cavazos wrote a memoir titled “Honor Few, Fear None: The Life and Times of a Mongol” published just this past June by HarperCollins.  Cavazos was a CAT scan technician at the University of Southern California Medical Center by trade, but many knew feared him as Doc, the International President of the Mongols.

The press wires are flooded today with reports about massive raids and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives  (ATF) (press rel. HERE) infiltrating the Mongols MC after early morning arrests.  L.A. Times reports that ATF agents served more than 160 search warrants and 110 federal arrest warrants as part of a three-year, undercover investigation dubbed “Operation Black Rain”.  Most of the arrests occurred in California where over a 1000 heavily armed federal agents performed sweeps in the San Gabriel Valley.   Reports from Nevada (Reno), Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio who were part of the take down are starting to filter in.  In Nevada they arrested 7 of 11 members.  In Colorado, 10 of the 11 members were arrested along with several other people mixed up drug trafficking charges. Nothing as of yet out of Oregon press. In Oregon authorities made no arrest, but did issue several search warrants.

I’ve written previously about motorcycle “clubs” and the Mongols in the Northwest HERE, HERE and HERE.

Interestingly the ATF used multiple undercover agents who were highly experience in deep cover.  According to Tom Mangan of the ATF;

“They were so experienced… they became full-patch members of the Mongols, which is an outlawed motorcycle gang. They were living and breathing day to day with those guys”.  Mangan went on to say that four undercover women ATF agents were involved in the operation as biker girlfriends to help legitimize the operation.

One of the more important parts of this action isn’t the large number of people taken down or how ATF achieved such deep cover inside the operation… it’s the move by the government to seize the intellectual property of a ‘club.’  Of course all the RICO laws apply, but the U.S. Attorney, Thomas O’Brien is seeking the ability for the government to “own” the IP…that would mean they own the design, the trademarks, who has access to patch usage etc., and have the ability to then have LEO stop any member wearing the Mongol “patch” and could literally take the colors from anyone in the furture.  That could essentially shut them down…at least with these colors dating back to the 1970’s.

Lastly there were news references to the Mongols MC recruiting Hispanic (non-motorcycle riding) street gangs into the club which was creating a rif.  This is somewhat similar to the many reports coming out of Denmark/Copenhagen where the AK-81 (HAMC support group) has increased the armed conflict with immigrant gangs over territory.  Sean Royce has detailed a great deal of this activity since at one time the apartment he lived in looked directly at the HAMC club house.  The point being it’s not just a U.S. issue.

Again these are allegations by LE at this point – we do have presumed innocence in the U.S. – I’ll follow details and update the post with Northwest related news as appropriate. 

UPDATE: October 22, 2008 – KPTV/Fox reported that northwest homes raided yesterday were in Turner, St. Helens, Vancouver and Milwaukie.  Video HERE.  Police didn’t arrest anyone in Oregon or Washington but investigators said they confiscated 18 firearms, about two pounds of marijuana and a computer.

UPDATE: October 23, 2008 – AP reporting that U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper granted an injunction that prohibits Mongols “club” members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling or distributing the Mongols logo.  That is unprecedented court action!  Full 177-page federal grand jury indictment located HERE (.pdf). Courtesy of InsideSoCal.

UPDATE: October 9, 2009  —  Under RICO, the U.S. Government tried to strip the Mongols MC of their logo, and make it the property of the government. After getting a preliminary ruling allowing them to do so, the Feds have been going into private property of American citizens to confiscate patches, including by some reports breaking into cars and homes to do so.  Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled last month that a) the government can’t take the trademark, and b) even if they could, they have no right to go around confiscating patches or other items containing the mark from private citizens who are not under indictment.  And, even if the Court were to assume that the collective membership mark is subject to forfeiture, the Court found no statutory authority to seize property bearing the mark from third parties…. only defendants’ interests in the RICO enterprise and the proceeds from their racketeering activity are subject to forfeiture.  The net of all this is the Mongols MC get to keep their patch, and the Feds have to stop making searches and seizures on the basis of merely possessing it.  The .pdf of the ruling is HERE.

Cover artwork courtesy of HarperCollins web site.

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Outlaw Motorcycle Gamer

Ride To Hell Game

I smell another law suit. 

Just as HBO is trying to get 1% off the ground despite a lawsuit launched by Hell’s Angels leader Sonny Barger – that litigation has yet to slow down Deep Silver (a division of Koch Media GmbH, Austria) from moving forward on the Ride to Hell video game.

The yet to be released game is based on a certain unnamed motorcycle club, headquartered (let’s say) in Oakland, and running illegal operations (let’s say) in California’s central valley….it’s an outlaw motorcycle gang mash-up in a “Grand-Theft-Auto” (GTA)-like open-world.  Cool!  The Ride to Hell is all about a ’60s bike culture in the American West with an objective to make a game that reflects a mood and feeling of the era – hence the Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll.  According to the dev team they took a lot of inspiration from Hunter S. Thompson’s classic book ‘Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs‘.

Game Screen Shot

As the media continues to make OMG the “darlings” of entertainment, the Ride to Hell is certainly going to be a game with a mature rating. 

I’m sure the developer could care less if a thrilling gang banger motorcycle club/game will bring class, culture and dignity back to America.  It’s business and OMG are a money makeing opportunity these days.

Photo and screen shots courtesy of Deep Silver and Videogamer.

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Laughlin River Run Fugitive Turns Self In

Following up on my previous Laughlin River Run post. 

You may recall that forty-two members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) were indicted on federal racketeering and firearms charges from the confrontation between Hells Angels and Mongols members at Harrah’s Casino in Laughlin, NV, on April 27, 2002.  The gun battle left three people dead and a total of nine guns and sixty-five knives were recovered at the scene.

After six years Frederick Donahue of Rodeo, Ca. who vanished after indictments were handed down turned himself in and appeared last Friday in a Las Vegas court.   His trial is scheduled for Sept. 8^th.  Donahue was not released from custody as the judge felt he was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk.

Jorrg Maykopf of Germany remains the only fugitive.

UPDATED: November 21, 2008 – Frederick Donahue pleaded guilty to violent crime in aid of racketeering and is expected to be sentenced to no more than 5 years in prison.

UPDATED: March 10, 2009 — Las Vegas Review Journal reports the last of the Hells Angels who faced federal charges in the 2002 Laughlin River Run casino shootout was sentenced.  Frederick Donahue (34) was a fugitive for five years before surrendering in Las Vegas in July 2008.  He is the seventh Hells Angels member sentenced in the fatal Harrah’s casino shootout during the motorcycle rally and will serve 30 months in federal prison.

Photo courtesy of Mylife of Crime blog.

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Mongol’s Travel Oregon Legal System

Welcome to Oregon — from the rugged seacoast, to the high mountain passes of the Cascades and everything in between including the Judicial Branch.  Oregon’s beauty is here for all to enjoy.

In April, five months after the first chapter of the outlaw Mongols Motorcycle Club opened in Oregon, the Eugene police arrested three members of the club on felony charges, accusing them of trying to run a pair of investigators off the road during a interstate confrontation.  The Mongols were Justin J. “Mooch” DeLoretto; Nathan A. Cassidy; and Matthew A. Weiss.  They were held on charges of second-degree attempted assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping.  DeLoretto is credited with setting up the Oregon chapters of the club and is identifiable with a “Mongols” tattoo on the back of his head and referenced here in this post.

Oregonian reporter Bryan Denson provides a lot more details, but the quick download is DeLoretto followed two men in a SUV that turned onto his driveway in rural Turner, OR. He was driving a pickup and didn’t realize they were police in a government issue Ford Explorer and followed them into Salem, where the SUV stopped briefly outside a house that once was a Gypsy Joker clubhouse. DeLoretto then followed the SUV down I-5, phoning other Mongols and their associates to join him in the chase.  I’m not going to speculate as to why they wanted to get together and chat…

As the legal wagon wheel turns in Oregon, the Lane County jury acquitted DeLoretto of 8 felony charges, but did find him guilty of misdemeanors last week.  Weiss previously pleaded guilty to coercion and drew a 30-day jail term. And Cassidy, drew 90 days for reckless driving and unlawful use of a weapon (his vehicle). Both were banned from associating with the Mongols.  DeLoretto is fighting this no-association order and trying to protect his free-association rights.  If the state successfully demonizes his actions and the no-association order holds up — will he be in parole violation when visiting his brother?   As it turns out DeLoretto’s has a twin brother (Jeremy) who is filling in as acting president of Mongols Oregon chapters.

I don’t condone this or any interstate chase, but I’m thinking the state is a bit hyper-sensitive about anyone associating with the Oregon Mongols.  Maybe I have it all wrong?

UPDATED All UPDATES BELOW ON — April 6, 2017

UPDATE: June 20, 2008 — Accused of a litany of felony and misdemeanor crimes, Justin “Mooch” DeLoretto, (27), took his case to trial.  A Lane County jury found him guilty of reckless driving and other misdemeanor charges from the April 23 incident in which he was accused of trying to run two biker-gang investigators off Interstate 5 during rush hour. The jury acquitted DeLoretto of eight felony charges, including conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping.  Circuit Judge Debra Vogt sentenced the president of Oregon’s Mongols Motorcycle Club to a year in jail and ordered him not to associate with other Mongols — including his twin brother Jeremy, who was at the time acting MMC President — or any outlaw biker gangs.  The judge ordered Mr. DeLoretto, to serve six months for each of two counts of menacing. She also suspended his driver’s license and ordered him to serve five years of probation in which he can neither associate with the Mongols nor wear their insignia.

UPDATE: June 24, 2008 — One day after Lane County Circuit Judge Debra Vogt sentenced Justin “Mooch” DeLoretto to a year in jail, he was released to make room for more serious criminals.  The Mongols Oregon Chapters president remained in jail before and during his trial which had his bail set very high.  He served 62 days  and was released because of jail overcrowding.

UPDATED: June 25, 2008 — More HERE, but DeLoretto was sentenced Monday (23rd) to one year in jail on two counts of menacing (misdemeanor).  The real kicker is that the DA influenced the judge who order DeLoretto not to associate with the Mongols or wear their insignia for 5 years.  Essentially striking down his constitutional right of freedom to associate.  He was processed into Lane County jail after sentencing and then promptly released 24 hours later due to jail overcrowding!  In total, DeLoretto served 62 days in Lane County jail — 61 of those while waiting trial and unable to post a very high bail.

UPDATE: September 30, 2008 – the Oregonian reported that Justin “Mooch” DeLoretto, the founder of the Mongols Motorcycle Club‘s Oregon chapters, who was ordered not to associate with the organization after a June conviction for menacing a pair of outlaw biker investigators, has left secretly to California.  According to Detective Dave Burroughs there will be a warrant for his arrest.  Mr. DeLoretto, joined the San Diego Mongols chapter and went to work in a tattoo parlor owned by a member of the motorcycle club.

UPDATE: October 2008 — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided all people, places and things Mongol in October and they raided that tattoo parlor. DeLoretto was detained and investigated. And, so Lane County, Oregon learned that he had violated his probation by leaving the state. Oregon issued a warrant for his arrest and asked him to please return to account for his misdeeds.

UPDATE: January 2009 — Justin “Mooch” DeLoretto, turned himself into the Lane County Jail again.  He was being held on $50,000 bail, but according to Lane County Sheriff Captain Doug Hooley commented to the Eugene Register-Guard, that there was nothing with his risk assessment score that keeps him from getting out.  He was eligible for release later that day.

UPDATE: April 4, 2017 — According to Oregonian news reports, Mr. DeLoretto is a George Fox University graduate student, who is required to complete an internship at a social service agency to obtain a master’s degree in social work.  He started an internship a year ago at the Oregon Youth Authority and would of course use what he learned to work with gang-affected youth in the criminal justice system when he completed his studies.  But, four months later, the state agency ended his internship after learning he was a founding and member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club.

At any rate, as of this week Mr. DeLoretto has filed a federal lawsuit against the Oregon Youth Authority, claiming his internship was terminated solely because of his club “membership” which violated his constitutional rights of free speech and due process.  DeLoretto, (now 35), is seeking undetermined monetary damages for the loss of the internship and punitive damages.

History — Justin “Mooch” DeLoretto was a founding member and President of the Mongols Motorcycle Club in Oregon. The Mongols established chapters in Portland, Eugene, Medford and Bend in 2008 and there were reports the club was determined to provoke virtually every other motorcycle club in the country.  It should be noted that for many years, the best known motorcycle club in Oregon was/is the Gypsy Jokers Motorcycle Club. The Mongols and the Gypsy Jokers both wear a black and white patch and do not attend each other’s “gatherings.”  In addition, the Oregon Mongols did not appear to be particularly close with either the Free Souls Motorcycle Club or the Outsiders MC. Both of those organizations predate the Mongols arrival in Oregon.

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