Hells Angels court decision only a temporary setback: expert
An expert on organized crime says the Hells Angels have little
to celebrate despite a landmark B.C. court ruling this week
that cleared three men on charges that could have labelled the
infamous motorcycle gang a criminal organization.
Author Julian Sher was reacting to a decision by B.C. Supreme
Court Judge Anne Mackenzie.
Following a landmark ruling in B.C., author Julian Sher said
authorities will soon have more opportunities to prosecute members
of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.Following a landmark ruling
in B.C., author Julian Sher said authorities will soon have
more opportunities to prosecute members of the Hells Angels
motorcycle gang.
(CBC)
On Thursday, she ruled that the three men, who had been accused
of engaging in a joint venture on behalf of a criminal organization,
were not guilty of that charge.
The decision appears to be a setback for authorities, who viewed
the trial as an important test of federal anti-gang legislation.
If the men had been found guilty, it could have given authorities
the ammunition to impose stiffer sentences and seize Hells Angels
assets.
But Sher said Thursday's ruling is only the first of many looming
court battles involving authorities and the Hells Angels.
In a bid to strike a blow against crime in B.C., police swooped
down on a Hells Angels clubhouse in east Vancouver three years
ago. It was dubbed the E-pandora raid.
David Roger Revell and Richard Andrew Rempel, alleged to be
Hells Angels associates, were among about two dozen people -
including David Francis Giles, 58, a full patch member of the
Hells Angels - who were arrested and charged by police in the
E-pandora raid.
In Thursday's widely watched decision, Mackenzie found that
Revell and Rempel were in possession of cocaine and they intended
to traffic it.
But she also ruled that the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that Giles was ever in possession of the eight kilograms
of cocaine seized in the E-Pandora raid.
Giles, Revell and Rempel had been accused of engaging in a
joint venture on behalf of a criminal organization.
But since the charges against Giles were dropped, there was
nothing to link the three to the more serious charge of working
in a joint venture on behalf of a criminal organization.
"Once the judge rules that the particular underlying crime
- in this case cocaine smuggling - does not apply, she automatically
can't rule on whether the crime was done for the purposes of
a criminal organization, because there was no crime committed,''
Sher said.
Still, Sher said authorities will have more opportunities to
prosecute members of the Hells Angels.
"Several other top members of the Hells Angels are going
to be standing trial in the coming year year,'' he said. "Those
are going to be the decisive trials,'' he said.
