Julian Sher.com

VANCOUVER -- Prosecutors and police were dealt a blow Thursday when a judge threw out criminal organization charges against a member of the Hells Angels in B.C. and two associates of the notorious motorcycle gang.

After a five-month trial, David Francis Giles, a full-patch member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels, was found not guilty of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Two associates of the club -- David Roger Revell and Richard Andrew Rempel - were found guilty of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking in cocaine.

Under the law, for Mr. Giles to be found guilty of the more serious charge of dealing drugs for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization, he would first have had to have been found guilty of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie, however, found the possession case against Mr. Giles was "weak" compared to the cases against Revell and Rempel and cited "unreliable" intercepts gathered by police.

"In summary, the Crown's interpretation of the evidence is strained. The actual evidence against Giles which relates to the possession offence is weak and the intercepted discussions the Crown says relate to the offence are unreliable."

She therefore found Mr. Giles not guilty of the criminal organization charge. Revell and Rempel were also found not guilty of the criminal organization charge because the case had failed against Mr. Giles, their only link to the motorcycle club.

"It is therefore unnecessary to consider or address all the evidence called on whether the (East End Hells Angels) is a criminal organization," said the judge.

The ruling was a clear setback for the Crown and police since it was the first time a criminal organization charge had been dealt with against a Hells Angel in B.C.

"The Hells Angels are celebrating but they know that the big battles lie ahead," said Hells Angels expert Julian Sher, who was referring to two upcoming trials in B.C. dealing with the same issues.

"It's really important to understand that the judge did not rule that they're not a criminal organization."

Mr. Sher, who has written several books on the motorcycle gang, stressed that the MacKenzie ruling does not set a precedent.

"It shows how hard it always has been to prove that a member of the Hells Angels is involved in a crime as compared to the underlings."

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk said he's confident the upcoming cases will result in criminal organization convictions.

"We'll continue to bring the other charges before the courts with the aim of securing convictions on the substantive or predicate offences to allow the judge to put a ruling on the criminal organization charge."

Charges were laid after police seized eight kilograms of cocaine from a storage locker and a secret compartment in a vehicle.

The Crown's case against MR. Giles was based largely on circumstantial evidence -- including a series of intercepts of Giles speaking at home and in the East End chapter's clubhouse in Kelowna, B.C.

Prosecutors argued that the conversations proved a link between Mr. Giles and the drugs and that in the context of Giles being a full-patch member of the club, Mr. Giles was directing Revell. But the judge said she couldn't agree with the Crown's interpretation of the evidence and found that there was no evidence Mr. Giles ever handled the cocaine or that he was a party to the offence.

She also cited what she considered to be the "poor" quality of the police intercepts and the difficulty in determining what Mr. Giles actually said.

A relieved-looking Mr. Giles shook the hands of his lawyer, Richard Fowler, as he left the courtroom.

"I thought the judge did an extremely admirable job of analyzing a lot of evidence," said Mr. Fowler outside court. "I think her conclusions are very, very sound in fact and in law."

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