Names Of Hells Angels Jurors To Be Kept Secret
An anonymous jury will be picked today to hear the murder and assault case against a leader of the Spokane Hells Angels.
The selection process approved Monday by Superior Court Judge Kenneth Kato apparently is the first time in state court history that the names of jurors will be kept secret.
The judge made the decision after hearing daylong testimony from expert witnesses who detailed how Hells Angels intimidate and threaten jurors.
Deputy Prosecutor David Hearrean requested the extraordinary process, fearing the jury picked to hear evidence against Timothy Myers could be intimidated.
Names, home addresses and places of employment won’t be divulged when potential jurors are questioned.
Myers, the 42-year-old secretary of the Hells Angels, is charged with fatally shooting a member of the rival Ghost Riders motorcycle gang last December outside the Comet tavern in Hillyard.
Another associate of the Ghost Riders was wounded in the fight that investigators say borders on the verge of a biker war over the theft of club insignias or “colors.”
Myers is expected to claim that he shot in self-defense.
One expert witness, Anthony Tait, spent five years as a Hells Angel on the West Coast and now says he has a $1 million bounty on his head.
Among other accomplishments detailed in a newly released book, Tait bought a machine gun in Alaska from Hells Angels Richard “Smilin’ Rick” Fabel. He’s now president of the Spokane chapter.
Fabel, who served prison time for the illegal weapons sale in the mid-1980s, glared at Tait as he testified Monday, wearing a bulletproof vest.
Tait was escorted into court by an entourage of plainclothes security officers and sheriff’s deputies.
“Yeah, intimidation, you’re damned right, it’s a big factor with these people,” said Tait, who’s now an international consultant on outlaw biker gangs.
“The Hells Angels is not a criminal organization,” Tait said, “but an organization of criminals.”
Spokane police officer Jeff Clark, who’s also an expert on the Hells Angels, testified Myers’ Hells Angels colors were stolen before the Hillyard shooting.
One of those involved in the theft was Kenneth “Maggot” Fisette, who has been president of the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang.
“It’s their life,” Clark said of the gang insignia. “You don’t disrespect it. No one disrespects it. If you do, you pay the price.”
Two years earlier, Clark testified, assailants believed to be Hells Angels stole Fisette’s Ghost Riders colors in a break-in and assault at the Ghost Riders clubhouse in East Spokane.
Another Ghost Rider had his eyeball gouged out - a Hells Angels trademark crime - in that incident, Clark testified.
, DataTimes MEMO: The first two times the name of Timothy Myers was mentioned in the published story, his last name was misspelled as Meyers.