Bill Morlin

State taxpayers will pay the defense costs and lost wages of a Spokane Hells Angel acquitted last week of murder and assault. Reimbursement could approach $100,000. The payback comes under a provision of a state law providing reimbursement to criminal defendants who prevail in self-defense cases.

Timothy Myers is greeted by fellow Hells Angels outside the Spokane County Courthouse on Friday. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Marks family accused of threatening witnesses. Grover Marks airs his grievances as he is helped to the U.S. Court House on Thursday. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Myers leaves court with his grandchild. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Accused murderer Timothy Myers says he was severely beaten and feared he was going to be killed before shooting two men outside a Hillyard tavern. The 42-year-old founding member of the Spokane chapter of the Hells Angels is charged with seconddegree murder and first-degree assault for the Dec. 9 shootings.

A Ghost Riders motorcycle gang member stole the patch from a rival Hells Angels leader during a Hillyard bar brawl, a Spokane woman testified Monday. Yolanda Fisette's testimony contradicts a statement she gave police four days after Ghost Rider Sean Kilgallen was fatally shot outside the Comet tavern. The 30-year-old woman, whose husband has been president of the Ghost Riders, told police in December she grabbed the Hells Angels "colors" from Timothy G. Myers.

A Hells Angel, attacked by rival Ghost Riders motorcycle gang members and left in a "bloody heap" outside a Spokane tavern, fired a gun in self-defense, a jury was told Thursday. Timothy G. Myers, secretary of the Spokane chapter of the Hells Angels, is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for shooting two men outside the Comet tavern in Hillyard on Dec. 9. Myers, 42, was assaulted and stripped of his Hells Angels colors as a reprisal by Ghost Riders and their friends, defense attorney Bevan Maxey said in his opening statement to the jury.

Copyright 1996, The Spokesman-Review The FBI issued a nationwide alert last week that warns law enforcement agencies of potential domestic terrorism if the standoff with the Montana freemen turns sour. In an April 23 bulletin to police agencies, the FBI's National Security Division included the text of a militia "war warning."

A Spokane-area militia group is being kicked out of a publicly-owned building where it has held weekly meetings for almost two years. The contract with Concerned Citizens of Washington was terminated after a security guard saw a member of the group with a gun in the county-owned Valley Senior Citizens Center on April 18. "It was a visible gun and he was wearing it," said Milt Olson, president of the senior center, who revoked the contract.

Timothy Myers is charged with fatally wounding a member of the rival Ghost Riders gang. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

The bomb that exploded outside Spokane City Hall was significantly different from two pipe bombs detonated exactly four weeks earlier in the Valley, authorities say. A timer and electronic ignition apparently detonated Monday's bomb, suggesting a more sophisticated device, sources said.

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.

FOR THE RECORD (Saturday, April 27, 1996): Correction: To clarify a story in Friday's Spokesman-Review, former coroner Graham McConnell determined that George A. Roberts, 57, died in 1992 from positional asphyxia while being restrained by police. The original cause of death was listed in autopsy reports as pulmonary edema.

Robbers who bombed a Spokane Valley bank on April 1 shouted about the FBI's standoff with the Montana freemen as they fled, investigators say. "Tell the cops to free the people of Justus or we'll be back," FBI agents say one of the robbers yelled. The FBI now believes at least four men robbed and then detonated a bomb at the U.S. Bank at Sprague and Mullan.

Because of threats and intimidation, prosecutors are asking for an anonymous jury to hear a murder case against a Hells Angels motorcycle gang member. The rare procedure of picking jurors without divulging their names has been used in the O.J. Simpson murder trial and in high-profile Mafia cases. Now, protecting jurors' identities is needed in Spokane, says Deputy Prosecutor David Hearrean.

The 78-year-old founder and leader of the Aryan Nations says he's appointing a board to select his successor. The board will decide whether to keep the white supremacy church in North Idaho or move it elsewhere, Richard Butler said Friday at the outset of the annual Aryan Youth Conference.

Federal employee Garry Heilbrun pauses for a moment while standing next to the dogwood tree planted Friday. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

A Federal Protective Police officer patrols the U.S. Court House in Spokane, which is under a "heightened state of awareness" as the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaches. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Two Spokane teenagers who continued selling crack cocaine even after a double murder on their front porch must serve more than five years in federal prison. Eric Denny, 18, faces five years and 10 months in prison, and Ganyn Matthews, 19, will serve five years and three months. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle on Wednesday gave the pair prison terms that are substantially lighter than sentences recommended by federal prosecutors.

It was either an elaborate hoax or another mysterious lead in the Unabomber case that took a team of FBI agents to the banks of the Spokane River. Agents dug up a spot on the riverbank on Tuesday after a man claiming to be the "fishing buddy" of Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski called KHQ-TV late last week.

Investigators released this photo showing the damage caused by a bomb at U.S. Bank on Monday. Photo courtesy of FBI

Robbers got away with substantially more than $50,000 from a Spokane Valley bank after detonating two potentially lethal pipe bombs. The bombs exploded Monday within minutes of each other in a branch of U.S. Bank and an office of The Spokesman-Review. A task force of 30 federal agents is investigating several possible suspects throughout the region.

1. A gunman stands inside U.S. Bank on Monday in a photo released by authorities Tuesday. U.S. Bank photo 2. Getaway vehicle. Authorities believe the bombers were traveling in this 1991 Chevrolet van. The van was stolen in Ellensburg, Wash., and abandoned Monday afternoon in the Spokane Valley. It was equipped with a television, tinted side windows and a pop-up top. The Washington license plate number is 078ENU. SOURCE: Spokane County Sheriff's Department. 3. One of the suspects in Monday's bombings and U.S. Bank robbery. 4. Langan 5. Guthrie 6. (sketch) Suspect No. 1. Race/sex: White/male. Age: Approximately late 40s to early 50s. Height: 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-3. Weight: Approximately 200 pounds. Clothing: Olive drab fatigue jacket; blue jeans; white sneakers; ski mask - may have a beard or clean shaven. 7. (sketch) Suspect No. 2. Race/sex: White/male. Age: Approximately late 20s to early 30s. Height: 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10. Weight: Approximately 150 to 160 pounds. Clothing: Olive green fatigues; black military-style boots; ski mask.

The twin bombings in the Spokane Valley on Monday resemble crimes carried out in Spokane and Seattle 12 years ago by a neo-Nazi group called The Order. On Jan. 30, 1984, two men with ties to the Aryan Nations planted what appeared to be a bomb outside the Two Swabbies, a clothing store on East Sprague. While sheriff's deputies and bomb squad technicians dismantled that device - only to learn it was a fake - Gary Lee Yarbrough and Bruce Pierce robbed a Washington Mutual bank on East Sprague of $3,600.