Hells Angels Want Their Stuff Back After Two Trials, Seek Return Of Colors, Cash Seized As Evidence

FOR THE RECORD (October 18, 1996): Prosecutors may press charges against Timothy Myers for possession of a handgun in a tavern. An Oct. 12 story about the Spokane chapter of the Hells Angels mistakenly stated a different potential charge.

After enduring two high-profile, costly trials, Hells Angels members have begun the Great Recovery.

Members of the Spokane motorcycle club want their stuff back - property seized by police in the past six months and locked away in evidence rooms.

Since April, prosecutors have twice failed to convict club members on murder and intimidation charges.

The first trial ended in acquittal; the second, last week, produced a mistrial after a judge found jurors had violated instructions on how they were to reach their verdict.

While prosecutors debate whether to mount new trials against club members, a battle has begun over Hells Angels items still in police possession.

Of all the items, Fabel said the vests and patches are the most important. Worn only by members, they represent “who we are and what we stand for,” said Fabel.

Law enforcement officials say the items are potential evidence in future trials.

City Assistant Attorney Rocco Treppiedi said the vests could be needed in a retrial of four remaining intimidation charges against Fabel, Myers, Michael Cultis and Michael Wooster.

Myers’ pistol could become evidence if prosecutors file a handgun charge against him for the tavern shooting. He could be charged as a convicted felon in possession of a gun.

And the cash - which Fabel said was needed for a business shopping trip - may get confiscated under the state’s property forfeiture laws. Fabel is the manager of a Valley motorcycle shop.

Attorney Bevan Maxey said it’s ridiculous for the city to keep items that have no value as evidence. “They’ve had their hands on that $20,000 for almost six months and they’ve made no basis for keeping it all,” said Maxey, who represented club members in both trials.

He said the seizure of the vests is an act of desperation on the part of prosecutors.

“They use the ‘colors’ (vest emblems) to scare people and whip them into a frenzy. It’s what they need to scare people into convicting these guys of crimes they didn’t commit.”

Prosecutors have also charged the 39-year-old Fabel with possession of methamphetamine seized along with the money. Deputy Prosecutor Patricia Thompson said state law allows the seizure of money if it “facilitated” the violation of drug laws.

Fabel, the club’s spokesman after moving to Spokane two years ago from Alaska, said it’s clear local law officers have started “a vendetta against us.”

“I used to smile all the time,” he said, explaining his name. “That was before I came here.”

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser said it’s not correct to say the county is zero-for-two in its prosecutions against the club.

The first trial was decided by a jury who chose to believe Myers’s version of events, rather than witnesses who said Myers did not need to kill Sean Kilgallen during the Hillyard bar fight.

“We could have been one for two if it wasn’t for the mistrial” last week, Sweetser said. A juror told Treppiedi after the mistrial that two Angels would probably have been convicted.

Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen declared a mistrial after receiving a written question from one of the jurors deliberating the intimidation charges.

The juror saw a Hells Angel riding his motorcycle past the courthouse at the end of the first night’s deliberations. The question asked whether the Angels had remained outside the courthouse as the jury discussed the case.

Eitzen declared the mistrial because the juror who asked the question discussed the sighting with others on the jury. That violated instructions to only use evidence and testimony from the trial in reaching a verdict.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IN POLICE POSESSION A 9mm automatic pistol used by Timothy Myers when he killed a man last December during a Hillyard tavern brawl. He was found innocent by jurors who ruled Myers acted in self-defense. Four motorcycle club vests, carrying the trademark emblem of the group - the words Hells Angels next to a patch of a death skull with a large angelic wing. $20,000 in cash taken from the home of club president “Smilin” Rick Fabel when police arrested him and four friends last June.