Since the case is focused on the Mongols organization, no specific individuals are facing jail or prison time
A federal jury on Thursday found that the notorious Mongols Motorcycle Club is guilty of racketeering, setting up a second phase of the trial at a Santa Ana courthouse where the government will try to seize control of the organization’s trademark.
Federal prosecutors want to take possession of the trademark so they can keep members from wearing the prized patches worn on the bikers’ vests, an attempt to break the back of the Mongols.
In finding the Mongols guilty of racketeering, jurors decided that the outlaw motorcycle club itself is a criminal organization that has supported drug trafficking and encouraged vicious assaults and even murder.
Since the case is focused on the Mongols organization, no specific individuals are facing jail or prison time. A separate, earlier racketeering case targeting members of the Mongols resulted in 77 guilty pleas.
The Mongols have denied that they are a criminal enterprise, arguing that the organization itself isn’t responsible for crimes committed by individual members or in self-defense. Members found guilty of crimes have been kicked out, the clubs current leaders argue, while others were entrapped into committing crimes by law enforcement.
“They won the battle, but they did not win the war,” said David Santillan, the current president of the Mongols, said of the government after the jury verdict.
The same jury will return on Jan. 8, as the focus of the trial shifts to potential seizures from the Mongols. The most high-profile seizure the government is seeking is the club’s trademark, but prosecutors are also attempting to keep confiscated weapons and ammo, and could pursue monetary fines.
The jury will be tasked with deciding if there is a link between the government’s requested seizures and the crimes included in the racketeering conspiracy.
In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo a Mongols’ motorcycle gang member vest is displayed during a news conference in Los Angeles. (Photo by The Associated Press).(AP Photo/Ric Francis)
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is presiding over the Mongols trial, will make the final ruling on exactly what will be seized. If the judge ultimately approves the seizure of the trademark, he would also determine exactly what the government could do with it, including whether they could literally take the Mongols jackets off members backs.
The trial stems from Operation Black Rain, a multi-agency investigation in which several law enforcement agents infiltrated the Mongols.
In arguing that the motorcycle club is a criminal organization, prosecutors have outlined for jurors incidents such as the so-called 2002 River Run riot in Laughlin, Nev. that left three Hells Angels and Mongols dead, a melee at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon near Palm Springs, and attacks, some fatal, allegedly carried out by the Mongols in bars or restaurants in Hollywood, Pasadena, Merced, La Mirada, Wilmington and Riverside.
Much of the violence was tied to a bloody, decades-old rivalry between the Mongols and the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
Jurors found that the government had not proved the club was responsible for at least two of the murders and two of the attempted murders prosecutors attempted to tie to the Mongols.
Stephen Stubbs, the general counsel for the Mongols, told reporters after Thursday’s verdict that the crimes outlined by prosecutors took place under the leadership of Ruben “Doc” Cavazos, a previous Mongols president who was removed from the club before being indicted and ultimately pleading guilty to racketeering charges.
The Mongols began in Montebello in the 1970s, and are now based in West Covina.
Among those who testified in the more than monthlong trial was former Minnesota governor and retired pro wrestler Jesse Ventura, who joined the Mongols in 1973, while still on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
Ventura denied that the club was a criminal organization, instead describing it as being a crucial part of his transition from military service in Vietnam to civilian life. Prosecutors challenged Ventura with a previous, recorded interview in which Ventura said the Mongols’ leadership would tell him to leave the room when they were going to talk about illegal activity.
