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Man charged with assaulting OPP officer linked to Outlaws biker club

A man charged with attacking an OPP officer during a traffic stop has links to an outlaw motorcycle club and a past conviction for assaulting a police officer, Postmedia has learned.

Ron Clause, 51, was charged with assaulting a Middlesex OPP officer last week after Strathroy police pulled over a pickup truck that they say was carrying a gun, ammunition and 27 grams of suspected methamphetamine.

Police say a motorcyclist who also stopped with the truck became aggressive with the officer before taking off down Highway 402, where an OPP officer located him. The officer used a stun gun to subdue the motorcyclist after he allegedly punched the officer in the face during a sobriety test, police said. The officer had minor injuries.

Clause, a resident of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation near Hagersville, is charged with assaulting a peace officer and failing to comply with a demand. He is being held at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre as a result of his parole being revoked and is to appear in a London court Aug. 4.

The head of the OPP’s biker enforcement unit said Clause was affiliated with the Outlaws, a motorcycle gang with chapters across the globe and a long history in Southwestern Ontario.

“I can say historically he’s been known as an Outlaw motorcycle club member,” said Det. Staff Sgt. Scott Wade, whose unit has been involved in the Strathroy investigation.

“We were involved in an assistance capacity,” he said.

A Strathroy police spokesperson said investigators are waiting for a response from the Crown attorney on charges related to items seized from the pickup truck.

Court records show Clause has been charged with assaulting a police officer at least twice in the past.

He was convicted of the crime in 1996 and sentenced to four months in jail. A separate charge of assaulting a police officer that same year was withdrawn, Cayuga courthouse records show.

A Facebook profile appearing in Clause’s name shows photos of him wearing apparel with the Outlaws logo. Only members of the club and their affiliates are permitted to wear the skull and pistons logo.

A source with knowledge of the club said Clause is a member. Postmedia has agreed not to identify the source.

An email to the Outlaws inquiring about Clause went unanswered.

Clause’s social media connections include multiple men wearing Outlaws clothing. One of them is Ryan Mark Daigneault, an alleged president of the London Outlaws chapter, who was charged with organizing a hit on a Hells Angels member three years ago. The Crown withdrew the counselling to commit murder charge against Daigneault one week before his trial.

In 2017, the Outlaws opened a London clubhouse at 1103 Brydges St., on the same block as the London police reporting centre, after years of lying low in the city, long considered the turf of the club’s rivals, the Hells Angels. The east-end clubhouse was shuttered shortly after The London Free Press reported on it.

Last month, a man whom police allege has links to the Outlaws Woodstock chapter was charged after members of the OPP’s biker enforcement unit searched a Norwich home, where investigators seized prohibited weapons, ammunition, suspected cocaine residue, counter-surveillance equipment and other electronics, police said.

Derek O’Quinn, 28, of Norwich, is charged with unauthorized possession of a weapon and possession of a substance.