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Hells Angels biker has prison sentence chopped over invasive jailhouse strip search

Jail guards suspecting Martin of keeping an unauthorized phone made him undress, bend over, and spread his buttocks to search for a hidden phone. He described it like he was raped

A photo of Hells Angels member Emery (Pit) Martin.
A photo of Hells Angels member Emery (Pit) Martin.

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A long-time member of the Hells Angels had his sentence for trafficking bulk cocaine reduced because of “reprehensible” treatment in jail, including a strip search he emotionally compared to being raped.

A long-time member of the Hells Angels had his sentence for trafficking bulk cocaine reduced because of “reprehensible” treatment in jail, including a strip search he emotionally compared to being raped.

Emery Martin, known by the nickname Pit, is a veteran of Quebec’s brutal and deadly biker war but said the horrors he witnessed inside a New Brunswick jail made him fearful, including an inmate being hogtied for hours and another whose fingers were shattered; he also had to eat his meals while sitting on a toilet.

It was the indignity of a wrongful strip search, however, that pushed his treatment over the edge, into a concern for the court.

Martin has spent about 20 of his 61 years in prison. Next month marks his 24th anniversary as a Hells Angel. He admitted he was a member of the Montreal chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club at his start in the drug ring, but switched to the Hells Angels’ New Brunswick Nomad chapter in November 2016.

He was sentenced last week for being a senior executive of a significant inter-provincial cocaine ring, and the subsequent written decision in his case reveals details of Martin’s crime and his time.

Whether or not one is a career criminal, an act of this kind undermines the very dignity of the person

Martin was one of several people arrested in 2018 in Project J-Thunderstruck, an RCMP-led investigation into high-volume, bulk cocaine trafficking from Quebec into New Brunswick.

Without him, there would have been no drugs to sell, court heard.

“His status as a member of the NB Hells Angels Nomad gave him the power to direct cocaine trafficking in the territory he controlled. The Network, without Mr. Martin’s permission, would not have been able to traffic cocaine on its territory,” Justice Denise LeBlanc wrote in her ruling.

He has been in custody since his arrest.

After lengthy pre-trial hearings, Martin was scheduled for a four-month trial, which was averted in June when he struck a plea deal.

He agreed to plead guilty to two of his five charges: conspiracy to traffic cocaine and committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal organization.

He was the facilitator between the supplier of bricks of uncut cocaine in Quebec and a group of New Brunswick traffickers, led by Marcel Friolet. Martin gave “permission” for Friolet and his colleagues to sell cocaine in the territory of northeastern New Brunswick in return for being paid a “tax” on everything they sold.

Photos of money seized in Project Thunderstruck that led to Emery Martin’s charges.
Photos of money seized in Project Thunderstruck that led to Emery Martin’s charges.

Martin didn’t need to do much work for his money.

He just gave his blessing and introduced the buyers to the seller; he kept in the loop on what they did and “took care of solving various problems related to deliveries,” court heard. They communicated using encrypted phones.

From May 2016 to the end of July 2017, the group moved approximately 96 kilos of high-quality cocaine.

On Nov. 23, 2016, police stopped and arrested the Montreal couriers. In their vehicle, officers found $215,750 in a suitcase in the trunk, the amount paid for the delivery of four kilos of cocaine, court heard.

Both sides were motivated to make Martin’s plea deal work, but it took months to finalize.

Motivating the Crown was protecting a turncoat who was in the Witness Protection Program, and other informants who helped the probe, whose identity might have been jeopardized in the disclosure of evidence.

Also, the case against Martin relied on testimony from Friolet, who was described by LeBlanc as “an informer who, from the outset, has questionable credibility.”

Motivating Martin was the prosecutors’ intent to put the Hells Angels on trial, meaning they wanted to submit evidence about the club, its role in criminal activities, and allege Martin’s membership was fundamental to his drug trafficking.

That’s always a touchy point for Hells Angels. In fact, in the end, the criminal organization Martin pleaded guilty to working with wasn’t the bikers, but the local dealers.

The plea agreement submitted by the Crown and defence asked for an eight-year sentence: seven years for the cocaine followed by another year for gangsterism.

Even though it was a joint submission, LeBlanc, of the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench in Bathurst, N.B., heard extensive evidence over how much time Martin should spend behind bars.

Courts accept that pre-trial custody, usually harder time than when in a federal prison, is usually counted at 1.5 days for every calendar day spent inside. Martin, however, said his onerous conditions inside the Dalhousie Regional Correctional Centre should count for more.

He testified of being kept in isolation with lights constantly on. There was a surveillance camera pointed at his toilet, no mirror for shaving, poor ventilation, poor medical care, and high-salt, high-fat food. He offered to pay for an orthopaedic mattress to accommodate his back pain, but was refused.

Distasteful and disturbing

Martin said he saw a fellow inmate, naked and covered in feces, had his hands handcuffed to his feet for 20 hours. He said another inmate had his fingers broken, was pepper sprayed, knocked unconscious and dragged out “like an animal.”

It was “distasteful and disturbing,” Martin said.

He was so disturbed by it he was afraid he would face the same treatment if he didn’t do everything guards told him to do, he said.

At one point, jail guards accused him of having an unauthorized cellphone after the RCMP reported him calling someone from a number not on his file.

A group of guards took Martin to the jail’s game room and, in front of cameras, made him undress, bend over, and spread his buttocks in a search for a hidden phone. He was emotional when he told LeBlanc it was like he was raped.

They didn’t find a phone. In fact, there wasn’t one to find. An investigation showed the call the RCMP monitored was made by Martin using the public phone inside the jail.

an act of this kind … has no place in any prison setting whatsoever

Eric Bujold, the jail’s director, also testified. He said the handcuffed inmate had significant mental health problems and guards offered to remove the cuffs every 15 to 20 minutes, but the inmate refused. They were removed after about 10 or 11 hours, he said.

The other inmate, who was “turbulent,” broke his own fingers in the opening in his cell door, Bujold said. He didn’t have much defence about the strip search.

LeBlanc called it “a deplorable and reprehensible act.”

“Whether or not one is a career criminal, an act of this kind undermines the very dignity of the person and has no place in any prison setting whatsoever,” she said in her ruling.

Because of the unwarranted violation, LeBlanc chopped six months off Martin’s prison sentence.

Rather than eight years, he was given seven and a half.