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Evidence questions remain as trial set for Outlaws leader
A longtime fugitive leader of the Outlaws motorcycle gang is set to go to trial in April in Milwaukee, but after a hearing Wednesday, it's not clear how much evidence prosecutors will be able to present.
An attorney for Randy "Mad" Yager argued that a traffic stop in September 1994 was not legal and evidence found in the car should be suppressed. That evidence included the bloody vest of a murdered Hell's Angels member, who was killed in a battle at a motorcycle raceway in New York earlier that day.
Former New York patrol officer John Morrow testified Wednesday he was on duty that morning when word of the bloody fight at the Lancaster Speedway came across his radio. Two people had been killed and many more injured.
Police on the scene suggested other departments look for cars heading out of town with Midwestern license plates, Morrow said.
Morrow spotted a 1975 Oldsmobile with no front plate and a dealer's plate on the back. He followed and pulled over the car after the driver failed to use a directional when changing lanes.
During the stop, Morrow said he saw a can of mace in the car. A search revealed the bloody vest, body armor and knives.
Attorney Steven Hurley questioned where the stopped actually occurred, saying a statement by Morrow in earlier testimony contradicted his account. Morrow said the transcript had a slight but important inaccuracy in it.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Campbell said Morrow's testimony was backed by maps of the area where the stopped was done and that Morrow had reason to make the stop.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said he would issue a ruling on the evidence in February. The trial is set for the first week in April and could take two or three weeks.
Yager, 60, originally of Crown Point, Ind., was first indicted with 16 others in 1997.
On the day of the bust, more than 200 law enforcement officers moved in to arrest Yager and 16 other Outlaws at biker clubhouses and homes in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Yager was not at home, and only later did police learn he was at a Las Vegas hotel and casino but fled when he learned of the biker arrests, authorities said.
The cases against all the rest have long been resolved, but Yager became a fugitive and was put on the U.S. Marshals Service Most Wanted list. Yager was arrested in October 2014 in Mexico, where he had been using an assumed name.
Weeks after Yager appeared in court, his brother was killed in Indiana — found inside a burning house, his hands cuffed and his throat cut.
A grand jury this year indicted Yager on charges of racketeering and conspiracy that could land him in prison for life.
Yager is accused in the indictment of participating in murders, arson and bombings aimed at rival clubs in the 1990s, while prosecutors say he was a regional boss of the Outlaws. The crimes did not occur in Milwaukee, but Yager was boss of the region that included Milwaukee, a stronghold of the gang.
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