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News from Hells Angels MC Baltimore
| Headline: Seattle cop charged in motorcycle bar shooting |
| Thursday - 08/28/2008 |
| Referrer: KOMONEWS.com |
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STURGIS, S.D. - Criminal charges were filed against an off-duty Seattle police officer accused of shooting and injuring a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang during a barroom fight in South Dakota earlier this month.
Seattle police officer Ronald Smith, 43, was charged with aggravated assault, perjury and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
A second Seattle police officer who was present at the incident, Dennis McCoy, 59, also was charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
And an aggravated assault charge was filed against Joseph McGuire, 33, of Imperial Beach, Calif., a Hells Angels member who was fighting with Smith at the Loud American Roadhouse in Sturgis, S.D., in the early morning hours of Aug. 9.
The barroom fight took place during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Smith and McCoy were attending the rally as a member of the Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club, which has a number of law enforcement officers and firefighters in its ranks.
The charges were filed Wednesday by Meade County officials following a grand jury hearing. The grand jury took testimony and evidence from 35 witnesses.
"The grand jury must've decided that Mr. Smith, having taken an oath to testify truly, in a state proceeding, stated intentionally and contrary to the oath, a material matter which he knew to be false," Meade County State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal wrote in an e-mail to reporters.
Three other members of the Iron Pigs who were in Sturgis also were charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. They are Scott Lazalde, 38, of Bellingham; James Rector, 44, of Ferndale; and Erik Pingel, 35, of Aurora, Colo.
If convicted of all charges against them, Smith and McGuire face the possibility of several years in prison and fines.
Aggravated assault carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine; perjury carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine; and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit carries a maximum sentence of one year in the county jail and a $2,000 fine.
An alternative lesser charges of simple assault also was filed against Smith and McGuire, and an alternative lesser charge of failure to abide by a permit of a reciprocal state was filed against all six.
No court dates have yet been set for a trial or hearings.
The Seattle Police Department is conducting its own investigation of the shooting. Smith, McCoy and three other Seattle police officers who were present at the Sturgis incident have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Records show that Smith has been disciplined twice before by the department - once for taunting fans at a football game and another time for allegedly threatening to shoot a restaurant manager who had asked him to leave.
Court records also show that Smith had clashed with the Hells Angels before. In 2005, he pressed misdemeanor charges against the owner of a Seattle motorcycle shop, Anthony James Magnesi, for threatening him over the telephone.
But the charges were dropped after Magnesi and his attorney, Paul Bernstein, played a recording of the call for city prosecutors. On the tape, Smith called Magnesi a "dirtbag," told him that being a member of the Hells Angels is a crime - which it's not - and said, "You better watch your back," Bernstein said Thursday.
The biker had called Smith after learning through friends that Smith had been asking about him. Magnesi was under no criminal investigation at the time, and had simply called the detective to offer to speak with him, Bernstein said.
"The detective just went berserk, making all sorts of threats and being very angry," said Bernstein, a former city and county prosecutor in Seattle. "The detective, he's doing this intimidating, 'You're a dirtbag Anthony, don't be calling me.' It's the stuff you see and hear in the movies, but when it's real, it's chilling." |
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