President of the Santa Barbara Hells Angels pleaded not guilty Wednesday to allegations that he brandished a firearm at a motorcyclist

President of the Santa Barbara Hells Angels pleaded not guilty Wednesday to allegations that he brandished a firearm at a motorcyclist in the Ojai Valley in January.Archie Schaffer, who is out of jail on $160,000 bail, is charged with making criminal threats, street terrorism, reckless driving and committing a crime for the benefit of the Hells Angels. He is also accused of using a firearm in the commission of a crime.Investigators say Schaffer, 35, was in a pickup truck heading north on Highway 33 at Casitas Springs on Jan. 17, when he began tailgating a group of motorcyclists. He allegedly forced one motorcycle into oncoming traffic and brandished a firearm at two other motorcyclists, according to investigators.He was arrested Jan. 30.Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Young set a preliminary hearing for April 21.“These allegations against Archie are preposterous,” Schaffer’s lawyer, Anthony Zinnanti of Santa Clarita, said in an interview.He told the judge that he wants a hearing because he plans to file a legal petition asking a judge to stop the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department from conducting a series of searches at his client’s house in Ojai, including pointing guns at young children, the attorney said.Outside the courtroom, Zinnanti accused sheriff’s deputies of misconduct by knocking down doors, frightening the family, destroying property and what he called “trophy taking” during four searches that were conducted in April 2008, twice in January and once in March.Schaffer’s father, Archie Schaffer Sr., said the children and a baby sitter were in the house when one of the search warrants was executed.
Asked for a response, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Capt. Ross Bonfiglio expressed skepticism. “I tend to doubt (the allegations),” Bonfiglio said, adding that he knows of no complaint filed against the Sheriff’s Department by anyone in connection with the case. “We get a complaint, we investigate,” he said.Zinnanti said the deputies took office equipment, including the top of a printer and a fax machine, along with a leather vest, miscellaneous papers and drawings, a Hells Angel calendar and other items. He said no guns or drugs were found at Schaffer’s residence — “nothing incriminating,” he said.“The club ain’t going to take this lying down. This is a legal war,” said Zinnanti, calling the search warrants extremely abusive.

Michael Paul Uzzell,was arrested in March after a bikie-related shooting at Blair Athol.

Michael Paul Uzzell, 49, has been released on bail by Holden Hill Magistrates Court in Adelaide.He is still facing several firearms offences and will appear in court again in June.The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions would not comment on why the attempted murder charge was dropped.Uzzell was arrested in March after a bikie-related shooting at Blair Athol.

Torture and brutality in the Bandidos Motorcycle Club murder trial.

Six gang members or associates are now on trial in Ontario Superior Court here in connection with the deaths of eight fellow Bandidos in April three years ago. All of the accused men face eight counts each of first-degree murder and all are pleading not guilty.Since the discovery of the bodies, stuffed into four vehicles abandoned on a country road southwest of London, the deaths have been widely described as execution-style killings, a term which evokes a picture of crisp if not merciful efficiency.Earlier this week, for instance,

Elgin County Crown attorney Kevin Gowdey told the jurors in his opening statement that most of the men died of gunshot wounds to the head, most delivered at close range. And a day later, jurors saw for the first time close-up photographs of the men's bloody and fatal head wounds. But what they learned yesterday was that one of the victims, Luis (Chopper) Raposo also had his right middle finger amputated and that another, John (Boxer) Muscedere, the supposed Canadian president of the Bandidos, was not only shot three times, but also suffered multiple fractured teeth and severe abrasions to both knees, the reasonable inference that he had been forced to kneel at some point.As well, another victim, 28-year-old George (Crash) Kriarkis was shot no fewer than seven times - four times in the face or head and once each in the shoulder, chest and abdomen.

Mr. Kriarkis's mother was in court yesterday when Ontario Provincial Police Constable Ross Stuart, the main forensic identification officer on the case, was describing the men's injuries as the jurors watched a slide show of pictures documenting them. She fell weeping into the arms of friends and once cried aloud, "Why?"Another victim, Frank (Bam Bam) Salerno, was shot at no fewer than nine times.Five of the shots connected - one to the bridge of his nose, another to his right cheek, another to his right ear, one to his right hand and one to the right thigh. Three more grazed his lower right leg, another grazed the top of his right hand.In total, not counting any that may have missed the mark, 33 shots were fired at the eight victims.In addition to gunshot wounds, Constable Stuart said, many of the men suffered other lacerations or abrasions, several to their wrists or hands, sometimes interpreted as wounds incurred when people try to defend themselves. Other injuries, such as the laceration to the top of Jamie (Goldberg) Flanz's head, may have been inflicted by the alleged ringleader of the plot, Wayne (Wiener) Kellestine, whom Mr. Gowdey described as having kicked one victim in the face and hit another, all the while dancing and singing bizarrely.According to the prosecutor, all the victims were members or associates of the tiny Toronto Bandidos branch called the No Surrender Crew.
With the Toronto branch on the outs with the group's head office in Texas, and also embroiled in an internal battle for control with a probationary Bandidos group in Winnipeg, the decision was made to "pull the patches" of the Toronto crew, leaving Winnipeg as the only Canadian chapter.Mr. Kellestine, who reportedly had aligned himself with the Winnipeg group, is alleged to have lured his Toronto colleagues to his farm, located just 14 kilometres from the site where the vehicles crammed with bodies were later found.
He and his five co-accused - Michael (Taz) Sandham, Dwight (Dee) Mushey and Marcello Aravena, all from Winnipeg, and Frank Mather from Toronto - allegedly donned gloves and armed themselves in preparation for the patch-pulling, with Mr. Sandham, a former police officer and soldier, allegedly hiding in the loft of the barn where the meeting was held.After a brief exchange of gunfire between Mr. Raposo and Mr. Sandham - it left the former bleeding from the neck and chest and the latter complaining his bulletproof vest had been hit - Mr. Gowdey said the rest of the Toronto Bandidos were searched and held at gunpoint."In the hours that followed," Mr. Gowdey told the jurors, the remaining men "were taken outside, unarmed, and shot one by one in their vehicles ... Not everyone [who is accused] actually shot and killed, but everyone participated and contributed ... People who deliberately help or encourage killing may be equally guilty as those who pulled the trigger."The revelations of the apparent cruelty of the men's deaths came late yesterday, and could not have contrasted more with the testimony of the morning.These early witnesses - several OPP officers who were first on the scene, a paramedic who had the unenviable task of checking the bodies for signs of life and who found instead in some the onset of rigor mortis - included a gentle woman named Mary Steele.She lives with her husband on the Stafford Line, near where the abandoned cars were found on April 8, 2006. Retired dairy farmers, the Steeles learned that there were cars on and near their property when at the breakfast table they got a call from a neighbour, an older man who every morning brought the day's newspaper over.She described this man, Forbes Oldham, as one of the retired farmers who, used to the early hours of rural life, routinely keep boredom at bay by going on "crop tours" of the area.
Eventually, the Steeles went to check out the cars themselves, albeit from a distance because, as Mrs. Steele said, "My husband and I watch CSI. We decided we weren't going to touch anything."
They phoned the police - twice, in fact - and were on the road when they heard the first officer cry that he'd found a body and learned that CSI was at their doorstep.

Cedric Baxter Smith, one of 17 full-patch members of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels, has not been heard from since May 2008

Cedric Baxter Smith, one of 17 full-patch members of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels, has not been heard from since the 2008 May long weekend.His last credit card transaction was May 21, and there has been no activity in his bank accounts or cellphone. He is presumed to have been killed, perhaps by Hells Angels associates, after Smith fell for the ruse of an undercover RCMP officer in a covert drug operation. Dubbed Project Essen, it led to the arrests of 10 gang members in 2005, including Smith and Norman Krogstad, president of the Vancouver chapter.Smith's beloved car collection, possibly worth more than $1 million, will be auctioned off in Calgary on April 24 and 25. Among them is a 1937 Cadillac Fleetwood that was used at the ceremonial opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. As befitting a Hells Angels biker, many of Smith's 11 vehicles are Al Capone-era "gangster" cars, including a black 1936 Cadillac, a dark maroon 1936 Lincoln and a dark blue 1938 Buick.Smith's vehicles will be sold along with 26 more antique autos from two other estates. The 37 vehicles represent what Car Crazy auction house owner Harold Heninger says might be "the finest collection of vintage autos ever offered for sale in Alberta."Heninger says Smith's vehicles could sell for between $50,000 and $100,000 each.
But he is uncertain what they might fetch in the current economy.
"There is no reserve. They will all be sold," he says.Heninger, whose auction service (www.carcrazy.ca) has been operating for 20 years, previously sold Smith's 1934 Pierce Arrow-- "the Bonnie and Clyde car" -- for $100,000. Another Pierce Arrow is available at the auction. Mark Smith, who was in Calgary this month, said he has no idea what happened to his brother and won't speculate. The family, he said, had no choice but to sell Cedric's cars, even though his brother cannot be declared legally dead under B.C. law until seven years after his disappearance.Cedric, who never married and had no children, did not own the property where the cars were housed and the family had to clear them out, says Mark. Cedric's three siblings say they plan to put the proceeds from the auction into an account in their brother's name and hope that one day he shows up.Mark says Cedric was a skilled auto body repairman who built his car collection for more than 30 years. The family says they do not condone his Hells Angels affiliation and were shocked to learn of his arrest in 2005 at age 55 for drug trafficking. When arrested, police found $73,000 in cash at his home.Smith was cultivated by the RCMP undercover agent for two years, beginning in 2003, who was soon buying kilos of cocaine from the senior Hells Angel member. Smith was convicted and sentenced to four years in jail. Released early on good behaviour, he had been out of jail for about year when spotted by his Hells Angels brethren. A chapter member phoned RCMP to say that Smith had met "with foul play."
Before his disappearance, Smith had taken responsibility for his crimes and knew he could not go back to selling drugs, Mark says.
Heninger says it is obvious from the condition of the vehicles that Smith was meticulous about his restoration work."He apparently took all the door locks apart, polished all the screws, and put them back together. His buddies say he was crazy about it. When he was working on a project, he'd live on nothing but Tim Hortons coffee and doughnuts until he finished. He was a bit obsessive."