SEVEN SENTENCED IN AMISH-PAGANS DRUG CONSPIRACY

Seven conspirators in a cocaine and methamphetamine ring that featured
the odd coupling of the Pagans motorcycle club and Lancaster County's
Amish community were sentenced yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer meted out sentences that
ranged from six months of home confinement to seven years in prison,
with most of those involved in the drug plot getting jail terms of
four to five years.

Still to be sentenced are the two Amish men who sold cocaine to other
Amish youths at Lancaster County hoedowns. Abner Stoltzfus, 25, and
Abner King Stoltzfus, 24, both of Gap, Pa., and unrelated, are
scheduled for sentencing today. The drug conspiracy's identified
ringleader, Emory Edward Reed, 48, of Millersville, Pa., is also
awaiting sentencing. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Dominguez
said Reed, who was a leader in the Pagans' Chester County chapter, was
cooperating in an ongoing investigation. Ten people were indicted in
June 1998 in the drug conspiracy that operated in Chester and
Lancaster Counties from 1992 to 1997, and all have pleaded guilty in
the last year. Most of those sentenced yesterday were either Pagans
members or Pagans hang-arounds, people who associated with club
members and were sometimes considered for full membership.

The stiffest sentence of 84 months, nearly three years more than
prosecutors recommended, was handed to Lawrence Mellot, 34, of Frazer,
who was part of a group of four men who admitted distributing
methamphetamine and/or cocaine at bars in Chester County. Prosecutors
singled out Mellot, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, for
making terroristic threats to his estranged wife and riding a
Harley-Davidson with a suspended license while released on bail.
Dominguez said that Mellot had been taped telling his wife that she
"better get a gun." Mellot's attorney, David Huffman, argued that the
allegations concerning the threat had not been proven and should not
have been a factor in Newcomer's sentencing. Newcomer said that
federal sentencing guidelines for Mellot were in the 92- to 115-month
range and that the 84-month sentence required no explanation.

Members of the drug conspiracy who dealt primarily in bars were James Boyd,
34, of Downingtown, who was sentenced to 48 months in prison; Robert
Reeder, 35, of Coatesville, who received 60 months; and Russell
Samuels, 48, of Blue Ball, Pa., who was sentenced to 48 months. The
government said that any credit Reeder could have been given for
cooperating with investigators was offset by the fact that he told
Pagans leader Reed about that cooperation, which hurt the progress of
the investigation.

Samuels pleaded with Newcomer for lenience, saying that he left the
conspiracy and had returned to his family in Lancaster County, and
became a born-again Christian even before learning he was under
investigation. Newcomer noted in his sentencing that every defendant
was prosecuted for illegal acts in the past, not what they had done
since.

The lightest sentence, one day in jail and six months of
monitored home confinement, was given to Natalie King, 34, of
Coatesville, who lived in a house that Reed used to stash the drugs
intended for distribution throughout the network of Pagans and
hang-arounds. King contended that she allowed Reed to use her house
out of fear. Two Lancaster County Pagans members, Douglas Hersch, 30,
of Ronks, and Duane Blank, 30, of Gap, were part of the group that
helped send drugs into the Amish community. Hersch was sentenced to 63
months and Blank to 55 months. Blank's attorney, Tom Carroll, said
that Blank's size -- he now weighs 400 pounds -- could make serving
jail time particularly difficult for him. Prosecutor Christine Sykes
said that Blank, as a Pagans sergeant-at-arms, was the chapter's
enforcer and along with Mellot participated in the beating of another
motorcycle club member in 1995. Carroll argued that Blank had not been
charged in the alleged assault.