HELLS ANGELS IN SPOTLIGHT

Pink Poodle murder case: Mistrial sought on gang enhancement
charges.

There is a stealth defendant in the Pink Poodle murder trial in Santa Clara
County Superior Court: the Hells Angels motorcycle group.

A picture of the secret society is emerging as prosecutors try to convince
jurors that the Aug. 24, 1997, killing of Kevin Sullivan, 38, was
orchestrated on behalf of the notorious biker gang. If convicted of gang
enhancement charges added to the murder and conspiracy counts, the two
defendants would not be considered for parole until they served 15 years of
what could be a 25-years-to-life sentence, according to the Penal Code.

Police regard the Hells Angels as a criminal street gang that operates as a
formal organization to carry out assaults and robberies, according to
testimony. The group also has been cited as virtually having invented
methamphetamine -- dubbed ``crank'' because riders carried it on or near
their crankcases for long road trips. Manufacture and distribution of the
drug is a key component of the Hells Angels business, police say.

But was the group responsible for Sullivan's death?

Authorities allege that defendant Steve Tausan, 39, former sergeant-at-arms
for the Hells Angels San Jose chapter, attacked the victim at the Pink
Poodle on orders from David Kuzinich, 44, manager of the strip club on
Bascom Avenue in the unincorporated Burbank district of the county.

The attack -- the victim was beaten to death -- was payback for a drunken
Sullivan's harassing one of the Poodle dancers and insulting the Hells
Angels, according to Deputy District Attorney Richard Titus.

But defense attorneys say the gang was not involved and that, in fact,
Kuzinich called Tausan to the club to try to defuse a volatile situation.

Already one defense attorney has asked the judge to declare a mistrial on
the gang enhancement charges.

Tausan's lawyer, John Williams, also suggested that police are so biased
against the motorcycle group that perhaps they feel it is all right to steal
from club members.

``You think because cops feel Hells Angels are bad guys, it's OK to steal
from them?'' Williams asked officer Jorge Gil-Blanco on Tuesday.

Gil-Blanco, who has been studying the Hells Angels for seven years, said
such conduct would be wrong. ``I don't condone that,'' he replied.

Williams referred to the disappearance from a police evidence room of
$12,000 that had been seized during search raids late last year and early
this year at the Hells Angels chapter house in San Jose and private
residences.

The proper owners of the money have since been reimbursed, but the missing
cash has yet to be found or accounted for, sheriff's Lt. Stan Neugebauer
said.

Whether the currency and tickets were taken or were destroyed in error has
not been determined, he said.

Gil-Blanco went on to testify that there are more than 1,200 members of the
Hells Angels in 112 chapters around the world. Begun in 1948 in Southern
California, the Angels have established 15 chapters throughout the state,
including several in the Bay Area. The San Jose chapter, headquartered in a
building near Interstate 280 and Bird Avenue, was founded 29 years ago.

Gil-Blanco painted an overview of the Hells Angels, illustrated by more than
130 color slides that depicted tattooed former and current gang members,
some of their clubhouses in the United States and in foreign countries, and
various patches, logos, weapons and flak jackets.

The hierarchy, he said, consists of a president, vice president,
secretary-treasurer and sergeant-at-arms -- the position of ``rules
enforcer'' that Tausan held last with the San Jose branch.

Membership is exclusive. Would-be members must be invited, undergo a
background check -- sometimes conducted by a private investigator -- and
then be voted on by the group. Blacks, women and anyone remotely connected
to law enforcement, past or present, need not apply, according to
Gil-Blanco. The club is constantly on guard against infiltration by police,
he said.

Members, he said, are kept in line through fear of punishment for
transgression of the rules, and the worst traitor in the eyes of the
membership is someone who snitches to police. Turning informant is ``grounds
for expulsion -- at the very minimum,'' Gil-Blanco said.

He recalled one man's dread of harm. ``He was afraid because he could expect
a bullet in his brain for talking to police,'' Gil-Blanco said.

But the gang does not operate with complete disregard for public relations,
he said. Every Christmas, members collect Toys for Tots, and once a year
they donate blood at Stanford University Hospital.

A former member of a federal drug task force, Gil-Blanco said the Hells
Angels are heavily involved in the manufacture and distribution of illegal
drugs. After Sullivan's killing, authorities said, investigators confiscated
explosives and a boxed-up lab capable of producing 100 pounds of
methamphetamine from the home of San Jose Hells Angels President James
Elrite, who is facing charges in connection with that seizure but is not
involved in the murder case.

During his testimony, Gil-Blanco quoted an informant as saying that
defendant Tausan was involved in illegal drug activity.

Judge Daniel Creed declared that information inadmissible. Williams
subsequently called for a mistrial on the gang enhancement charges, saying
Gil-Blanco dropped his name on purpose, damaging Tausan before the jury.

``He did it not in a vacuum but in a way to portray the Hells Angels as a
worldwide drug conspiracy,'' Williams said. The suggestion is that because
Tausan is an official in the Hells Angels, he is part of a drug conspiracy,
the lawyer said.

``Mr. Kuzinich is not a Hells Angel, but it is alleged he is an associate,
so he gets painted with the same brush used to paint Mr. Tausan,'' the
attorney said.

Tausan has never been arrested or prosecuted for a drug offense, Williams
said.

Creed said he was not eager to jump into the ``minefield of technicalities''
that such a mistrial motion could entail and that he would study the matter
before ruling.

If a mistrial is declared, the prosecution will lose its chance at a gang
enhancement conviction.

As Williams put it: ``The reason (a mistrial) is an important remedy is that
if you take the Hells Angels out of the case, the case is about what
happened Aug. 24 in the club.''

Checked-by: Don Beck