JUDGE DELIVERS BODY BLOW TO CROWN IN HELLS ANGELS CASE

'Unexpected' Decision Throws Out Two Charges Alleging Vancouver's East
End Chapter of the Angels Is a Criminal Organization

A B.C. Supreme Court judge dealt a devastating blow to police and
prosecutors Friday, when he ruled the Crown is prohibited from
proceeding on criminal-organization charges against two Hells Angels
members.

Justice Peter Leask decided to grant a defence application that the
Crown cannot proceed at trial on charges that allege the East End
chapter of the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.

"My decision is the Crown is stopped from leading evidence that the
East End charter Hells Angels is a criminal organization," the judge
ruled. "Well, what are we going to do next?" Leask then said, smiling,
after making his six-second decision.

The accused, Randy Potts, a Hells Angel member, was also smiling after
the ruling. His co-accused, John Punko, was appearing via video
monitor, which could not be seen from the public gallery.

The two Hells Angels members had faced a total of nine charges at
trial, including two that alleged they directed the production and
distribution of methamphetamine in association with or for the benefit
of a criminal organization, namely the East End charter of the Hells
Angels.

After the ruling, prosecutor Martha Devlin told the judge the Crown
was ready to proceed on the remaining drug charges against Potts and
Punko, but the judge suggested defence counsel would be interested in
the Crown's position on sentence.

Defence lawyers Bonnie Craig and Richard Cairns had previously told
the judge that their clients would be agreeable to entering a guilty
plea on the other charges if the Crown dropped the
criminal-organization charges.

The case marked the third failed prosecution on criminal-organization
charges against the Hells Angels arising from a $10-million police
investigation code-named E-Pandora, which ended in 2005 with the
arrest of six Hells Angels and a dozen associates.

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, a senior officer formerly involved in the
investigation that targeted the East End Hells Angels, said Friday
after the ruling that Leask's decision was "unexpected."

He added that police plan to meet with the Crown to consider if the
decision can be appealed.

"We'll continue to investigate criminal organizations to the best of
our ability and bring the evidence to court," Shinkaruk added.

"I believe the Hells Angels will continue to be a criminal
organization and will operate as such," he said.

Shinkaruk pointed out that despite no ruling in B.C. that the Hells
Angels is a criminal organization, such rulings have been made by
courts in Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec.

Potts and Punko will return to court Dec. 7 to face trial or plead
guilty to the remaining charges. The drug trial was scheduled to begin
Dec. 14 and to last three months.

The defence applied to the judge a day earlier to order the Crown be
prohibited from prosecuting the criminal-organization charges, arguing
a jury at another trial that ended last summer acquitted Potts and
Punko of criminal-organization charges, so they should not be punished
twice.

Devlin argued that the criminal-organization charges should not be
dropped because the judge could not speculate on why the jury came to
its verdict on the criminal-organization charges.

The 10-month trial ended last July with the jury convicting Potts and
Punko on weapons charges.

The judge found Potts held the arsenal of weapons for the East End
Hells Angels, including grenades, a loaded semi-automatic pistol and
three other guns.

Potts, 49, was sentenced to seven years but effectively got time
served after being granted double credit for four years spent in
pre-trial custody. He is now free on bail.

Punko, 43, was convicted of the unauthorized possession of a loaded
semi-automatic pistol and sentenced to 15 months in jail, plus a
consecutive sentence of four years for counselling a police agent to
do damage to a Surrey home where Punko was trying to collect a large
amount of money from a man.

It was effectively a sentence of time served but Punko was recently
denied bail by Leask.