Opinion ID: 777319
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: October 1996 Incident: Searching for Cycle Lords in the Catskills

Text: 10 Another incident occurred earlier in October 1996, for which Laduca was charged under one count with using and carrying a firearm during a conspiracy to assault in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), or aiding and abetting the use of weapons in such a conspiracy to assault, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) (1994). The incident involved about 60-80 Pagans and Pagan affiliates who had gathered in the Catskills to assault members of the Cycle Lords, a group affiliated with the Hell's Angels. Three Pagans who were part of that mission — Rosenthal, Nicholas Mood Ragni, and Kirk Kick Peters — as well as Scott Holeshot Halpin, the president of the Tyrants Motorcycle Club (Tyrants), testified for the prosecution. 11 According to Halpin, whose group was affiliated with the Pagans, the Pagans were having problems with the Cycle Lords in the Catskills. To resolve the problems, the head of the Pagan's Catskills chapter, a man known as Timmy, organized a raid on a bar where the president of the local Cycle Lords chapter was said to live. Forty or 50 Pagans and Tyrants, some with ax handles, knives and guns, took part in this raid. No Cycle Lords were found. Undaunted, Timmy scheduled a larger raid for the following weekend. This second raid is a subject of this appeal. 12 Nicholas Ragni, who at the time was the head or diamond of the Pagan East Suffolk chapter, confirmed that the Catskill Pagans were having trouble with the Cycle Lords and wanted to put a scare into them. Although Ragni did not take part in the first raid, he testified that he and other Long Island Pagans were summoned to take part in the second one. Specifically, Ragni recounted how [w]e were all informed to go up there with rifles, with guns, and that Timmy would take us to two bars where these people hang out, if we caught them we were to beat the [s___] out of them. Rosenthal and Peters, two of the rank-and-file Pagans in Ragni's chapter, testified that they were ordered by Ragni to go upstate on a mandatory run but were not given any details in advance. Peters further stated it was not uncommon for the Pagan leadership to withhold details of plans from the general membership. 13 Halpin reported that Laduca drove from Long Island to the Catskills with Douglas Jay Fat Boy Estep on the October weekend scheduled for the second hunt of Cycle Lords. When the pair arrived, Estep stepped out of Laduca's van, reached behind the front passenger seat and removed two rifles from the back of the van as Laduca sat in the driver's seat, a couple of feet away. At some point that weekend, Laduca told Halpin that he planned to return to Long Island as soon as the raid was over. 14 After a general meeting with Timmy to review the raid's logistics, Ragni and the other diamonds met separately to discuss the use of weapons. Laduca, as diamond of the Nassau chapter, attended that meeting. Because the sheer number of participants was likely to attract police notice, the diamonds decided to let each member decide for himself whether to carry a weapon. The witnesses' accounts of what types of weapons were carried varied somewhat, but all the witnesses observed shotguns being carried by some members. 15 The troop of Pagans and Tyrants, including Laduca, visited at least two bars. The witnesses explained that they traveled in a caravan that included a small bus and several other vehicles. At each bar some of the group surrounded the building, while others stormed inside, one after another, and looked around for Cycle Lords. No Cycle Lords were found, but Estep assaulted a patron at the second bar, and another Pagan, Louis B.C. Rock Candelaria, fired a shotgun into the air.