A federal jury in Santa Ana Thursday found the Mongols motorcycle club guilty of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering in a trial seeking to revoke the club’s trademarks and prevent members from wearing its logo on their jackets.
The conviction advances the case into a second phase focused on the forfeiture of the group’s trademark logo, which depicts a muscle-armed, ponytailed Asian man on a motorcycle.
Jurors will be tasked with deciding what items are eligible to be seized from the club, such as guns and ammunition. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter will ultimately decide if the club’s trademarks and other assets will be seized. But he noted the issues in the case will likely wind up being decided by a higher court.
“You’re both setting yourselves up for an appeal that will go to the Ninth Circuit and then to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Carter told the attorneys as they discussed the next phase of the trial.
Las Vegas attorney Stephen Stubbs, who represents the Mongols, told reporters after the verdict that the club is not a violent criminal organization. He said all of the alleged crimes discussed in the trial occurred under the leadership of past president Ruben “Doc” Cavazos, who was ousted.
“The Mongols recognized he was doing things that were inappropriate and they kicked him out,” Stubbs said. “The Mongols are not a criminal organization and gang.”
Mongols National President David Santillan added, “These were individual acts.”
When asked if the verdict surprised him, he replied, “No, not at all. We were ready for it.”
In the racketeering verdict, jurors found that the club was guilty of dealing cocaine and methamphetamine as well as one attempted murder and a murder. The jurors deadlocked 10-2 for “not proven” on one attempted murder and “not proven” on two murders.
But under the conspiracy conviction, the jurors validated multiple alleged incidents of violence, including murders and attempted murders as well as drug dealing.
During the five-week trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Welk argued that the patches Mongols wear on their leather jackets are meant to be “messages and signals” to rival gang members and even the general public that Mongols should be feared.
Welk noted that Mongols are instructed to not wear their leather jackets with patches in a car, and when they drive a car they are taught to fold them in a way to conceal their affiliation with the club from police.
“It’s all about protecting themselves because they are a paranoid organization,” Welk argued. “They’re fearful and deeply suspicious of the government.”
He presented testimony during the trial in an effort to show a “lengthy parade of cruelty” by the club’s members. Welk argued that the club’s members commit a range of crimes from drug trafficking to murder, all in service to the organization and at the direction of its leaders.
And he said when club members commit murder, they wear a specific skull-and-crossbones patch like a badge of honor.
But the club’s attorney, Joseph A. Yanny, argued that the government was going after the organization for racial reasons.
“I believe this group has been targeted because they have a lot of Mexican-Americans in there,” Yanny said during his closing argument.
Yanny argued that the members who have committed crimes were kicked out for violating “zero tolerance” policies against illicit activity that draws the attention of law enforcement.
Yanny accused federal prosecutors of taking the “wrongful acts of a few individuals” and escalate it to a “group conviction.”
“These are ordinary people,” he said of his clients. “They are hardworking people. You don’t see the Hell’s Angels here. You see the Mongols and minorities are easy to pick on and they typically don’t fight like these guys do.”
Among the people who testified during the trial was former pro wrestler and ex-Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who joined the Mongols in the 1970s.
Ventura told City News Service after his testimony that he considered the government’s attempts to seize the club’s trademark as a threat to the First Amendment.
“This is bigger than the Mongols club,” Ventura said. “You’ve got the government… telling you what you can and cannot wear.”
He added, “The First Amendment is to protect unpopular speech. … Some people may think the Mongols are horrible, but they still have equal rights under the Bill of Rights. … Who’s next? The Shriners? Where does it end? It’s a First Amendment issue top to bottom.”