Fallen Saints ex-president sentenced to 15 months in jail

While Mark Micheal Nowakowski was the leader of a criminal organization in Saskatoon, he did not personally participate in any of its criminal activity, his lawyer says.

However, the 48-year-old former president of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club pleaded guilty to assaulting an associate member and recruiting people to join the club for the purpose of enhancing a criminal organization.

The guilty pleas were entered in October, and on Tuesday, Nowakowski was sentenced to 15 months in jail after Justice Mona Dovell accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence.

Nowakowski participated in beating Travis Miles as part of a disciplinary matter at the Fallen Saints clubhouse on Dec. 30, 2014. Several other members were sentenced in connection with the same assault, which lasted around 30 seconds, federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz outlined in court.

Between November 2014 and January 2015, Nowakowski admitted telling members of Prince Albert’s Saints and Sinners Motorcycle Club that the Fallen Saints were coming to Prince Albert whether they liked it or not. Some members eventually came to Saskatoon and agreed to join.

Evidence of both offences came largely from wiretapped conversations connected to Project Forseti, the large-scale police investigation into biker clubs and organized crime in Saskatoon and the surrounding area.

Through the court process, the Fallen Saints were deemed a criminal organization “engaged in various illegal activities including drug and weapons trafficking,” none of which involved Nowakowski, according to the agreed facts. Defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff said the biggest criminal was the club’s vice-president, Noel Harder, who he claimed brought millions of dollars worth of drugs into Saskatoon “on a yearly basis” before becoming a police agent with Project Forseti.

“We know that he is a liar. Harder, alone, made the Fallen Saints a criminal organization,” Stooshinoff said, adding Nowakowski joined the club after it was established and became president when other members wanted Harder to step down.

There are rumours that Harder is now taking a different position on his allegations since getting kicked out of the federal Witness Protection Program, Stooshinoff told court. Hintz responded there was ample evidence to corroborate the information Harder gave police.

Nowakowski was peripherally involved and unfairly ‘demonized’ in the media by the false information Harder gave to police, his lawyer said during sentencing. Nowakowski was charged with drug and gun offences following a city-wide raid in January 2015.

He pleaded guilty to a single count of unauthorized possession of a firearm, leading to his first criminal conviction and a $1,000 fine.

Stooshinoff said his client is a good husband, father and business owner who gave ex-convicts and drug addicts jobs.