BIKER TRIAL UNDERWAY
Crown argues bikers breached undertaking forbidding contact
Club members ordered to have no contact with each other caught on video chatting.
Two alleged biker gang members were on trial Tuesday accused of breaching an undertaking by having contact with one another.
Both Corey Gordon Falls, 29, and Tristan Edward Watts, 20, took the stand pleading their innocence.
The pair are accused of having contact on Nov. 4 in a Charlottetown restaurant in violation of a court order imposed as a condition for their release after each were convicted of illegal gaming.
A video played in court shows Falls arriving at Hunter’s Ale House with several other bikers shortly before 12 noon. The roughly dozen bikers all sat together at an upper level of the restaurant.
Watts arrives several minutes later, passing Falls who was walking away from the tables. Watts returns to his seat in a booth a short distance from Falls, who was seated at a collection of tables with the bulk of the bikers.
RCMP Cpl. Glen Dudley testified he saw the pair, who he is familiar with, in the restaurant when he arrived off duty to have lunch.
He testified that Falls appeared to take his photo with a cellphone and left with other bikers shortly after Dudley arrived.
Crown attorney Lisa Goulden contends the video from Hunter’s that was played in court clearly shows Falls and Watts conversing while sitting at separate tables.
She accused the pair of making no effort to comply with the undertaking, noting it would have been easy for either one to have left the restaurant or even to have sat at tables further apart.
Falls testified that he came to the restaurant with a friend completely unaware that Watts would soon be arriving.
“It’s my favourite spot to go,’’ he told the court.
Falls also testified that he did his best to avoid Watts while he was in the restaurant, being fully leery of the undertaking.
“I didn’t have any contact,’’ he said. Before leaving the restaurant, Falls shook hands with bikers sitting at the same table as Watts but did not shake the hand of Watts.
Watts also testified that he regularly attends Hunter’s and he arrived on this day with no knowledge that Falls or any of the other bikers would be there.
He told the court he made no contact with Falls at the restaurant and did not converse with him at all.
The pair were both wearing Woodbridge biker vests.
The Organized Crime Task Force began surveying 205 Fitzroy St. after learning the Woodbridge Ontario Hell’s Angels Club was in the process of establishing a chapter in P.E.I.
The premise was purchased in October 2016 by 102023 P.E.I. Inc. The director and shareholders named in the letters patent include Falls.
Falls and Watts were among nine alleged members of the Hells Angels prospect club that pleaded guilty last month to illegal gaming.
Charges related to participating in activities of a criminal organization were stayed by the Crown.
The trial continues Thursday.