BRAKES APPLIED
Hells Angels win 13-year court battle against B.C. gov’t over clubhouse forfeitures
B.C. Hells Angels have won a 13-year court battle against the provincial government over whether three of their clubhouses in Vancouver, Kelowna and Nanaimo should be forfeited as instruments of criminal activity.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies ruled Thursday that the director of civil forfeiture had not proven that the clubhouses “play an important role in enabling and empowering members of the Hells Angels to engage in serious crime for financial gain.”
And he said the government agency had not provided enough evidence that the Angels were an international criminal network.
“The director has not proven that the Hells Angels is a worldwide criminal organization,” Davies said.
“Although the evidence adduced does establish that many members of the Hells Angels in British Columbia and Ontario have committed serious criminal offences, there is a paucity of admissible evidence concerning such criminals offending in other jurisdictions.”
Davies said that while the director presented evidence of crimes inside in the East End clubhouse in the mid2000s, they were committed by individuals without proof they were done for the benefit of the Hells Angels as an organization.
And he said there was no evidence presented at the yearlong trial that the Nanaimo and Kelowna clubhouses had been used to commit crimes despite the convictions of several members of each chapter.
The long-running civil case began in November 2007 when the RCMP raided the Nanaimo clubhouse. In 2012, the civil forfeiture case was expanded to include both the East End and Kelowna clubhouses. The Hells Angels counter sued the government, claiming the Civil Forfeiture Act is unconstitutional.
During the yearlong Vancouver trial, Davies heard from police, former Toronto Hells Angel-turned-police agent Dave Atwell and Micheal Plante, who infiltrated the Angels for police in B.C. And B.C. Hells Angels Rick Ciarniello and Damiano Dipopolo took the stand for their club.
Davies found that Atwell was reliable in describing specific crimes of Hells Angels in Ontario.
But he said that “Atwell’s evidence concerning the involvement of Hells Angels clubhouses in relation to criminal conduct to be exaggerated, lacking in specificity and unreliable.”
Likewise, Davies accepted testimony of Plante about drug transactions and other crimes that took place inside the clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver.
“I have concluded that the director has proven on a balance of probabilities that the East End Clubhouse was on some occasions between 2004 and early 2005 used by some Hells Angels members and associates in the commission of discrete unlawful acts,” Davies said.
But he said the criminal activity was not enough to warrant seizure of the three properties.
“I find that while it is possible that the East End clubhouse could again be so used by members or associates of the Hells Angels who have access to that clubhouse, that possibility does not establish a likelihood that the East End clubhouse or the Kelowna or Nanaimo Clubhouses will in future be used to engage in unlawful activity so as to require their forfeiture,” Davies said.
Davies also struck down part of the Civil Forfeiture Act that allows for property to be seized based on its possible future use for unlawful activity, saying the provision fell outside of provincial jurisdiction.