Franks Biker News June 2nd archive

Biker seriously injured in crash - Danville News - BEAVERTOWN — A Beavertown man thrown from his motorcycle Saturday was listed in critical condition Sunday at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, officials said.
State police at Selinsgrove said Curtis Trego, 26, of 356 Old Orchard Drive, was driving his 1982 Honda VF750C bike south on Reservoir Road at about 8:20 p.m. when he went off the edge of the road. He was thrown to the ground.
Trego, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered major head injuries, police said, and he was taken to the Montour County hospital by helicopter.
Police were assisted by the Beavertown Fire Company.

Ex-informant accuses Mounties of failing to stop Hells hit - The Gazette (Montreal) - OTTAWA — A former RCMP informant is stepping out from the shadows to tell the story of his nearly two-decade-long undercover career and involvement in a Hells Angels contract killing nine years ago.
Paul Derry is a former drug dealer whose testimony helped send four men to jail for the murder of Sean Simmons, a dockworker who fell afoul of the biker gang’s Halifax chapter.
It’s a case that current RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike Cabana — and Derry’s closest police contact — once warned could tarnish the force’s reputation were it ever to become public.
That’s because Derry, who now lives under a new identity in the federal witness protection program, tried to warn police about the murder less than a month before it happened.
“They let a man die and tried to play it off like it was nothing,” Derry, 43, said in a recent interview.
In a new book, Treacherous: How the RCMP Allowed the Hells Angels to Kill, he gives his account of how Simmons came to die.
It was September 2000 when Derry first learned full-patch Hells Angels member Neil “Nasty” Smith was planning to kill someone.
Derry had been in the Halifax area since the summer, looking for some business he could sell to the RCMP.
By fall, he was working as a driver for Wayne James, a violent drug dealer who was married to Derry’s cousin and worked for Smith.
Derry found himself immersed in meetings where James and Smith would talk shop.
“It was during these meetings that I learned of a murder being planned,” Derry writes in Treacherous. “I also learned that Wayne would be doing the hit and I would be driving.”
Derry called his longtime handler, Cabana, then an inspector and now an assistant commissioner (and who only a year later would lead the anti-terrorist investigation against Maher Arar) to tell him what he knew.
Cabana helped set up a meeting between Derry and Halifax RCMP on Sept. 12, 2000.
When the meeting ended, the officers said they would be in touch. A few days later, when Derry still hadn’t heard back from them, he called Cabana, who checked on the situation. He told Derry there was a problem.
According to the RCMP’s files, Derry was marked down as “treacherous.”
“It means: Don’t touch. Don’t go near,” Derry said, explaining the term that prohibits officers from working with such informants.
It’s a bureaucratic black mark he was stamped with in 1991, about halfway through his 17-year career as an informant.
It was a mistake, later reversed, which had caused him trouble for years. But with a potential murder on the horizon, Derry said he did not think the RCMP would let paperwork get in the way.
Later that month, Derry had a conversation with a man he met at a Dartmouth, N.S., crack house, who claimed to know James.
It turned out to be Simmons, whom Derry quickly found out was the target Smith wanted dead.
But Derry never got a chance to pass on the more detailed information to the Halifax RCMP officers.
They never got in touch with him.
On Oct. 3, 2000, Simmons, a 31-year-old father of two, was gunned down in the lobby of a Dartmouth apartment.
Dean “Dino” Kelsie, the violent, crack-using nephew of James, was the shooter.
Steven Gareau, an Ottawa labourer who once killed a roommate with an axe during a drunken fight, was the bait. Gareau spent time at the crack house that day, partying with Simmons. He left, promising to return with beer. Instead, he came back with the gunman who shot Simmons three times.
James had planned it and Smith had paid them for their efforts.
The killers got away in a car driven by Derry. He remembers feeling numb.
“It’s not that I was surprised that Neil Smith had had Sean Simmons killed, but I was shocked that I had played such a huge part in it,” he writes in Treacherous. “After all, I had thought that I was one of the good guys.”
The Halifax RCMP officers would later say they could not reach Derry prior to the killings, a claim he finds hard to believe considering that he had “two pagers, two cells and a home phone.”
When a reporter contacted Cabana about Derry’s book, he declined to comment.
Instead, Sgt. Greg Cox, an RCMP spokesman, sent an e-mail explaining Mountie policy “is that we do not confirm nor deny the identity of current or past sources.”
By the end of October 2000, Derry was arrested by Halifax police during the murder investigation. He ended up cutting a deal and testifying against the four men.
In exchange, Derry got immunity and a new identity.
After a series of trials sent the four killers to jail, Derry filed suit against the Mounties and fought them for five years in court, seeking compensation for himself and the family of the murder victim. He also wanted them to apologize.
Last year, he settled and started writing his book.
Today, all Derry wants is for the RCMP to admit they could have done more to prevent Simmons’ death — and for the system to learn from its mistakes.

Bikers ride for a good - WISH - INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - This year marks the 16th annual Miracle Ride for Riley Hospital. Sunday turned out to be a great day to hit the road. Thousands turned out for one of the Circle City's biggest fundraisers of the year.
It was quite a sight, motorcycles for as far as the eye could see.
"I'm gonna tell the motorcycles to start their engines," said 7-year-old Harrison Sindelar.
Harrison is no stranger to Riley Hospital for Children, his personal miracle met the Miracle Ride.
"He was at Riley when he was one-year old. He was exposed to e-coli and spent eight days at Riley. It affected his kidneys. So he goes back once a year for a check up, but he's doing great," Harrison's mom Marissa Sindelar explained.
And that's what these bikers are all about. They're hopping on a Harley for a great cause, the kids.
"It's just a great event. It brings people from all over the state, from out of the state and it's just a good way to do a charity event," biker Harry Elston said.
Fellow biker Dennis Flaenor agreed, "I really enjoy the sport just from a freedom standpoint and it's great to share your passion with a lot of people on a day like today."
The passion filled ride took off from Lucas Oil Stadium. More than 7,000 bikers, Harleys or not, were riding to raise upwards of $400,000 for Riley.
"This is an emotional day for a lot of people. the riders in this event, many of them have ties to Riley Hospital, whether it's their family or friends of theirs," Jason Mueller with the Riley Children's Foundation said.
It's a big spectacle from bag pipers to bike engines, to the faces of kids many ill, but recovering. As they watch and wave, they're not saying goodbye, but hello to bright futures thanks to miracles and people who ride.
"We have a girl here who has received two heart transplants at Riley. She's here because of help from others and the services that Riley physicians do," said Mueller.
So far, the Miracle Ride has raised almost $2.4 million since it began 16 years ago.

Hell's Angels' skirmish in Bayonne leads to stepped up security - NJ.com - Following a fight outside a Hell's Angels biker club in Bayonne on Friday, police stepped up security outside the club last night based on "rumors" that more than 100 out-of-town Hell's Angels were converging on the city, according to an eyewitness to the fight and a police official who confirmed the increased security.
Amy Stanton, the owner of the Rye Whiskey Bar on Broadway at 12th Street, said that at about 5:30 p.m. Friday she saw a couple of men from an out-of-town Hell's Angels group known as the Eastsiders, trying to run down a biker from the local Hell's Angel's group, the Road Warriors, outside a club house near to her bar.
A scuffle ensued between the men, many of whom were in their mid-40s, and the out-of-town group outnumbered the Bayonne chapter, Stanton said.
Stanton said that there did not appear to be any injuries or property damage and the crowd dispersed once local cops arrived.
Stanton said she is friendly with the local group and they have always been peaceful neighbors since she opened the bar almost a year ago.
"The Road Warriors are amazing guys," Stanton said. "They are all grandfathers. We proud to have them living next door."
Bayonne Police Chief Robert Kubert said they had no record of a fight outside the club on Friday but posted police officers on Broadway near 12th Street on Saturday to monitor the situation.
He said police observed about 12 motorcyclists with New York plates ride into town at around 8 p.m. and walk into the motorcycle club on Broadway. After staying for about an hour the bikers left without incident, Kubert said.
"It was a fizzle," Kubert said.
Local residents said they had seen motorcyclists around town this weekend, and assumed that there was some kind of biker's reunion or convention.