Hells Angels Drop Their ‘No Bozos’ Policy--Throw a Party for Jurors

“I never seen so many civilians,” Willie MacLean grumbled, surveying the slap-happy company of housewives, businessmen, photographers, lawyers--even a cop--guzzling root beer on the lawn outside the Hells Angels clubhouse in Ventura.

Through the formidable door that had always proclaimed “no bozos, no wimps” had passed, to be sure, half a dozen of each.

But the way MacLean, a Hells Angels member, figured it, if George Christie, “a stand-upin’ American” and president of the Ventura Hells Angels chapter, said these folks were all right, then so they were.

Showing Appreciation

Christie and three dozen of his Harley-Davidson-riding buddies were playing backyard barbecue hosts Saturday to the jury that had acquitted him May 19 in Los Angeles federal court. The jury’s verdict ended a seven-week trial on charges of soliciting the murder of a government informant.

“I never had an opportunity to thank them,” Christie explained.

Offered fellow biker Jim Clark: “I don’t know how else we could say justice prevailed--offer ‘em a beer.”

It was an afternoon of shoulder-slapping, tale-swapping and home-cooked beans for jurors who had come to get acquainted with the man government agents said had hired a former member of the Mexican Mafia to “whack” a man who had been informing on the Angels’ alleged drug-dealing activities.

The murder never happened. Federal authorities had faked the killing.

“The thing is, here you got a guy that’s a rebel, he speaks out about what he feels is right, and you got the government saying you can’t do that kind of stuff,” said juror Ray Henningsen, a United Airlines union representative from Anaheim. “I’m sure George isn’t pure and clean, but then, none of us are.”

From the beginning, Christie claimed that he had been framed by FBI agents who he said were unhappy with the favorable publicity he had gained for the Angels when he carried the Olympic torch--and spoke out later on national television about law enforcement harassment of the outlaw motorcycle gang.

The five jurors who showed up for Saturday’s shindig couldn’t have agreed more.

“I started out with the idea that George was guilty, because he was a Hells Angel, and I don’t know anything real good about the Hells Angels,” explained Frances Jones, a homemaker from Hemet.

But, sipping on a seltzer and surveying the hairy crowd, Jones said she had second thoughts.

Parents Show Support

“I think they’re great,” she said. “I’ll say one thing, all these colorful characters that were there at the trial every day, they were there for one thing, because they liked George, you know? They were like family. And his mother and father were there every day. You know, I was impressed by that.”

On Saturday, Christie’s father, George Sr., a retired cook, was presiding over the barbecue grill, a happy man. “God takes care of the ones that need to be taken care of, you know?” he said, plopping a chicken wing at another one of George’s bearded buddies.

“George told me 10 years ago, he says, ‘If I can’t be a Hells Angel, I won’t be happy.’ He says, ‘I wanna ride my motorcycle up and down the highway.’ And I said, ‘Well, OK, just keep your nose clean.’ ”

As the afternoon wore on and the beer started flowing a little more freely, highlights from the trial started coming out.

Jones picked up a table knife and started swinging it like the machete one of the witnesses had talked about. The FBI agent who had conducted the investigation got dismissed as “a wimp” and the prosecutor “a robot.” Henningsen talked about how, when the jury foreman had expressed doubts about Christie’s innocence, “I told her, ‘Lady, don’t talk to me till you get your head out of the toilet.’ ”

Almost Giggled

A little more beer, and the jurors confided to defense lawyer Barry Tarlow that they had been suppressing giggles during his impassioned closing arguments, and during a break took bets on whether Tarlow was going to get down on his knees and sing, “Mammy.”

“I would’ve if it would’ve helped,” Tarlow grinned.

But Leon Duty, employment manager at Disneyland for the last 22 years, said it was Christie, in part, who won the case. “George appeared to be very honest and very sincere, and very dedicated not only to his family, but the Hells Angels,” he said. “He was set up by the FBI.”

Jurors weren’t the only fans who showed up. A Utah Highway Patrol officer who had once arrested the man who testified against Christie dropped in with his family. So did actor Mickey Rourke, who arrived with a two-day growth of beard. “I’m just glad I don’t gotta go see him in jail,” Rourke said.

Christie said it was a day to say thanks to the men and women who had kept him out of prison.

“When you’re a defendant and you look at the jury, you don’t get an expression, you don’t get a feeling off of them. During the course of the trial, I’d go back to the prison and I’d lay there and I’d think, what’s juror No. 1 think about me, what’s juror No. 2 think? Now I get to find out.”