Raid Against Hells Angel Called Illegal

Searches of the homes of a local Hells Angels leader and his estranged wife were illegal and evidence seized during this week’s raids would be thrown out of court if drug possession charges are ever filed against them, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney said Thursday.

Barry Tarlow, who won an acquittal for George Christie in a 1987 murder-for-hire case, said the new drug possession cases against George and Cheryl Christie will never fly, partly because raids of their property went far beyond the scope of search warrants.

“It was no selective search,” Tarlow said. “They turned these places upside down. They ransacked these places. . . . And as much as law enforcement would like to hang George Christie on their wall as a trophy, I can’t believe they would be stupid enough to file charges against him in this case.”

Instead of limiting themselves to files relevant to their employment tax-avoidance case against Christie, investigators from the Ventura County district attorney’s office conducted a “general search” of both Christie homes, the couple’s rental house and George Christie’s tattoo parlor, Tarlow said.

And during those raids, they also illegally searched places where no reasonable person would ever look for business records, Tarlow said, even though they were purportedly searching for evidence that Christie was not paying employee taxes at his tattoo parlor.

“The searches sound to me to be absolutely illegal as a fraud or a sham where they said they were going to search for one thing but, in fact, had a different motive,” he said. “The search was just a ruse to allow them to go in and conduct a general search.”

Jeff Bennett, chief deputy district attorney in charge of investigations, would not comment on Tarlow’s remarks. Because the inquiry is continuing, he said, he could say nothing beyond comments in a terse statement released Wednesday about the Christies’ arrests.

“We’re just not talking, period,” Bennett said.

George Christie, 51, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of narcotics possession and Cheryl Christie, also 51, was arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs for sale after investigators allegedly found a small amount of cocaine in Christie’s night stand and large amounts of drugs and cash in his wife’s hillside condo. Sources say tens of thousands of dollars were found at her home.

George Christie has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorney, Robert Sheahen, has said the arrests were only the government’s latest effort to tar the reputation of his client, a national spokesman for the motorcycle club.

Tarlow, who has represented Christie on various matters over the years, said he may represent Christie in this case too. But Tarlow said Cheryl Christie has asked him to be her attorney. Either way, he could be directly involved in the case, Tarlow said.

“As ridiculous as was the search at George Christie’s house for records, the idea that you would find evidence of withholding tax violations at somebody’s estranged wife’s house is simply absurd,” Tarlow said. And Cheryl Christie, a homemaker for most of her adult life, is anything but a criminal, he said.

“She’s not some viper moll,” he said. “This is a wife and a mother who has a daughter who is an attorney. But it’s the view of law enforcement that because she had either the good or bad judgment to marry George Christie she somehow should not be treated like other law-abiding citizens.”

Tarlow said he could not comment on the details of Cheryl Christie’s arrest or on the amounts of drugs and cash allegedly found at her Ventura home.

But he said that the case against her will not stand. And he cited his own appellate court victory in 1978 as precedent for throwing out all evidence gathered during illegal searches. In that case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a drug conviction of Thomas Rettig, the onetime child star of the Lassie TV series.

“Agents did not confine their search in good faith to objects of the warrant issued. . . . but rather, while purporting to execute it, they substantially exceeded any reasonable interpretation of its provisions and conducted a general search,” the opinion reads.

The affidavit in which Ventura County investigators stated their arguments for searching the Christie properties is still confidential, so their justification for the raids is not known. Christie said he was told by investigators the search was for payroll records.

“Without having the affidavit, it’s real hard to tell how challengeable this search is,” said Ventura defense lawyer Kevin DeNoce, a former prosecutor who has taught search and seizure law at the Ventura County Sheriff’s Academy.

“The big issue is: What was the scope of the warrant, and where were they looking? Was it a place where evidence listed in the warrant could be found? It’s as simple as that.”

Under state law, a search warrant may be issued by a judge when authorities show that a person has specific items or property that may be evidence of a crime.

A search warrant cannot be issued without such probable cause, and authorities must indicate on court documents precisely what items they intend to look for at the property in question.

If during the search police officers find illegal drugs, they can seize them and make arrests, DeNoce said.

“This is called the ‘plain-view doctrine,’ ” he said. “If they come across items in plain view that are contraband, they can be seized.”

Christie argues that the half-gram of cocaine found in his night stand was not his and was not in plain view. Lawyer Sheahen said the drug was found with women’s possessions, and clearly was not Christie’s.

Ventura defense attorney James M. Farley said such seizures are often challenged in court.

The 4th Amendment bars “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government, but the line between legal and illegal police searches is not always clear.

“If they are doing a valid search and they come across contraband, then they can seize it and make an arrest,” Farley said. “They don’t have to ignore what they find as criminal activity.”

Times staff writer Tracy Wilson contributed to this story.