Hells Angels Leader’s Family Focus of Raids

Continuing to gather evidence in what has stretched into a 10-month investigation of Ventura County Hells Angels President George Christie Jr., prosecutors on Tuesday searched the Ventura home of Christie’s mother and the house and law office of his daughter.

In early morning raids, authorities seized computers and personal and business records from Christie’s 79-year-old mother, Georgia, and 26-year-old daughter, Moriya. Prosecutors refused to say what they were looking for, but Christie said he believes authorities are trying to solidify drug and tax-evasion cases against him and his estranged wife, Cheryl.

“They stopped me just as I was finishing up my morning jog to tell me they were going to serve a search warrant at my mother’s home,” Christie said. “I went over to try to comfort her. She dealt with it the best she could.”

Christie, a national spokesman for the motorcycle gang, said authorities have served 23 search warrants on him and his associates since last May. That was when investigators arrested him on suspicion of narcotics possession and Cheryl Christie on suspicion of possessing drugs for sale.

Officers seized thousands of pages of documents, and found a small amount of cocaine in Christie’s bedside stand and a large amount of cash and an addictive narcotic painkiller in his wife’s hillside condominium, authorities said.

The initial raids focused on whether Christie had paid taxes for employees of his Ink House tattoo parlor in Ventura, his lawyer said.

No charges were filed as a result of the earlier searches, but Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said in a statement that Tuesday’s raids are part of an ongoing inquiry into the local Hells Angels chapter.

“This office, assisted by the Ventura Police Department, served several search warrants on businesses and residences of individuals connected with members of the Hells Angels,” the statement read.

Prosecutors and police officers declined further comment.

But Christie, 51, a Hells Angels spokesman for two decades, said he believed the raids are related to the tax case. Christie maintains he pays no employee taxes because his workers are contract employees, similar to those in beauty salons. They are self-employed and pay their own taxes, he said.

Christie also said the new raids may be related to the case against ousted Hells Angels member David Girardin, 36. Convicted of rape, forcible oral copulation with a minor under 14 and drug possession in the 1980s, Girardin was vice president of the local Hells Angels chapter until December, when members voted to kick him out.

Court records show Girardin faced three new felony charges of failing to register as a sex offender, which could have brought him a three strikes-enhanced sentence of 25 years to life. But prosecutors dropped the charges in January.

“His case was dismissed by the D.A.’s office in the interest of justice,” Christie said. “I feel he has turned against us. He is now, as far as we’re concerned, a traitor, because he is using any means possible to get himself out of a situation he created for himself.”

Girardin, a Ventura resident, could not be reached for comment. Louis Samonsky, his attorney in the sex-offender case, would not comment on why prosecutors withdrew the felony charge.

Tuesday’s raids were preceded about three weeks ago by searches of the Hells Angels clubhouse in the Ventura Avenue area and searches of homes of club member William “Gunner” Wolf and his parents, Christie said. Authorities took computers from both houses and a fax machine and photographs from the clubhouse, he said.

Christie said he believes the raids indicate Bradbury’s investigation is coming to a head. “They’re investigating me for the same reasons they’ve investigated us for 50 years. But I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Christie’s lawyer, Robert Sheahen, said the investigation is a waste of taxpayers’ money. “I don’t think they have anything other than the continuing desire to persecute George Christie,” he said.

Authorities have tried to build cases against Christie for years. He was acquitted in a murder-for-hire federal trial in 1987 and has only been convicted once--of misdemeanor battery four years ago.

The current investigation became public in May, when authorities seized about $100,000 in cash and dozens of bottles of the addictive narcotic painkiller Vicoden during a raid of the Ventura condo of Cheryl Christie. The couple separated several years ago after two decades of marriage.

Another $30,000 in cash was taken from Christie’s Ventura Avenue house, Sheahen said.

Authorities have consistently refused to say what types of drugs were found or how much cash was seized. Nor have they commented on the ongoing investigation. Cheryl Christie is the bookkeeper for her husband’s tattoo parlor.

Sheahen said the seized cash totaled about $130,000.

“It represented their life savings,” the lawyer said in May. “Because of years of police interference with their legitimate bank accounts, Mr. and Mrs. Christie chose to maintain their personal savings at home in safes. Not one penny of the Christies’ life savings is in any way related to drugs or any other illegal activity,” Sheahen said.

The lawyer said he did not know how so many bottles of Vicoden--which he estimated as fewer than 40--were in Cheryl Christie’s hall closet, where investigators found them. But they did not belong to the Christies, he said.

Sheahen said the half-gram of cocaine found in Christie’s night stand was found with women’s clothing and a women’s magazine, and did not belong to Christie.

Sheahen said he could not say who else had access to Cheryl Christie’s house and could have left the drugs in her closet.

Vicoden is usually sold legally as a prescription drug for many types of pain. But in recent years it has become popular on the illegal drug market. Hydrocodone, its chief ingredient, is a synthetic codeine.

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Times staff writer Steve Chawkins contributed to this report.