Christie Expected to Again Turn to Prominent L.A. Defense Attorney

The indictment Friday of George Gus Christie Jr. on 23 criminal counts represents the first time since 1987 that the Hells Angels leader has been charged with a serious crime.

And Christie said he expects to again place his defense in the hands of Barry Tarlow, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and former federal prosecutor who gained Christie’s acquittal in a murder-for-hire trial 14 years ago.

“My lawyer and I will handle everything in the courtroom,” Christie said last week.

In the high-profile 1987 case, Tarlow, now 61, persuaded a federal jury in Los Angeles that Christie was a victim of overzealous prosecutors who wasted taxpayers’ money by entrapping him in a fake murder scheme.

Tarlow claimed that media attention--Christie had run a leg of the Olympic torch relay in 1984--had brought the Angels leader not only celebrity but the disdain of law enforcement.

“It’s un-American for a Hells Angel to be in the Olympic torch run,” Tarlow told jurors. “George Christie was targeted by law enforcement for a long, long time. They wanted to get him and they wanted to put him away.”

During the current investigation, comments by Tarlow and Christie indicate the same type of defense may be offered again.

Christie says he is being harassed because he hosted the Angels’ 50th anniversary World Run celebration in Ventura three years ago. Hundreds of bikers from around the world stood for a commemorative photo on the steps of City Hall, angering officials.

After a spate of law enforcement raids and Hells Angels arrests in 1998 and 1999, Christie said: “This is an effort to justify what they’re doing. They’re trying to put pressure on us just because they want public opinion on their side. I’d like to know how much money they’ve spent on this since our 50th anniversary.”

After the homes of Christie and his estranged wife, Cheryl, were searched by district attorney investigators in 1998, Tarlow condemned the raids as far beyond the scope of approved search warrants and illegal.

“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 [drug] charges against him in this case,” Tarlow said.

Tarlow, a published expert on searches, the admissibility of evidence and racketeering law, won his case in 1987 not only by attacking the government’s motives but its chief witness, Michael Mulhern, a leader of the Mexican Mafia and a longtime informant.

Prosecutors argued that a taped conversation caught Christie authorizing the killing of a former associate of the Ventura Angels who had turned informant.

Authorities faked the Angel informant’s prison slaying, and Christie soon showed up at Mulhern’s motel in Ventura.

Mulhern testified that Christie handed him $500 and the pink slip to an old automobile as a down payment. Christie left the room, but quickly returned and was arrested as he asked Mulhern for the envelope containing the payoff, Mulhern testified.

Christie claimed entrapment. He noted that his first conversation with Mulhern had not been tape-recorded. His fingerprints were not on the pink slip he supposedly handed Mulhern. And Mulhern was a career criminal and heroin addict.

The jury--impressed by Christie’s demeanor, the support of his family and numerous Hells Angels who faithfully trudged to court--freed the Angel leader.

Two weeks later, Christie hosted a barbecue at the Angels’ fortified clubhouse on Fix Way near Ventura Avenue. Five jurors attended.

“George appeared to be very honest and very sincere, and very dedicated not only to his family, but the Hells Angels,” said juror Leon Duty, then an employment manager at Disneyland. “He was set up.”