Judge Lets Stand $1-Million Bail for Hells Angels Leader Christie

A Superior Court judge refused to lower the $1-million bail of national Hells Angels leader George Christie Jr. on Monday, and Christie’s estranged wife surrendered to authorities after being named a principal suspect in a broad drug-and-racketeering case.

Christie, 53, his wife and their two adult children are among 25 people arrested since a grand jury indicted them on Friday on suspicion of participating in a criminal gang whose activities included selling drugs to high school students in Ventura and Ojai.

Three other unidentified suspects have not been apprehended.

Judge Arturo Gutierrez refused to reduce Christie’s bail or those of other defendants during a lengthy hearing in a crowded courtroom, despite arguments that the defendants are longtime Ventura County residents and have families and jobs they would never abandon to flee prosecution.

“He’s not going anywhere,” lawyer Pat Reardon said of Christie. “He’s looking forward to addressing these charges. . . . If he was going to go, he would have left by now.”

But the lead prosecutor, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Bennett, argued that Christie should remain in jail.

“Mr. Christie has contacts all over the world--he’s the head of a criminal street gang,” Bennett said.

Prosecutors have not only been granted high bails--$1 million for each of seven individuals, including two suspects who have not been arrested--but filed motions requesting that Gutierrez force the principal defendants to prove that the bond money comes from legitimate sources. Such a requirement is commonly requested in organized-crime cases.

Christie, the reputed heir to Ralph “Sonny” Barger as the Angels leader nationwide, is charged with theft, fraud, tax evasion, firearms possession, drug sales to minors and the use of a street gang in a criminal conspiracy.

Altogether, the Christie family faces 57 criminal counts--23 against George Christie Jr., 19 against his 53-year-old wife, Cheryl Christie, 13 against their 24-year-old son, George Gus Christie III, and two against their daughter, Moriya Christie, 29, a Ventura attorney who represents Hells Angels in court.

Cheryl Christie turned herself in Monday morning after a weekend trip to see relatives, and she remained in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, Moriya Christie said. The daughter, free on $20,000 bond, watched the day’s proceedings with her grandmother from the courtroom gallery.

“I’m not going to make comment on any of this at this time,” Moriya Christie said.

Arraignments were delayed Monday, partly because many of the defendants did not have lawyers. The public defender’s office can represent only one of the defendants because of a conflict of interest. And Conflict Defense Associates, which also represents indigent clients, will provide just five lawyers.

Finding lawyers for everyone will take time, Deputy Public Defender Joe Villasana said.

On Monday, several lawyers argued that their clients are hardly notorious and deserve a break with lower bail.

The lawyer for Mary Carlisle, 44, one of 11 women indicted, said the defendant has two children, has owned her own home for 13 years and has worked for the same employer for 25 years.

“She has a job and her employer wants her back,” lawyer Robert Sanger said.

By the end of the day, Donald Sherwin, owner of Valley Foods in Santa Barbara, had posted Carlisle’s $250,000 bail by establishing a line of credit against his home.

“It’s not a generosity; she was wronged and I’m helping her out,” Sherwin said Monday evening. “She is an outstanding person and outstanding employee and wonderful mother. She contributes her day off to public schools.”

Sherwin said authorities found drugs in Carlisle’s west Ventura home during a raid about two years ago because the teenage son of a friend apparently stored them there.

The court session was marked by high security.

Spectators were not only screened as they entered the courthouse, as usual, but scanned with a metal detector when they entered the courtroom.

As one defendant after another waived the right to a speedy arraignment, prosecutors repeatedly instructed them not to harass, intimidate or threaten others connected with the case.

Some supporters cried as defendants they knew stood behind a glass wall and spoke into a microphone.

In an unusual move, prosecutors asked Gutierrez to keep indictments detailing alleged crimes under court seal. That was all part of an acknowledged strategy to lessen pretrial publicity and to keep the case from being transferred to another county.

Prosecutors estimate that motions could delay trial for a year.