Accused Hells Angel Denies Drug Case Involvement

Silent since his drug and racketeering indictment three weeks ago, Hells Angels leader George Christie Jr. maintained Thursday that he had nothing to do with selling drugs to high school students and is a law-abiding businessman with strong family values.

“Mr. Christie vigorously denies his involvement in any conspiracy [to distribute] drugs of any kind to any person, whether or not a minor,” says a motion to reduce his bail from $1 million to $250,000. A bail hearing is set for today in Superior Court.

The filing by Los Angeles lawyers Anthony Brooklier and Donald Marks states that Christie never knew the young Air Force clinic clerk charged with stealing more than 700,000 prescription pills and funneling them through a Hells Angels associate to Ventura County adults and teenagers.

Nor did Christie ever talk with the Angels’ associate, Rogelio Botello, about drugs, the motion states. “In fact, the prosecution has evidence indicating that Mr. Botello requested that Airman [Joshua] Adams keep their relationship secret and unknown to Mr. Christie,” it says.

In an interview, longtime Hells Angels lawyer Robert Sheahen said the case is a waste of time and taxpayers’ money involving relatively few drugs and only $234,000 in confiscated cash. He estimated the county’s cost to defend suspects who can’t pay for their own defense at $2 million.

“This isn’t heroin, this isn’t cocaine, this isn’t methamphetamine or PCP or LSD,” he said. “This is Valium and Vicodin. Even if the charges are true, they’re penny-ante Vicodin dealers, and any high school kid can go into his parents’ medicine cabinet and get the same drug.”

The lead prosecutor, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Bennett, declined comment on the motion and on Sheahen’s comments.

Christie’s lawyers, arguing that he is not a flight risk or a threat to anyone, filed 50 pages of documents stating that the 53-year-old biker, a national Hells Angels leader, is a lifelong Ventura County resident responsible for quelling problems with local Angels, not inciting them.

On the night of their arrest last month at the Hells Angels’ fortified Ventura clubhouse, Christie arranged for club members to surrender peacefully one by one, instead of trying to escape or fighting, attorneys wrote. Nine Angels are among the 28 defendants in the case.

“Mr. Christie has taken every step to cooperate with law enforcement concerning the present case,” the motion says, adding, wryly, “with the exception of breaking into the sheriff’s lockup.”

Christie also offers as evidence of his good character written testimonials from 15 friends, family members and local business owners--a chiropractor, restaurant owners and downtown Ventura shopkeepers located near Christie’s Ink House tattoo and body-piercing parlor.

“He is always nice to us,” wrote Chingchai Liampetchakul, owner of the Tipp’s Thai Cuisine, a block from the parlor.

“I have never felt that George was a threat to me. Nor have I heard of other local businesses being threatened,” wrote Dr. Glenn Lunceford, who has practiced near Christie’s business for 15 years.

The owner of a small market next to Christie’s house in the blue-collar Ventura Avenue area said that he was always friendly, even buying food for those with little money, especially the homeless. And the owner of a restaurant said that Christie is a friend who offered to help her board up a broken window when the business was vandalized.

“He told me I could count on his help if I ever needed it,” said Laura C. Kraft, who runs Johnny’s Mexican Food.

Others described Christie as a throwback to another era: a former Marine who is truthful and dependable.

His lawyers traced his heritage from his grandparents’ immigration from Greece a century ago to his parents’ operation of local cafes.

“The household in which George himself was raised was steeped in the values embodied by these people,” the documents state. “And George has taken pains to live a life of which his family would be proud.”

He has been steadily employed as an utility cable slicer, black belt martial arts instructor and tattoo parlor operator since the 1970s, the documents state. He was married and lived with his high school sweetheart for 23 years until they separated in 1990. He raised his two children. All three--including Hells Angel member George Christie III--are defendants in the case.

According to his lawyers, the elder Christie is helping to raise his fiancee’s 8-year-old child.

“They live in the home his grandfather purchased over 70 years ago,” the documents conclude. “And he is prepared to offer it, as well as two other family properties, to secure his bond.”

Even if Christie’s bail is not reduced, his family apparently has enough equity in those properties to pay the $100,000 fee required for a $1-million bail bond.

Christie is charged with running a criminal gang that stole drugs from an Air Force clinic and peddled them to adults and high school students through a group of youths called “The Outfit.” Altogether, he is charged with 23 criminal counts, including tax evasion, grand theft and fraud.