Feds fight court order releasing biker gang president charged with racketeering on bond
By APThursday, October 8, 2009
Pagans biker club president released on bond
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge has freed the president of the Pagans Motorcycle Club two days after he was charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment that accused the outlaw biker gang of plotting to kill and extort rivals.
David Barbeito was released on bond Thursday, said Marcy Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.
Federal prosecutors had sought to hold Barbeito without bond and are appealing his release. Barbeito is scheduled to appear at a detention hearing in Charleston on Friday.
Barbeito, 49, is charged with racketeering and aiding and abetting racketeering.
The indictment names Barbeito, who lives in Myersville, Md., as a leader of an organization engaged in kidnapping, robbery, extortion, conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes.
Separately, prosecutors are admitting that authorities mistakenly arrested an Ohio man who merely shared the same name as a defendant in the case. A document filed Thursday asks that Dale Wright’s bond be eliminated.
A telephone listing for Wright could not be located. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston declined to comment.
