Mongols' probation means headquarters of motorcycle club is subject to search, not riders on the

[TexasTowelie]

Mongols’ probation means headquarters of motorcycle club is subject to search, not riders on the street, judge says


A federal judge on Friday, June 28, made clear that his decision to place the notorious Mongols motorcycle club on probation means the headquarters for the outlaw organizations mothership chapter is fair game for random search by probation officers, not individual bikers themselves.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in May ordered the Mongols’ organization to pay a $500,000 fine, and to serve five years on supervised probation, after a Santa Ana jury found that the Southern California-based club itself — rather than specific members — was guilty of racketeering.

The first-of-its-kind legal battle was part of a decade-plus effort by federal law enforcement to seize control of the Mongols’ prized patches, which depict an illustration of a smiling, ponytailed, Ghengis Khan-type motorcycle rider. The Santa Ana jury agreed that the government should be able to take control of the patches and trademark, but Judge Carter overrode that portion of the verdict, ruling it would be unconstitutional.

Since Carter’s decision, law enforcement agencies from across the country have reached out to federal probation officials to ask what the terms of the Mongols organizations probation means for their efforts to police individual riders, prosecutors told the judge.

Read more: https://www.pe.com/2019/06/28/mongols-probation-means-headquarters-of-motorcycle-club-is-subject-to-search-not-riders-on-the-street-judge-says/
(Riverside Press Enterprise)