Biker Trials, The (49 page)

On December 23, 1999, Sirois set up a meeting with Chouinard where he said he wanted to officially ask to be made a member of the Rockers. Chouinard said it was up to the Rockers and that they were 25 members at that point who all thought differently. He said he even felt he had lost control of them. Giauque brought up the now-infamous sushi dinner where Bourgoin said the Hells Angels had a price list rating the value of each rival gang member who was killed. But Bourgoin also explained that Sirois could climb up in the gang without killing someone, that it would just take longer. Giauque reminded the jury of the evidence they'd heard from Gagné, who testified, among other things, about the plan the Hells Angels had to level the Rock Machine hangout in Verdun.

“It demonstrates that the identity of a person had no importance when they were part of the enemy. It is a clear evidence of the intentions of the gang to eliminate the competition through murder,” she said.

Ronald (Popo) Paulin, a member of the Rockers.
(John Mahoney, The Montreal Gazette)

The following day, on February 4, 2004, Giauque continued her final arguments, now narrowing the evidence down to each of the accused. She asked the jury to consider several things. First, she asked them to remember a gathering on Provencher's maple syrup farm, where several Rockers from prison made collect calls to talk to the rest of the gang. During
one conversation, Ronald Paulin told Beauchamp that there were 30 members of the Rockers at that point. Beauchamp had replied, “We're a nice clique.”

“Don't forget that our theory is to the effect that the Hells Angels' Nomads [chapter] controlled the trafficking of diverse drugs while generating huge profits. The proof shown [earlier in the trial] clearly shows how it was done,” Giauque said. “It is evident from the evidence that these are not autonomous drug dealers but an association of people who dealt in drugs in a way that was highly organized.” Giauque added that videos proved things like how Beau-champ had done guard duty on Michel Rose, who was importing a lot of cocaine for the Nomads.

She also reminded the jury that at one of Luc Bordeleau's residences the police found several weapons and an agenda that indicated he was doing a lot of intelligence gathering for the Hells Angels, and was going to set up gang members with courses on wiretapping and courthouse research. He also had notes concerning the Café Cosenza, known to be a favourite hangout of Vito Rizzuto's at the time. In his bathroom, underneath the mirror, Bordeleau had kept a stash of money.

When going over André Couture's involvement, Giauque pointed to video evidence that indicated he was heavily involved with Normand Robitaille's drug business. Couture helped do himself in by talking very openly during some of the Masses videotaped by the police.

André Courture, a member of the Rockers.

“Remember that the simple fact of being at a Mass is important, very important. The full-fledged members have to attend or they would be sanctioned or have to face the Nomads. It is a significant presence for
the gang and the pursuit of their activities,” Giauque said.

On April 27, 2000, during a gang meeting at a motel, it was Couture who announced that Dubois had quit the gang. Couture was reminded that he owed $3,400 to the ten percent fund. He was videotaped saying he had no problem with paying the money. The money was due from a period when he was in prison, a clear indication that his business was operating even while he was behind bars.

Couture had had his share of run-ins with the law while he was with the Rockers. On November 29, 1997, he was arrested after two officers patrolling the Hochelaga Maisonneuve district noticed Couture driving erratically on Bennett Street, in front of the Nomads chapter's hangout. He had backed up into a pole left over from a former railway crossing. When the officers pulled Couture over, they asked him for his licence and registration. When he opened the glove compartment they couldn't help but notice the chrome-plated revolver inside it.

Couture refused to get out of the car. As the officers prepared to arrest him, they could hear someone inside the Nomads chapter's hangout shout, “If you shoot him, we will shoot you.” One of the arresting officers would later say in court that he wanted to get out of there fast because he knew who occupied 2101 Bennett Street.

While Couture was being processed, the police opened a sports bag he had with him. It contained a bunch of papers and a note pad. For some reason, Couture consented to having the pages photocopied by the police. He was able to plead guilty and received a $350 fine with a sentence of just two years probation.

But the papers he allowed to be photocopied would later come back to haunt him. Some of the most damaging evidence against Couture in the megatrial was contained in those papers. His lawyer fought to have the documents excluded, because they were evidence from a previous conviction, but lost. It helped
prove that Couture worked for Normand Robitaille, collecting money that dealers owed and keeping an accounts receivable. Among the papers was a to-do list citing things like “debug the vehicle” among Couture's chores.

Stéphane (Godasse) Gagné would later recount how Robitaille was furious with Couture when he learned the police had photocopied the documents. Couture was only supposed to have been in possession of the papers for a short while. Gagné would later explain just how important the documents were to Robitaille and the Nomads chapter, as they contained information on how Robitaille had his cocaine cut and listed some of his major clients, including one of Gagné's brothers. But the documents also contained evidence that Robitaille was in the process of gathering personal information on every member of the Nomads chapter's organization to help prevent people from turning informant. Gagné had testified that Maurice (Mom) Boucher once ordered everyone working with him or under him to hand over all personal information, such as their social insurance numbers. Included among the documents photocopied with Couture's permission were personal details, like the social insurance numbers of Donald (Pup) Stockford and Walter (Nurget) Stadnick, the two Ontario members of the Nomads chapter.

As she continued to make her final arguments, Giauque broke down the evidence the prosecution team had on each of the accused. She mentioned how when the police searched Bruno Lefebvre's house in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, west of Montreal, they found paperwork in the kitchen indicating he was ready to sell it for $435,000. He also had a mortgage for $15o,ooo.The police also found a document that claimed he worked for a company, earning $317 net per week. Yet Lefebvre could afford to pay $50,000 cash as a down payment on a house and was sometimes videotaped by the police driving around in a brand new Cadillac. Stéphane Sirois had said Lefebvre was introduced into the
Rockers while dealing drugs for Pierre Provencher in Verdun between 1996 and 1998.n1 1997, Lefebvre took one for the team when he was shot while he and a few other Rockers were breaking up a Rock Machine drug den. But the shot didn't come from a Rock Machine gun.

Informant Aimé Simard testified in a trial a few years earlier that it took Lefebvre a few minutes to realize he had been shot by accident by a fellow Rocker while they were shaking down the rival drug dealers, torturing them for information on who ran the drug den. The gang was left to search for a doctor who would remove the bullet, which had lodged in Lefebvre's upper body, without calling the police.

While going over the evidence against Richard (Dick) Mayrand, Giauque focused on his apparent role in the brief truce between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels. Mayrand had been present at the dinner at the Bleu Marin restaurant where the two gangs had agreed to a ceasefire. “What you have to understand of this is that the people who were present [at the dinner] and represented the two rival gangs had the authority to stop a war that had lasted for years. These were the heads of each organization,” Giauque said.

Giauque also used wiretaps to show that Mayrand had apparently been brought into the Nomads chapter as a leader, in particular over diplomatic issues. On November 28, 2ooo,at around 9 p.m., the police listened in as Mayrand called George Wegers, the U.S. leader of the Bandidos. Wegers lived in the west coast state of Washington. The conversation was brief but polite, considering it was between the leaders of two rival gangs.

“How are you?” Wegers had asked. Mayrand laughed and said that things “could be better” and repeated that he was willing to take a plane to meet with Wegers somewhere “to fix something.”

“So Mr. Mayrand was the person designated by the Hells Angels' organization to meet a [member of the] Bandidos at the
other end of the country to settle business,” Giauque said, adding it was obvious the conversation was related to the biker war. “Does this not give you an idea of Mr. Mayrand's importance in the gang?”

What Giauque was not able to tell the jury was that the police had tracked Mayrand to the eventual meeting with Wegers. Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Guy Ouellette was informed that the meeting was going to take place in British Columbia. Based on past experience, he figured Mayrand and Wegers would meet at the Peace Arch Park, which sits on the spot where Washington Interstate 5 meets with Highway 99 at the Canada/U.S. border. The park is a sort of no man's land where both Mayrand and Wegers could meet without technically having to cross an international border. Both men had criminal records, and could have been arrested crossing into either country. Wegers had already been arrested years earlier for meeting with the Rock Machine in Quebec City.

The meeting was believed to be related to something that had happened at a motorcycle show in Europe a week earlier. Several members of the Rock Machine had attended the show and were shown what their patches as new members of the Bandidos were going to look like. This was while the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine were supposed to be in a truce. Mayrand was recorded calling his former Hells Angel brother in the Montreal chapter, David (Gyrator) Giles, who had moved to B.C. to join a Hells Angels' chapter there, asking him for bodyguards for the meeting. Giles said he would take care of it.

On November 30, 2000, Mayrand met with Wegers in Peace Arch Park while the police watched from a distance. Mayrand had two bodyguards with him, Rick Ciarnello and John Bryce. Wegers also had bodyguards. The two gang leaders talked for a while, with Mayrand appearing to do most of the talking. Wegers listened with no expression on his face. The meeting ended without incident. Judging by what happened almost immediately
afterward, it appears that Mayrand let Wegers know that the Hells Angels were going to respond to the fact the Rock Machine was to be patched over by the Bandidos in Quebec and Ontario.

Within days of the meeting with Wegers, it was apparent Mayrand was helping to lead the push to create new Hells Angels' chapters in Ontario. On December 7, 2000, Mayrand and Mathieu were recorded in a phone conversation discussing an order of some 100 new Hells Angels' patches. By December 12, that number had increased to 160, apparently thanks to Donald (Pup) Stockford. Mayrand was recorded talking to Jacques Emond, a longtime member of the Sherbrooke chapter, informing him of the good news. Emond had once lived in British Columbia and apparently still had ties there.

“So it's going to happen in eight days?” Emond said of the eventual patch-over party to be held in Sorel.

“That's it.”

“Okay.”

“Is that all right?”

“So, I'll alert the west.”

“You're going to alert the west and your chapter,” Mayrand told Emond before saying goodbye. Giauque pointed to the calls as proof of Mayrand's importance in the Hells Angels.

“The defense might tell you that Mr. Mayrand only joined the Nomads on January 12, 2000, that his actions before that date prove nothing and that they were meetings between friends and that is all. I believe it is impossible to believe this. Could you really believe that Richard Mayrand had been a member of the Hells Angels' Montreal [chapter] for more than 15 years without having anything more than an amicable relationship with them? It is impossible,” she said.