Angels they are not

Barrister Bottomley was making closing arguments to a jury in a case that saw the president and four members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club on trial for belonging to a criminal organization.

 None of these defendants were what you would call “choir boys.” All of them were well-known to law enforcement and all of them had previously been convicted of or even pleaded guilty to crimes including weapons possession and drug dealing.

But Bottomley told the jurors, at the end of a six month trial, that didn’t make the Downtown Toronto chapter of the Hells Angels a criminal organization.

“There’s a very significant difference between a criminal organization and an organization that has some criminals in it,” Bottomley told the jurors.

Apparently, the jury agreed with that suggestion. While finding the bikers guilty on multiple other criminal counts, they acquitted them of on the belonging to a criminal organization charge.

I know a place

where we can go ...

OK, I know a lot of the Falls finest hookers won’t be attending a Mensa meeting anytime soon.

Still, their ability to continually be arrested for the same crime, by the same undercover officers remains amazing to me. Every time Roving Anti-Crime Unit officers respond to community complaints about streetwalker traffic there are inevitably good stories that follow.

Cases in point, a recent RAC sweep in the North End that took two “ladies of the evening” off the streets.

RAC Officer Rick Fleck, who’s been on the streets awhile, spotted Evelyn Stewart at 13th Street and Pierce Avenue in the middle of the afternoon and watch as she loitered in the area and tried to flag down cars. When Fleck pulled to her, in plainclothes and an unmarked vehicle, she jumped into the car.

“She said, ‘Do you want to party?’ and I said, ‘Sure’,” Fleck said. “She said we could go to her place and I told her, ‘I got a nice little place on Main Street.’”

Of course, Falls Police headquarters is located at 1925 Main St., but that thought apparently didn’t faze Stewart.

As they drove toward police headquarters, Stewart offered Fleck oral sex for $25 or regular sex, without a condom, for $50. Fleck proceed to pull up to the read parking lot of the police station and activated the gate to allow him to enter the secure facility.

It wasn’t until the RAC officer reached for his handcuffs, that Stewart, who is no stranger to arrest or police headquarters, finally reacted.

“Oh, you do like to get freaky,” she exclaimed.

“No,” Fleck replied, “You’re under arrest.”