B.C. court hands down key ruling in Hells Angels case

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge in Vancouver issued a not guilty ruling on a charge Thursday that might have labelled the Hells Angels a criminal organization.

As part of her landmark decision, Justice Anne Mackenzie ruled that three men who had been accused of engaging in a joint venture on behalf of a criminal organization were not guilty of that charge.

If they had been found guilty, it could have given authorities the ammunition to impose stiffer sentences and seize Hells Angels assets.

Mackenzie also ruled that the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that David Francis Giles, 58, a full patch member of the Hells Angels, was ever in possession of the eight kilograms of cocaine seized in what was dubbed the E-pandora raid.

However, Mackenzie did find that alleged Hells Angels associates David Roger Revell and Richard Andrew Rempel were in possession of cocaine and they intended to traffic it.

They are scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.

The three men were among about two dozen people — including five full-patch members of a Hells Angels club in east Vancouver — who were arrested and charged by police in the 2005 raid.

Giles, Revell and Rempel had been accused of engaging in a joint venture on behalf of a criminal organization.

The case has been closely watched because it marks a rare occasion when federal anti-gang laws have been used to prosecute members of the Hells Angels on the basis that they had ties to a criminal organization.

Much of the case against Giles was based on sometimes inaudible audio surveillance tapes where he was talking with the co-accused.

Speaking to reporters in Vancouver, Giles's lawyer Richard Fowler said mistakes were made in the interpretation of evidence that was gathered by police and presented by Crown lawyers in court.