Auto detailer who refused to testify against Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club members pleads guilty to contempt of court

submitted by [deleted] from oregonlive.com

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[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

  • Police obtained a warrant to seize and search the Suburban, which they found at Thompson’s Auto Detailing shop
  • Prosecutors identified Thompson as a member of the Gypsy Joker support club
  • Prosecutors say Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club members drove the Suburban, which was used to kidnap and kill a man.
  • Blood evidence matching the DNA profile of Huggins’ was found in the Suburban

The Auto Detailer was obviously being accused of being an accomplice to murder. Despite prosecutor's deceptive persuasion for the witness to incriminate himself, by downplaying him as simply being "sucked into a situation that he didn’t really have much to do with," if this were true and provable, then the Auto Detailer would still be guilty of being an accomplice to murder.

What we really have is a prosecutor with a lot of assumptions, police with assumptions, and neither with enough evidence to convict anyone. The prosecutor tried a Hail Marry, to trick a suspected murder accomplice into testifying against his self and others, by tossing him on the witness stand.

I'm pretty sure most judges would find that an appalling tactic, a waste of the court for an empty case. This seems likely an attempt to dispose a suspect on the stand without legal consultation and leverage the court as an intimidating authority, in order to deprive the witness of his Constitutional rights.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

These MCs are a problem and their members are influential members of the community, ex-police, and military who are running drug and gun rackets. I don't have any issues putting pressure on one of their auxiliaries. I get why he kept silent, because he and his family would be fucked otherwise, but it sounds like it cost him everything. How's that bad?

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's only bad because of the way the prosecutors did it, trying to thwart his Constitutional rights and throwing the court into a hunch-based theater. The Judge seems somewhat at fault here two; ultimately, it is the Judge's charge of contempt against the man.

We have a lot of MCs here, they are mostly veterans clubs that perpetually do charity fundraisers. It seems best the prosecutor and court treat them as any other group of acquaintances suspected of a crime.