Attention Carolina Bikers SC Senate Bill 111 is scheduled for a vote tomorrow Wednesday April 9th. S111 will address faulty traffic signal devices that fail to detect motorcycles. This bill will increase safety for motorcyclists. Please contact your senator and urge quick passage of S111. One senator has hinted someone will try to tie this bill up and effectively kill it this session unless we take prompt action. Please make the phones ring at the statehouse. You may locate your senator and his or her phone number at http://www.scstatehouse.net/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe or by calling (803)212-6200.
Phone calls are more effective than email unless you have a close personal relationship with your senator!
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
FF
PS - Call your friends that don't do email and urge them to make calls in support of this bill!
1) 191 warrants issued in poker sting
2) NC Bikers Spoil Crime Spree
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1) 191 warrants issued in poker sting
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FF Note: After reading this article and Cannon's comments I have to wonder if this law he equates with murder will be enforced next at a charity poker run? Are they profiling or just blindly enforcing this old law? 191 warrants is nothing compared to the number they would get raiding a poker run.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/08/warrants_issued_poker_sting36467/
191 warrants issued in poker sting
1st Circuit deputy solicitor resigns after gambling charges
By Nadine Parks , Glenn Smith
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Investigators have amassed 191 warrants against 65 people tied to a well-heeled Lowcountry gambling circuit that counted a Charleston police officer, a veteran prosecutor, a local schoolteacher and others among its members, authorities said.
Nine more suspects surrendered to detectives Monday evening. Charleston Police officer Michael B. McElveen Jr., one of the suspects, was scheduled to appear but did not because of a personal matter, according to authorities and his attorney, Andy Savage. McElveen called police and arranged to appear at 6 tonight when another group surrenders, they said.
Suspects in Friday's poker bust are served their warrants Monday by masked undercover Charleston County sheriff's deputies among swarming gnats, media and attorneys in a lot outside the Charleston County Jail.
Do you think poker should be legalized in South Carolina?
http://www.charleston.net/polls/2008/apr/poker_poll/results/
Twenty-seven people were charged with gambling offenses over the weekend. Authorities expect to round up the remaining suspects in the coming days.
First Circuit Deputy Solicitor Don Sorenson, who was among those caught during a raid Friday night in Hanahan's tony Tanner Plantation, was charged Monday with four more counts of gambling violations. Solicitor David Pascoe accepted his resignation, and Sorenson apologized for his actions and for disappointing his family, friends and colleagues, said his attorney, Peter Brown.
"The judgment that I have exercised has been poor and unacceptable," Sorenson said in a statement.
Martin Orlando Reyes, owner of the home raided by deputies and police, continued to insist that the police action was heavy-handed and that the weekly games were nothing more than friendly get-togethers involving professionals who like to play Texas Hold 'em.
"We knew it was against the law, but we didn't think the severity of it was a big deal," he said Monday. "It was just a bunch of guys playing cards. It's just a little hobby, something to release a little stress on the weekends."
Mark Peper, who represents Reyes and five others involved in the case, said he will recommend that his clients simply pay their fines for the misdemeanor gambling charges and devote their energy to changing a 200-year-old state law that prohibits dice and card games. "To me, it's a law that needs to be changed."
That may be. But Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said it's still the law and he has a duty to enforce it. Area police have raided other games in the past, including a 2006 poker tournament in Mount Pleasant that netted 18 arrests. "It may be an old law," Cannon said. "But so is murder."
Cannon and his deputies also scoffed at the notion that these games were friendly tournaments. Authorities said the operation involved four locations, including Reyes' home, where they seized around $40,000.
More arrests
Law enforcement officers charged nine more people Monday on unlawful games and betting charges in connection with the Hanahan poker raid:
-- Mandy R. Aytes, 23
-- Charles Creech, 58
-- Bruce A. Eisenhut, 65
-- George D. Gardner, 58
-- Roy D. Gardner, 35
-- Steve Meaux, 61
-- Jason P. Pluchinsky, 32
-- Robert L. Weaver, 68
-- George A. Whitlock, 38
Related stories
Gambling law change unlikely anytime soon 4/8/2008
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/08/gambling_law_change_unlikely_anytime_soo36451/
Accused gambler aims to fight charges 4/7/2008
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/07/accused_gambler_aims_fight_charges36367/
27 arrested in gambling sting 4/6/2008
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/06/arrested_gambling_sting36322/
Maj. John Clark said the poker games were well-organized, with paid pit bosses and dealers, and flush pots of money. Clark said it was not uncommon for $20,000 to change hands in an evening.
To drive their point home, sheriff's detectives displayed a host of items seized from Reyes' Tanner Hall Boulevard home and other properties that were searched. Several cases of poker chips, cards, table reservation markers, cash drawers and other gambling items filled one evidence room. In another, several poker tables with plush green velvet tops stood side by side. Also on hand was a disabled video surveillance system the poker players used to check who was coming to the door during their games, deputies said.
Cannon said the detectives began their investigation in May after receiving information about a high-stakes, casino-style operation. They spent the next 10 months identifying those involved in the circuit and gathering evidence, he said.
Three suspects whose names have not been released started the poker games about a year ago and the enterprise soon blossomed, Clark said. Reyes joined in the play and at some point split off to start games at his home. That's when the pots really started to get plump, deputies said.
Reyes, who runs a heating-and-air business, doesn't dispute that these weren't penny-ante games. He said he and his friends are serious poker players who enjoy playing for real money. But he insists that no one was paid to deal cards and that the house didn't get a cut. He said the players included a former police officer, a dentist, medical administrators, contractors and others.
Peper said the game that night was unusually large, but the amount of the money involved has been exaggerated. Half of the $40,000 seized that night came from Reyes' personal safe in his bedroom. Other money was taken from the wallets of the players, he said. "Forty-thousand dollars was not the amount of money that was in play."
Cases of poker chips that were seized as evidence during raids on several locations Friday night by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.
Reyes' wife, Dawn, said she and her husband never imagined that hosting a card game could one day lead to gun-toting policemen in ski masks barging through the door. Dawn Reyes said officers placed her and her babysitter on the floor, cuffed them with plastic ties and then sat her beside her 5-year-old daughter. She was eventually let go without being charged.
"Why was I treated like someone busted at a crack house?" she asked. "Overkill is the word that comes to mind."
A visitor that night, 35-year-old Qui Ho, had similar complaints. He and his brother, Quang Ho, went to the home at Reyes' invitation. Both brothers own nail salons called Regal Nails. It was their first visit to the home and they were interested in seeing some poker.
They were watching a basketball game on television when deputies burst through the door. The brothers thought it was a robbery. Quang Ho was pushed to the ground and hurt his back slightly. They were cuffed with plastic ties that scratched their wrists, and they saw others roughed up as well, Qui Ho said.
Cannon said he had received no complaints about deputies being too rough. He defended the display of guns and other raid tactics as necessary to ensure the safety of officers entering a home with no idea what potential dangers await them. "I don't think you can send one person up to knock on the door and say 'Y'all are under arrest, leave the money on the table and file out the front door,' " he said. "It doesn't work that way."
The people involved in the games took a risk, and that risk comes with a cost, Cannon said. Several players learned that lesson Monday as they lined up to be arrested outside the Charleston County jail. It made for an odd spectacle: suspects and attorneys swatting gnats and conferring with black-hooded detectives who sat at a long folding table.
"I never have seen a cattle call like this before," said attorney Thomas Sanders IV, who represented poker enthusiast Steve Meaux.
Reyes and his wife were back home, but they're not making any plans for Friday night. "No more poker at my house," he said. "That's it."
Jill Coley contributed to this report. Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com Reach Nadine Parks at nparks@postandcourier.com.
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2) NC Bikers Spoil Crime Spree
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http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/04/06/3369915.htm
Crime spree spotlights group's brazen robberies
(Fayetteville Observer, The (Fayetteville, NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 6--The young man and his 15-year-old accomplice walked into the convenience stores March 16 acting as though they had no cares.
Within about 6 hours, police say, the pair had robbed four stores, threatening to kill people for merchandise as inconsequential as Tahitian Treat, Doritos, Newport cigarettes and a small amount of money.
Along their way, police say, the two shot at a clerk from close range and at a group of motorcyclists who helped in their eventual arrest.
Alphonso Emmanuel Stephenson Jr., 20, and the 15-year-old -- whose name is being withheld because of his age -- are among six Fayetteville residents charged with robbing seven businesses in Cumberland County in March. Police suspect the group, which claims to have gang ties, is responsible for robbing as many as 16 businesses.
The March 16 robberies were particularly brazen. Fayetteville police Lt. Alex Thompson and store clerks who were robbed say Stephenson and the 15-year-old walked nonchalantly into the stores, chatted politely with the clerks, then robbed them, sometimes at gunpoint. For the pair, there was no rhyme or reason for the spree, other than a sporadic attempt to earn money, police say.
But the psychological impact on the victims can't be missed. One clerk was so unnerved that she quit her job.
Police and the clerks recount that early morning of terror. See Robberies, Page 5A for the story.
The young man fidgeting with the pink Sweet'N Low packets near the self-service coffee machine drew the helpful gaze of BP-Amoco clerk Mary Brooks.
"How old are you?" Brooks, 41, asked the slender man wearing a black cap and matching black jacket and pants.
"I'm 19, ma'am," 20-year-old Alphonso Stephenson politely replied.
Stephenson's 15-year-old friend peered at them from the restroom door.
"I was going to tell you that you're too young to be drinking coffee," Brooks chided Stephenson.
Brooks has worked at the gas station at 3310 Bragg Blvd. for three years. For her, it seemed like just another Sunday morning.
Outside the store, engines rumbled as 20 Harley-Davidson motorcycle enthusiasts from Cape Fear Hogs Chapter 3473 gathered for their monthly Sunday morning ride.
But everything was not what it seemed.
Stephenson goes by the moniker Mannie, and his teenage friend is known on the street as Block. They could not have cared less about bikers or that cup of coffee.
The two were at the gas station for the sole purpose of robbing it.
With the sun rising and a .380-caliber handgun stashed in Mannie's pants, Brooks was about to become their next victim.
Joe Hawkins remembers their caps -- a black one worn by Mannie, a red one by Block. The bills were turned down to hide their faces.
The pair strolled into Hawkins' Wilco-Hess station at 4560 Raeford Road roughly three hours after they had robbed a Kangaroo gas station on Bragg Boulevard. Hawkins' station would become the pair's second robbery of the night.
They chatted up Hawkins like friendly customers, talking about late-night parties while scooping up two bags of Doritos, two 20-ounce Coca-Colas, a Tahitian Treat and two Toaster snacks.
As Hawkins turned his back to ring up the order, Block bolted to his rear. The robbery was on.
"Gimme the money," Block yelled.
"What did you say?" Hawkins replied, thinking it was a joke.
The 15-year-old lifted his black T-shirt and his red undershirt to display a handgun.
"Gimme the money," Block said, more sternly this time.
As Hawkins began erasing the previous transaction from the register, the two robbers grew anxious.
"Yo, man, he's stalling!" Mannie cried out.
"No. No. No. The only way I can open the register is by voiding the previous transaction," Hawkins replied. The drawer popped open.
Block grabbed green bags filled with about $75, leaving the coins behind.
"I want some cigarettes," Block told the clerk.
Hawkins rounded up 16 packs of Newports and gave them to Mannie. Then, to the robbers' surprise, Hawkins started to walk out.
"Where you think you're going?" they asked.
"You all got what you wanted, right?" Hawkins said.
"No. No. No," Block said. "You ain't going nowhere. Stay here and give us five minutes until we get away."
Hawkins waited until they walked out, then pushed a small panic button beneath the counter to alert authorities. He walked to the back of the store, where an assistant was working.
"We've been robbed," Hawkins said. Moments later, Hawkins walked to the front of the store, where he saw Mannie and Block sitting out front in a burgundy car. A heavy-set woman sat in the driver's seat. As she slowly backed out of the parking lot, Hawkins could hear the pair who robbed him. They were counting the money and laughing out loud.
"If I'm going to steal something, I'm going to at least try to get away," Hawkins said to himself. "These boys seem like they don't care."
Three hours later, the two robbers drove into a Kangaroo station at 3102 Bragg Blvd. After showing the clerk a gun, they left with an undisclosed amount of money, four packs of Newport cigarettes and a 20-ounce Dr Pepper. The experience so unnerved the 24-year-old clerk that she quit her job out of fear for her safety.
Fifteen minutes after robbing that Kangaroo, Mannie and Block showed up at Mary Brooks' BP-Amoco for one more score.
Brooks gave Block directions to the restroom and checked on Mannie to see if he needed help with the coffee machine before returning to the front register. Mannie approached, laid some Sweet'N Low and coffee on the counter and waited as Block positioned himself nearby, looking at a magazine.
Suddenly, one of the motorcyclists who was in the parking lot entered the store. Mannie scrambled back to the coffee machine to get more Sweet'N Low.
"Can I pay for my gas with this card?" the man asked.
"Sure, I'll approve it for you, and you can come back in here when you're done," Brooks said.
As the man left to pump gas, Mannie returned to the front, placed the coffee on the counter and signaled Block with a tap on the shoulder. When Brooks looked down at the coffee, she saw the gun pointing at her.
"Open the drawer," Mannie said.
"And don't scream," added Block.
Brooks looked at her two would-be robbers, then glanced at the bikers outside. In a split-second decision, she bolted for the store window and banged on it for dear life.
"Help me! Help me!," she screamed. "I'm getting robbed!"
"Whatchu do that for?" Mannie hollered. "Whatchu do that for?"
Clutching his handgun, Mannie pointed it toward Brooks and squeezed the trigger. The bullet bounced off a nearby brick wall and hit Brooks in her right thigh, leaving a bruise but nothing more.
Mannie and Block ran at full sprint out the door, where about 10 of the bikers chased them on foot.
Another motorcyclist, Steve Holder, had just pulled up to get gas. He and Jerry Garner kick-started their Harleys and joined the pursuit.
"My mind said run them over," Holder said. "That's what I was going to do."
As Mannie ran, he fired gunshots toward the motorcyclists who were on foot, slowing their pursuit and allowing the two to dart into nearby woods.
But police were near. With help from the motorcyclists, police set up a perimeter and brought in trained dogs.
Mannie and Block were tracked down and arrested. Their robbery spree was over.
Two weeks later, police held a news conference to announce the arrest of six people charged with robbing Fayetteville businesses or a related shooting. Stephenson and the 15-year-old, who were among the six, are also accused of robbing a Wendy's restaurant at 5740 Yadkin Road on March 1.
The others charged are Jerry Dennings, 30, and his brother, Bryant Dennings, 24; Marcus J. Morgan, 25; and Whitley Russell, 23.
The Dennings brothers are accused of robbing and shooting 47-year-old Robbie Sanderson at his home on the 4000 block of Dwight Circle on March 8. Police say the brothers took $2 from him.
Their arrests, Thompson said, cracked the robbery cases wide open. Police continue to investigate other robberies.
"We may have only hit the tip of the iceberg," Thompson said.
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