Five members of a well-known motorcycle gang, including its founder, have been indicted on charges they beat a fellow club member and seized a strip club he owned after he tried stopping the gang from raping his dancers, authorities tell APBNews.com
Along with state sexual assault charges against other gang members, the indictments were a heavy hit against the Breed, a 35-year-old motorcycle club long the target of a federal investigation into suspected criminal activity, including drugs, gun running, and other crimes, APBNews says.
The new indictment comes from a 1998 attack on a member who owned Stars & Bars, a strip club in Long Branch, N.J. Breed founder Salvatore DeIulio, who began the club as a teen in the 1960s, leads the indicted, along with Mark Ruzicka (accused of forcing the victim to sign Stars & Bars over to him), John Kovacs, and John Santiago. Kovacs and Santiago are accused of actually beating the victim. Also indicted was John Descants, who was arrested in Florida, APBNews says.
Prosecutors say the Breed members, angry over the club owner's interference in their bids to sexually assault strippers at Stars & Bars, had him blackballed from the Breed and beaten "viciously," APBNews says. Federal officials say the man was beaten severely enough to be hospitalized.
An attorney for DeIulio, Robert DeGroot, denies the extortion charges, calling them lies from informants hoping to duck jail time by accusing the founder and leader. DeIulio and six other gang members were also charged by Monmouth County authorities with several counts of sexual assault for the alleged attacks on the club's dancers, APBNews says.
A three-year federal investigation has resulted in indictments or convictions of nine other Breed members, from methamphetamine distribution to firearms trafficking, federal authorities tell APBNews. One has already pleaded guilty to one count involving the strip club extortion scheme, Allen Layton, who pleaded in late December and faces a maximum twenty years in prison at his April sentencing.
