Officer testified at biker trial

The Seattle police detective who shot a Hells Angel at a South Dakota bar testified last year in a high-profile federal racketeering and murder trial that sent several former and current members of the motorcycle gang to prison.

Detective Ron Smith wounded the man early Saturday after he said he was jumped by as many as three Hells Angels at a Sturgis, S.D., bar during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. South Dakota authorities identified the wounded biker as Joseph McGuire, a Hells Angel from Southern California.

Smith, 43, who works in the department's pawnshop unit, took the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Seattle last year during the 11-week trial of four current and former Hells Angels arrested on federal charges. All four defendants went to prison — for terms ranging from seven years to life without parole — for convictions on conspiracy and racketeering charges.

Smith testified about a run-in he had with a Hells Angel while he was on patrol.

Smith is on administrative leave while Seattle police conduct an internal investigation into the shooting. Seattle police have asked that Seattle media not name the detective out of safety concerns, but Smith says his name is common knowledge after being made public in South Dakota.

Smith has said he believes he was targeted by the Hells Angels, but isn't sure whether it was because of his testimony last year. Seattle police on Thursday declined to comment on any possible connection between Saturday's incident and Smith's earlier court testimony.

But Seattle federal officials who took part in last year's Hells Angels prosecution said they have not been contacted by officials in South Dakota who are investigating the shooting.

Smith said he was inside the Loud American Roadhouse in Sturgis about 1 a.m. Saturday with fellow members of the Iron Pigs, a motorcycle club made up of police officers and firefighters, when he was surrounded by a group of men wearing Hells Angels patches on their clothes.

Smith said he was knocked to the ground and choked by anywhere from one to three bikers. He said he was being beaten by the men and felt someone reaching for a handgun he had on his hip.

Smith said he pulled the handgun and fired twice at one of the men.

"Pretty peripheral"

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lang, who oversaw the prosecution of the four Hells Angels in Seattle, said that if there is evidence that Smith was attacked in the Sturgis bar because of his testimony during the trial, "we would almost certainly get involved." Lang said the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle has not been contacted by investigators in South Dakota.

FBI Special Agent Fred Gutt said members of the Seattle task force that took on the outlaw bikers have not been contacted by South Dakota law enforcement, either. Rapid City, S.D., Resident FBI Agent Robert Perry said he has helped with the Sturgis shooting investigation, but that he has "not specifically" been asked to look into retaliation as a motive.

Lang characterized Smith's involvement in last year's federal case against the Hells Angels as "pretty peripheral." Smith's testimony makes up six pages of the trial's nearly 8,000-page transcript.

During the Seattle trial, Smith testified that he and other officers confronted two Hells Angels inside the Hurricane Café after the manager complained of a disturbance. One of the men was Jonathan "Thunder" Yates, who would later turn informant and testify against the bikers.

The other was Joshua Binder, an enforcer with the motorcycle club who would later admit to a role in the 2001 slaying of Michael Walsh, who was killed for allegedly impersonating a Hells Angel.

Officers found guns on both men.

Bikers at the precinct

Smith went on to testify that the day after the incident, Yates called to apologize and ask him out for a beer. Smith said he refused. Later that day, Smith testified, a group of "six or eight bikes pull up in front of the precinct. I saw some of the Hells Angels colors on the back. They idled in front of the precinct for a few minutes, nobody got off their bikes, and then they left eastbound on Virginia Street."

Binder was drummed out of the Hells Angels, according to federal trial testimony. He was one of four current or former Hells Angels convicted last year in Seattle and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Yates is considered a turncoat by the biker gang.

Lang said "you would have to wonder" why anyone in the Hells Angels would retaliate for testimony against two disgraced members.

In addition to Smith, a group of off-duty Seattle police officers who were in the Sturgis bar with him also are on administrative leave, according to a police spokesman.

Smith was briefly detained after the shooting and submitted to drug and alcohol tests after the fight. He testified before a Meade County grand jury on Sunday.

The jury will reconvene on Aug. 27 to hear additional testimony, as well as view surveillance video of the fight, said Meade County State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal.

Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin said that federal law ensures that Smith and other officers had the right to carry a firearm into the bar as long as they weren't intoxicated. Smith admits that he had been drinking but said he wasn't drunk.

Smith has been disciplined twice in his 15 years as a police officer, once for getting into an argument with a Seattle Seahawks fan at Qwest Field in 2004 and another time for a verbal altercation with a restaurant employee. In the first instance, he received two days off. The second incident resulted in a letter in his file.

McGuire is awaiting trial in California for possession of marijuana and illegal possession of narcotics stemming from his arrest on Jan. 18, 2007.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com