Feds fail to ban lawyer from Bandidos case

Federal prosecutors recently failed to have high-profile Houston lawyer Kent Schaffer barred from representing the former head of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in an ongoing criminal case. They had contended he reviewed court papers for all Bandidos members accused of crimes in order to sniff out informants.


Schaffer is the lawyer for Jeffrey Pike, former head of the Bandidos, who is charged federally in San Antonio with engaging in racketeering, including such crimes as murder and assault, on behalf of the Bandidos.

 

In a transcript released Tuesday, federal prosecutors said in a hearing last Tuesday that they believed Schaffer was on retainer for the Bandidos, and that it was standard procedure for him to review plea agreements in all cases involving members of the club to ensure they were not secretly cooperating with authorities.


They argued that as a result, there is a conflict of interest against Pike and other members of the group. A judge denied prosecutors' request to stop Schaffer from representing Pike, saying they had not proved their contention, but he opened the door for the issue to be re-examined if they are later to present him with more evidence.


U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry J. Bemporad said that while the government succeeded in showing there was a potential conflict of interest in the case, the conflict was not so serious that Schaffer should be disqualified from the case.


Schaffer is not charged with any wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he could potentially be called as a witness in the case against Pike. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs told the judge that when Bandidos are charged with a crime, they are required to turn in their legal paperwork to a higher ranking member of the organization and that in several instances, that paperwork was handed up to Pike and then Schaffer.
"Cooperation is forbidden by the Bandidos organization with the government," Fuchs said.
Schaffer told the judge he never reviewed any court papers on any Bandidos other than his clients and that if he'd been asked to do so, he would have said no. "I don't know what one Bandido may have said to another about me, but I know I've had about three Bandidos cases, maybe four, in the last 12 years," he said.
"Nobody has brought papers to me in 35 years, Bandidos no non-Bandidos, saying, 'want you to look at these papers and see if this person is cooperating.'"


Schaffer has repeatedly been a challenge for prosecutors.
Pike was arrested by an FBI SWAT team using an armored vehicle and a loudspeaker to approach his Conroe area home before dawn.


Schaffer represented Pike at a hearing a few days later, and a federal magistrate judge ruled he should be released on a minimal bond. Pike was the only one of four defendants who were able to secure such conditional freedom pending trial.


Pike later stepped down as leader of the Bandidos to face the charges -- and remains a respected member of the group. The Bandidos are considered by law-enforcement to be a criminal gang.
The Texas Department of Public Safety places the Bandidos in the same category as the Bloods, Crips and Aryan Brotherhood of Texas in terms of strength and reach.


The Bandidos contend that they are not a criminal organization and that their reputation today is colored by the group's origins, which go back to the mid-1960s when it was founded in the Houston area.


The Bandidos drew national attention in May 2015 during a clash with the Cossacks Motorcycle Club at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco that left nine people dead, about two dozen wounded and nearly 200 bikers charged with engaging in organized crime.
A trial date has not yet been set in that case, in which McClennan County authorities contend the bikers were gangsters that had come to town to rumble and defense lawyers say all but a very few of the men were acting in self defense once gunfire erupted there.