An associate of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was sentenced to 30 months in prison Thursday for setting up a gang beating that an extortion victim somehow survived after being stabbed, stomped, blinded in one eye and beaten so severely with a hammer that most bones in his face were shattered.
Federal prosecutors said Howard Hammer, 45, of New Milford, drove a group of outlaw bikers to a motel in New Milford where the bikers nearly killed the unidentified victim in January 2016.
Hammer pleaded guilty to extortion, admitting that he threatened the victim over an unpaid $1,500 loan and set up the assault. But he was not accused of direct involvement in the beating and has refused to identify those who were directly involved.
A Hells motorcycle jacket is shown in this undated photo. On Thursday 45-year-oold Howard Hammer, of New Milford, was sentenced in the beating of a man over an unpaid $1,500 loan
(Associated Press)
The prosecution produced recordings of wiretapped conversations that suggest Hammer agreed to take the "fall" for the crime in order to enhance his standing with the Hells Angels.
"I'm gonna be the fall guy, take the hit," the government claims Hammer told another gang member in a recorded conversation, "which I'm fine with. I don't wanna see no one else get in trouble. I don't want to see nothing, you know what I mean?"
Hammer was a member of the Charter Oak Motorcycle Club of Stamford, which law enforcement experts said is affiliated with, but considered to be a step beneath, the Hells Angels, which has a chapter in Bridgeport. In another conversation intercepted by the FBI, Hammer brags that his decision to take the weight for the beating impressed the president of the Angels' Bridgeport club, Sean Oldroyd:
"Um, Sean took me to the side and he goes, 'I don't talk to many people like this…' he goes, '…but your guys club, you guys are top notch in our book, you know.' He goes, um, you know, he just praised us like crazy, and he goes, 'And you for helping us out, you hold our card in your pocket.'"
Government legal filings assert that Hells Angels associated with the Bridgeport chapter are suspected of carrying out the assault and the investigation is continuing. The Angels were not a party to the loan, but became enraged when the victim, in an effort to buy time to repay the loan, falsely claimed to be an Angel. The victim borrowed $1,500 and agreed to repay $2,000 within four days.
Before his assault, prosecutors said the victim "improvidently wore clothing and had tattoos bearing images of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club."
"The Hells Angels considers these items and images to be their exclusive property," prosecutors said in a legal memo. "The club strictly controls its brand and membership."
Worse yet, the victim falsely told the loan shark — James Broderick III, 58, of New Milford — that he was the acting president of the Hells Angels New York chapter.
"I'm standing in as president in New York and I spent the whole day and night there so please do not bring to any disrespect or I'll take it elsewhere so let's just do business I'll take care of you for waiting and just leave it as that," the victim wrote in the text. Broderick has pleaded guilty to extortion and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
Eventually, the victim's assertions reached the Angels, according to prosecutors, who said in a legal memo that the description permanent bodily injury does not do justice to what happened to the victim. The victim "was stabbed eight times in the back, resulting in intra-abdominal and spleen injuries. He also suffered acute respiratory failure and numerous pulmonary contusions."
He "had eleven teeth knocked out of his mouth. He had a depressed frontal skull fracture, basal skull fracture, subdural hematoma, depressed nasal fracture, and multiple complex facial fractures, in particular along the lateral walls and floor of the left eye orbit, in the left and right maxillary area, and hard palate.
"His jaw bone was reduced to minute fragments and pulverized particles. His cheek bone was completely shattered in multiple pieces and completely dissociated from the skull. His left eye orbital was shattered into multiple comminuted fragments and his optic nerve was injured.
"He also had multiple lacerations along his forehead. His lip was completely destroyed with multiple linear lacerations, jagged lacerations, devitalized tissue, denervated tissue with a 12 cm laceration in multiple pieces of the entire left upper lift, the mucosal surface, and orbicularis. Doctors determined that the necessary scope of surgery was beyond what Danbury Hospital could provide and the victim was transferred on an urgent basis to Yale New Haven Hospital for bone grafts and reconstruction of the orbital rim, orbital floor, and mandible."
USA - BN.
Federal prosecutors said Howard Hammer, 45, of New Milford, drove a group of outlaw bikers to a motel in New Milford where the bikers nearly killed the unidentified victim in January 2016.
Hammer pleaded guilty to extortion, admitting that he threatened the victim over an unpaid $1,500 loan and set up the assault. But he was not accused of direct involvement in the beating and has refused to identify those who were directly involved.
A Hells motorcycle jacket is shown in this undated photo. On Thursday 45-year-oold Howard Hammer, of New Milford, was sentenced in the beating of a man over an unpaid $1,500 loan
(Associated Press)
The prosecution produced recordings of wiretapped conversations that suggest Hammer agreed to take the "fall" for the crime in order to enhance his standing with the Hells Angels.
"I'm gonna be the fall guy, take the hit," the government claims Hammer told another gang member in a recorded conversation, "which I'm fine with. I don't wanna see no one else get in trouble. I don't want to see nothing, you know what I mean?"
Hammer was a member of the Charter Oak Motorcycle Club of Stamford, which law enforcement experts said is affiliated with, but considered to be a step beneath, the Hells Angels, which has a chapter in Bridgeport. In another conversation intercepted by the FBI, Hammer brags that his decision to take the weight for the beating impressed the president of the Angels' Bridgeport club, Sean Oldroyd:
"Um, Sean took me to the side and he goes, 'I don't talk to many people like this…' he goes, '…but your guys club, you guys are top notch in our book, you know.' He goes, um, you know, he just praised us like crazy, and he goes, 'And you for helping us out, you hold our card in your pocket.'"
Government legal filings assert that Hells Angels associated with the Bridgeport chapter are suspected of carrying out the assault and the investigation is continuing. The Angels were not a party to the loan, but became enraged when the victim, in an effort to buy time to repay the loan, falsely claimed to be an Angel. The victim borrowed $1,500 and agreed to repay $2,000 within four days.
Before his assault, prosecutors said the victim "improvidently wore clothing and had tattoos bearing images of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club."
"The Hells Angels considers these items and images to be their exclusive property," prosecutors said in a legal memo. "The club strictly controls its brand and membership."
Worse yet, the victim falsely told the loan shark — James Broderick III, 58, of New Milford — that he was the acting president of the Hells Angels New York chapter.
"I'm standing in as president in New York and I spent the whole day and night there so please do not bring to any disrespect or I'll take it elsewhere so let's just do business I'll take care of you for waiting and just leave it as that," the victim wrote in the text. Broderick has pleaded guilty to extortion and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
Eventually, the victim's assertions reached the Angels, according to prosecutors, who said in a legal memo that the description permanent bodily injury does not do justice to what happened to the victim. The victim "was stabbed eight times in the back, resulting in intra-abdominal and spleen injuries. He also suffered acute respiratory failure and numerous pulmonary contusions."
He "had eleven teeth knocked out of his mouth. He had a depressed frontal skull fracture, basal skull fracture, subdural hematoma, depressed nasal fracture, and multiple complex facial fractures, in particular along the lateral walls and floor of the left eye orbit, in the left and right maxillary area, and hard palate.
"His jaw bone was reduced to minute fragments and pulverized particles. His cheek bone was completely shattered in multiple pieces and completely dissociated from the skull. His left eye orbital was shattered into multiple comminuted fragments and his optic nerve was injured.
"He also had multiple lacerations along his forehead. His lip was completely destroyed with multiple linear lacerations, jagged lacerations, devitalized tissue, denervated tissue with a 12 cm laceration in multiple pieces of the entire left upper lift, the mucosal surface, and orbicularis. Doctors determined that the necessary scope of surgery was beyond what Danbury Hospital could provide and the victim was transferred on an urgent basis to Yale New Haven Hospital for bone grafts and reconstruction of the orbital rim, orbital floor, and mandible."
USA - BN.
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