In fact, the Angels also want their framed poems, black leather vests, gun permits, drivers' licenses, personal papers and biker memorabilia.
In a federal civil-rights lawsuit, Alan "Big Al" Wolf, of Denver, Pa., Peter Miller, of Pennsburg, Pa., and Gregory "George" Suny, of Upper Darby, say the Philly cops won't give back the items seized during a 2005 raid in West Philadelphia.
So, they're demanding more than $50,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from the city, court records show. A source close to settlement discussions claims the Angels have turned down an offer from the city that they consider too low.
Today, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Arnold C. Rapoport takes over the case and is expected to schedule a settlement conference.
The lawsuit, however, leaves out key details of the Angels' short, colorful history, such as the failed bombing of its headquarters that immediately preceded the raid.
It also fails to mention the Angels' bloody battle with the Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Club, a war that included murder, drive-by shootings, turncoats and beatings to drive the Angels out of Philadelphia.Attorney Michael Caudo filed the lawsuit last July in Common Pleas Court and it was later transferred to Federal Court last October. Caudo said he didn't mention the outlaw motorcycle club by name because: "I don't represent the Hells Angels. [The club] has counsel. "What I was seeking was the return of property - drivers' licenses, permits to carry firearms and firearms," he added.Wolf, Miller and Suny "were never arrested. They were taken in for questioning," he added. "They didn't do anything illegal."Law enforcement officers "could have looked at their [drivers' licenses and gun permits], copied them and given them back," he added.Four months before the raid, Angels chapter president Thomas "Thinker" Woods was fatally shot on the Schuylkill Expressway in what was widely speculated to be the latest incident of an ongoing war between the Angels and Pagans.Then, on May 18, 2005, authorities learned that a homemade bomb had been thrown overnight at the Angels' headquarters.The bomb, believed to be a grenade attached to a container of gasoline, did not explode. But police and FBI investigators found "bits and pieces" left by the explosive device, although not the device, in the Angels' front yard.Later that night, about a dozen Angels were meeting inside when investigators outside the club asked Steve DeMarco, then chapter vice president, to tell where the bomb was "or they would take further action," according to a source close to the probe.Investigators wanted to disarm the device, so it would not harm anyone, especially children, the source said.
So, DeMarco asked the Angels if they wanted to disclose the bomb's whereabouts. They responded with a resounding "NO!," according to a biker source. So DeMarco, in turn, told authorities: "You gotta do what you gotta do."
The next day, the biker source claimed, DeMarco allowed authorities to enter and search the club, before Detective James Kearney obtained a search warrant. DeMarco could not be reached for comment.During the search, police and FBI agents seized the Angels' guns and belongings. The lawsuit claimed the search was illegal."Some of that evidence may be in federal custody and they are suing the wrong [agency]," a law enforcement source said."We're not in the business of putting guns back on the street," the source continued. "They already demonstrated what they want to do with them. They're not using them for hunting. They're using those guns to hunt down Pagans."But Caudo insisted: "You can't just go rounding people up and taking their property."As for three black leather vests - the ones emblazoned with the Angels' death-head logo, known as their "colors," the source said, "Only one set of 'colors' were taken that night, and they were returned when the owner requested them.
"They're lying in the filings" if they say three leather vests were seized in the lawsuit, the source added. "None of those people [Wolf, Miller and Suny] came forward to claim their property."After Caudo filed the lawsuit, he learned that only one vest was taken, and returned a week later. While investigators questioned the Angels, they were in "reasonable fear of imminent bodily harm" and were "unlawfully and improperly assaulted and battered against their will," according to the lawsuit.
Meantime, investigators found the grenade on the railroad tracks under a bridge at 41st and Poplar Streets, about seven blocks from the Angels' headquarters.
"They're all lucky we didn't charge them with hindering an investigation and risking a catastrophe," the law enforcement source said. "They got off easy that night."
But that may not be for long.
There's an ongoing federal-local probe of the recent war between the Angels and Pagans, including the missing bomb, Woods' murder and "a whole series of things," the law enforcement source said.Craig Straw, chief deputy of the civil rights division of the city Law Department, declined to comment.Since the Angels' chapter was closed, some members opened a statewide chapter of Nomads, an elite outlaw biker club associated with the Hells Ang