Beginning in 1982, I was indicted, prosecuted and convicted in back-to-back federal trials resulting in a total sentence of 41 years, 1 month and several days. 

 In March 1982, I was indicted in the Middle District of Florida, Federal Court, Tampa Division, case #82-0019-CR-J-GC. I was charged with drug violations and conspiracy in a period of January 1, 1978, until December 31, 1981. I was convicted and sentenced to three maximum consecutive sentences totaling thirty-five (35) years and given a special Parole term of ten years to follow.  This was for a first-time drug offense with less than 4 ounces of cocaine presented as evidence.

In November 1982, I was again indicted in the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division, case #82-101-CR-J-JHM. In this case I was charged with the same identical conduct as in case #82-0019-CR-J-GC, but, under the RICO statutes, Violation of, and Conspiracy to violate Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes. I was charged with five separate Predicate and Overt acts, four of which were used as conduct in the Tampa conviction.

One new predicate act was added as justification for multiple successive trials for the same criminal conduct.  The new predicate act was an allegation of possession of cocaine in January 1982.  On cross examination, the government's witness for that act couldn't identify me as one of the people she testified about to the Grand Jury, identified the incident as being in 1981, and finally said that it may well have been someone else she saw.

The court instructed the jury that they had to find me guilty of any two of those acts, to establish that a RICO violation had been committed. My Defense Counsel asked the Court to have the jury find guilt on specific crimes and requested a special verdict form that would supply a record of exactly which Predicate or Overt act that the jury based their findings of guilt.

The Court refused, thus allowing a finding of guilt on any two unspecified Predicate or Overt acts, but refusing to put into the record which acts I had been found guilty of, by the jury. I was convicted and received maximum consecutive sentences of twenty (20) years on each of the two counts, (1) violation of RICO Statutes amd (2) conspiracy to violate RICO Statutes for a total of forty (40) years, to run concurrent to the Tampa sentence, for which I had already served 13 months. .

The Court’s refusal to allow a special verdict has caused me to be sentenced to forty years without specifying which acts I had supposedly violated. It has also allowed random personnel in the following Federal Agencies--  the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Parole Commission and the U.S. Probation Office --to determine which criminal acts I was found guilty of,  instead of a jury of my peers, or by a finding by the sentencing court as required by law and the Constitution of the United States of America.

It is abundantly clear that my successive trial on the RICO charges and my conviction for unspecified acts served no legitimate purpose.   Moreso, since the only new criminal act alleged was not proven.  The prosecutor knew he needed to use the fact that a jury had already convicted me in the Tampa Case to prejudice the new jury in order to convict members who actually had little or no criminal conduct for which they could be proven guilty.

In 1983, when I first came into the federal prison system, I only had an 8th grade education.   I had no knowledge of law and court procedures, and therefore made several mistakes.

The first mistake was thinking that my trial attorney would be the best choice to also represent me in my direct appeal.   Selling my three motorcycles to raise funds, I then hired the same attorney who represented me in the Tampa drug trial.  Even though he had not won at trial,  I had the mistaken opinion that since he was familiar with the evidence used in both complicated cases, he could do a better job than anyone else on my appeals.

At that time, I had not learned that once you are convicted, the best chance of any relief is to prove your attorney failed to represent you properly, or, that the trial court judge made a serious blunder.   No attorney is going to admit that he failed to properly represent his client, or made a mistake that would result in your conviction being overturned.    My convictions were affirmed and my appeals dismissed.

My second mistake was believing that good conduct in prison would earn early release on parole.  My first seven years were spent in the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth.  While there, with the help of my club Brother Little Wolf, we did a two year project overhauling and maintaining worn out equipment, saving the prison thousands of dollars.  In 1993, I went to the FCI in El Reno, Oklahoma.  From 1993 until 2000, I worked for the Recreation Department at El Reno.  I had been power-lifting competitively since 1986, and El Reno was known throughout the federal system for its power-lifting competition.  Back then, they encouraged competitions sanctioned by groups like the American Drug Free Power-lifting Association, and allowed outside judges and weightlifters to participate in these meets.

When I first arrived, the weight equipment had been neglected due to some staff changes, and was in bad shape.   There had been a lot of injuries also, from the lousy equipment and lack of training.  Working with the new supervisor, I repaired and maintained the aging equipment, and set up a training program for weight lifting.   The program cut the injuries and medical costs by 50%. 

While President of the FCI El Reno Power-lifting Club, we organized and set both institution and state records.  In 1996 I broke the old record for the total lifts of 1305 lbs. by a new record of 1505 lbs.   In 1996, when the feds began taking the weights out of all their institutions, I set up a Wellness program that earned outstanding reviews through 2000.

Despite all of the above, and disregarding what I was actually convicted of, the U.S. Parole Commission persisted in its claim that as President of the Outlaws in different chapters and in different positions in unspecified periods, I must be held responsible for all the activities and criminal acts of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. 

This has resulted in the U.S. Parole Commission continuously denying me parole over the last two decades, and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons holding me in a higher custody bracket, which prevented me from transferring closer to my family, attending the funerals of my son and parents, and similar "privileges" granted to others.  


*For further reading:   See the "October Gun Battle" story on this web site. The reader will note that this disaster, which had tragic consequences for both an Outlaws Club member and the police officers involved, was staged by law enforcement officials in an attempt to make politically-fueled headlines during a sheriff's office race.   Yet the responsibility for this incident remains in Roadblock's documentation – almost thirty years later-- to be used and interpreted by Federal agencies to suit their own purposes.

Also, see the article regarding Roadblock's parole, where an inept hearing examiner created a murder and refused to remove it from RB's file over the years until any hope of parole was exhausted.