LAS VEGAS — A federal criminal case against 42 Hells Angels ended Friday with the sentencing of two men who pleaded guilty to taking part in a deadly brawl with rival Mongols biker gang members in a Nevada casino in 2002.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan sentenced Rodney Cox and James Hannigan to two years in federal prison and dismissed charges against 36 other Hells Angels, in the final act of a complex plea deal that saw six club members plead in October to reduced state and federal charges.
The pleas brought an abrupt end to the federal trial of 11 men stemming from a bloody brawl at the Harrah's Laughlin casino that left two Hells Angels and a rival Mongols member dead and at least a dozen people hurt.
"The lifestyle you've chosen tends to draw the attention of law enforcement," Mahan said during the brief federal sentencing for the last of six men to plead guilty or no contest to committing a violent crime, battery, in the aid of racketeering.
"I believe 24 months is an appropriate sentence in your case," Mahan told Cox, 44, of Phoenix, who was seen on casino security video clobbering a Mongols member in the head with a wrench and whose criminal history of violence, weapons and drug charges the judge called "terrible."
Mahan sentenced Hannigan, 39, of Mountain View, Calif., to two years in federal prison, despite protests from prosecutor Andrew Duncan that Hannigan was "one of the most culpable and aggressive people in the casino that night."
Hannigan stabbed two people and slashed a third, the prosecutor said.
The judge said he didn't consider the actions of Cox and Hannigan as egregious as those of Hells Angels gunmen Calvin Schaefer and Maurice "Pete" Eunice, who were videotaped firing guns during the brawl.
Mahan last month handed Schaefer, 37, of Chandler, Ariz., the stiffest sentence in the federal case — 51 months. Schaefer also got 20 to 50 months in the state case, but his sentences were folded in with a five-year sentence he began serving Jan. 19 in an unrelated federal case in Arizona. Schaefer's lawyer, David Chesnoff, said Friday he expected Schaefer will be out of prison by the end of 2011.
Mahan last week sentenced Eunice to 2 1/2 years in federal prison. Dale Leedom, 45, of Two Rivers, Alaska, got two years, and Raymond Foakes, 43, of Petaluma, Calif., got a year and a day, after the judge said he felt they were less responsible than others for the violence.
Mahan on Friday dropped criminal charges against 35 men from California, Washington, Nevada and Arizona, and one, Jorrg Maykopf, whose address was listed as Germany.
All had been indicted in December 2003 on charges they conspired to brawl with Mongols at the 2002 Laughlin River Run and were part of a criminal racketeering enterprise similar to the Mafia. No charges were ever proved in the case against the Hells Angels as a group.
Cox, Hannigan and Eunice, 51, of Lakeside, Calif., still face the prospect of one to 2 1/2 years in state prison at sentencing March 1 before Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon.
Herndon on Friday morning sentenced Leedom and Foakes to 12 to 30 months, telling them he intended to stick with the 12-month to 30-month sentences specified in the October plea agreement.
Herndon also agreed to let the sentences run concurrent with the federal prison terms each man received from Mahan.