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Defense Gets Turn in "Road Dog" Case
ATF agent expected to say that investigators got wiretaps illegally
By Leslie Albrecht, The Modesto Bee
The way prosecutors tell it, the story of Robert C. Holloway and Road Dog Cycle reads like a crime movie screenplay: a one-time Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy who built a criminal empire out of his Denair motorcycle shop, maintaining power through fear and violence — and with help from Hells Angels and crooked lawmen.
Holloway, 61, was arrested a year ago along with 11 other men. He's charged with racketeering, running a chop shop, trafficking in stolen motorcycle parts and using violence to collect debts. Three defendants have pleaded guilty. Holloway is in a Fresno halfway house awaiting trial.
Today in a federal courtroom in Fresno, the story is expected to take another dramatic turn — only this time defense attorneys are writing the script.
An FBI task force entered Road Dog Cycle earlier Friday morning, February 1, 2008. Members of the FBI task force outside building. (Bart Ah You/bahyou@modbee.com)
An agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to tell the court that investigators lied in order to get permission to put a wiretap on Holloway's phones. Defense lawyers say the agent's claims cast doubt on the case against Holloway.
"You don't usually see this in a case, where you have a government officer himself challenging the conduct leading up to something as important as a wiretap," said Bill Osterhoudt, one of Holloway's attorneys. "I think the judge will be interested in hearing it out."
The agent, 50-year-old Vince Cefalu, said Thursday he couldn't discuss his testimony. Cefalu said he was the lead investigator on the Road Dog case in 2005 and 2006, before the FBI became involved. He still is employed by ATF, working in the agency's Dublin office.
Web post talks of 'shortcuts'
In a posting on the whistle- blower Web site CleanUpATF.org, Cefalu said investigators took "illegal shortcuts" to get the Holloway wiretap. "The officers committed perjury in their application affidavit for the tap," Cefalu wrote in the posting.
When Cefalu spoke up about the "unethical and illegal" actions, he was removed from the case, he wrote in the Internet posting.
Prosecutors say Cefalu is a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind. Cefalu has filed several complaints about misconduct at ATF. He's asked for federal authorities to investigate his claims.
Defense attorney Carl Faller, who represents Road Dog defendant Steven Johnson, said he expects prosecutors to paint Cefalu as an unreliable source, but he believes Cefalu is credible.
"This isn't somebody with unknown qualifications who was sitting in their basement wearing an aluminum foil hat waiting for spaceships to land," Faller said. "This is someone who was then and is currently employed as a federal law enforcement agent."
Phone calls to be argued
In addition to Cefalu's testimony, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger will hear arguments on whether to throw out wiretap evidence against Holloway. Defense attorneys have filed a motion to suppress the evidence.
Thousands of taped calls from Holloway's cell, business and home phones make up the heart of the government's case. Tossing out that evidence would "put a tremendous hole in the middle of the prosecution's case," Faller said.
It was Wanger who gave investigators permission to tap Holloway's phones in the fall of 2007. Wiretaps are considered an extraordinary step because they intrude on a citizen's privacy. To use one, investigators must convince a judge that traditional surveillance methods aren't working. They also must show that there's probable cause to believe that the wiretap target has, is or will commit certain crimes.
Defense attorneys say the FBI failed to do both. In court filings, defense lawyers charge that the FBI relied on hearsay and emotionally charged innuendo — not hard facts — to make a case that Holloway was engaged in criminal activities. Prosecutors say agents proved there was "substantial basis" for probable cause.
Motions filed concerning the wiretaps reveal the extent of the government's digging into Holloway — and, more interestingly, what they thought they would uncover.
When the FBI first applied for a wiretap in September 2007, agents told Wanger they expected to catch Holloway involved in money laundering, firearms violations, and manufacturing, importing and selling meth and marijuana. Holloway isn't charged with any of those crimes.
Documents give money clues
Prosecutors have yet to say how vast and profitable Holloway's suspected racketeering operation was. Court documents provide some clues. One search warrant turned up $13,000 in cash, several stolen motorcycle parts, a loaded 9 mm pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun. In a guilty plea, Hells Angel Ray Heffington admitted to trafficking in stolen motorcycle parts worth $10,000 to $30,000. Holloway's estranged son told the court in May that Holloway has money and connections stashed across the globe.
Court filings show that government agents were tracking Holloway as far back as 1999. As the probe grew, it included undercover agents and at least three informants, one of whom worked at Road Dog. Agents followed Holloway to San Diego. They trailed a truck carrying motorcycle parts from Denair to Bakersfield and then to Los Angeles.
Defense attorneys say those surveillance methods worked, but agents intentionally downplayed their success to justify the wiretap application.
Prosecutors say that's not true. They say investigators couldn't use traditional methods because Holloway had too many connections with law enforcement and outlaw biker gangs. Holloway, who was once a sheriff's deputy, would be wise to law enforcement techniques, they say. Using informants and undercover agents was risky, prosecutors say, because Hells Angels have a history of retaliating against people who give information to the government.
Bee staff writer Leslie Albrecht can be reached at lalbrecht@modbee.com or 578-2378.
ATF Agent: Local Law Enforcement Out to Get Holloway
By Leslie Albrecht, The Modesto Bee
FRESNO — An ATF agent who once supervised the investigation into the Road Dog Cycle Shop said Friday that local law enforcement was driven by a bitter vendetta against Bob Holloway — not a quest for justice.
Agent Vince Cefalu said investigators pursued Holloway out of "personal, vindictive" motives. He said they were determined to put Holloway, a former Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy, behind bars. They thought a wiretap was the only way to accomplish that goal, Cefalu said.
"The consensus was that (Holloway) had dodged prosecutorial bullets, that he was dirty, and he needed to be gotten," Cefalu said.
An FBI task force entered Road Dog Cycle earlier Friday morning, February 1, 2008. Members of the FBI task force outside building. (Bart Ah You / bahyou@modbee.com)
Holloway was arrested in July 2008. He and 11 others face charges including racketeering, operating a chop shop and trafficking in stolen motorcycle parts from his Denair business.
Cefalu now works in the Dublin office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger heard Cefalu's testimony as part of defense attorneys' efforts to get wiretap evidence thrown out. The prosecution's case is built on thousands of taped phone calls.
Cefalu's testimony gave public validation to Holloway's supporters. They've long claimed Holloway has been unfairly targeted by law enforcement.
Prosecutors sought to poke holes in Cefalu's credibility. They pointed out that Cefalu left the Road Dog case in early 2006, almost two years before the FBI applied for a wiretap. Since then, Cefalu has filed several complaints against the ATF, alleging discrimination and a hostile work environment.
Cefalu charges that investigators lied on their wiretap application, yet Cefalu has never seen the document, prosecutors said. "How can you say someone's lying about something when you haven't seen it?" said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Cullers.
Cefalu said he was taken off the case because he wouldn't bend to local officers' demands for a wiretap. But prosecutors said Cefalu was removed because of his abrasive personality. Members of the Road Dog task force complained about Cefalu's cursing, volatility, smoking and hygiene, said ATF agent Dennis Downs, who was Cefalu's immediate supervisor in 2005.
"I have never worked in my 14 years with a more unprofessional officer," said Modesto police detective Terry Seese. "He was very abrupt, very controlling."
Cefalu has been with the ATF for 22 years. On the stand, he said he's regarded as an expert on outlaw gangs. Cefalu said he's personally conducted several undercover operations into outlaw motorcycle gangs, and he looks the part, with a goatee and ponytail. Cefalu recounted his involvement in the Road Dog Case in a raspy Southern twang.
Cefalu said he first became aware of the Road Dog case in June 2005, when an investigator from the Stanislaus County district attorney's office told him the ATF might want to join the investigation. The case captured his interest, he said, because it sounded like a chance to catch "dirty cops and Hells Angels."
From the start, Cefalu said, local agents pushed hard to put a wiretap on Holloway's phones. Wiretaps are considered an extraordinary investigative tool. A judge must give the government permission to listen in on someone's private conversations. Law enforcement can only apply for a wiretap if traditional surveillance isn't working. The FBI put a wiretap on Holloway's phones in 2007.
Cefalu claims investigators were so desperate to set up a wiretap that they "undermined" and "disregarded" other forms of surveillance.
Two undercover ATF agents on the case performed "amazingly" well, Cefalu said, but local investigators failed to support those efforts. Cefalu eventually raised concerns with his supervisors about the Road Dog investigation. As he put it, "It had gotten out of control and the whole investigation was compromised legally, ethically, professionally from every level."
Cefalu named district attorney's investigators Kirk Bunch and Aaron Gallagher and Modesto police Sgt. Rick Armendariz as clashing with him over the wiretap.
Cefalu told the court that Bunch said in 2005 that he was "bitter" about Holloway's 2001 acquittal on murder charges. Holloway was tried after he confronted a career criminal in July 1997 who tried to rob his Denair shop, accidentally killing the man during a scuffle.
"Bunch stated to me that ... Holloway had gotten away with too much and whatever it took, Bob Holloway was going to prison," Cefalu said.
Bunch, who was in the courtroom Friday, said he couldn't comment on Cefalu's testimony. "However, I do have faith in the justice system and I'm confident that justice will be done," he said.
The hearing will continue Thursday at 9 a.m.
Holloway, who is detained at a Fresno halfway house, watched Friday's proceedings from gallery's first row.
Bee staff writer Leslie Albrecht can be reached at lalbrecht@modbee.com or 578-2378.
