Biker club raid puts focus on theft case
When police raided the home of the president of the Chosen Few motorcycle club last week, they found about $5,500 worth of equipment allegedly stolen from his employer, the state Thruway Authority.
A wide range of items — including floodlights, electrical wire, raincoats, light bulbs, emergency flashers, numerous pairs of leather gloves and more than 30 boxes of paper towels — were seized from the Alden home of Alex Koschtschuk.
Police are investigating to determine how he got them, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.
“The Thruway Authority has been made aware of this investigation,” Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce said during a detention hearing for Koschtschuk.
Bruce also revealed that a series of diagrams were found indicating that the Chosen Few might have been planning to attack the local clubhouses and some homes of the Kingsmen, their rival club.
The prosecutor said the diagrams of Kingsmen clubhouses and homes were found by state police in Koschtschuk’s home.
And he told a judge that authorities suspect someone in local law enforcement — possibly a suburban police lieutenant — has been illegally giving the Chosen Few police mug shots of rival bikers.
Koschtschuk, 58, and another Thruway Authority worker— Alan “Deuce” Segool, identified by FBI agents as the Chosen Few vice president — were arrested May 7 with 18 other members of the biker club. They are accused of waging a violent war against the Kingsmen.
During Thursday’s hearing, Bruce called Koschtschuk a “danger to the public.” U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy ordered that Koschtschuk be jailed until his case comes to trial.
The ruling was a disappointment to Koschtschuk’s wife, Tracy, and to his attorney, Herbert L. Greenman, who said the federal investigation turned up “a lot of talk” but little evidence that Koschtschuk ever actually harmed anyone.
Greenman described Koschtschuk as a solid family man and working man whose past record includes no convictions for crimes of violence.
“[Koschtschuk is] not a danger to any person or to the community,” Greenman said.
Bruce disagreed, saying federal agents used hidden recording devices in the Chosen Few’s clubhouse in Depew to get tapes of Koschtschuk ordering his club members to go after the Kingsmen with guns, fists, ax handles and bombs.
“[Koschtschuk] is the unquestioned leader of this organization,” Bruce said.
Both Koschtschuk and Segool, 48, of West Falls, are employees of the Thruway Authority, according to state records obtained after a Freedom of Information request by The Buffalo News.
Koschtschuk is a general mechanic for the authority at an annual salary of $47,049. He was hired in August 1999 and is currently on leave without pay because of a work-related injury. He receives workers’ compensation pay.
Records show that Segool is a Thruway maintenance worker who was hired by the state in July 2001. Because of his arrest, he is on unauthorized leave without pay.
Before working with the Thruway Authority, Segool worked for six years as a police officer with the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, said his attorney, Angelo Musitano.
Segool has never been convicted of a crime of violence, Musitano said, but McCarthy said he did not feel that he could risk releasing Segool on bail.
“I think he’s one of the key players [in the Chosen Few],” the judge said, “and I can’t be certain that he would not instruct others to use violence.”
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