FOCUS: BIKER GANGS
Violent feud between biker gangs leads to 20 arrests
Chosen Few accused of plotting violence
Tensions between two rival biker gangs — the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen—simmered for more than a decade.
Last summer, several Chosen Few members dragged a Kingsman off his motorcycle on Buffalo’s East Side, clobbering him with an ax handle
The next day, a Chosen Few member was run off the road and shot at as he rode through West Seneca.
A few weeks later, state police arrested a Chosen Few member with 31 deadly pipe bombs, which they said he intended to use to blow up a Kingsmen clubhouse.
And last Friday, two Kingsmen blasted the Chosen Few’s clubhouse on Main Street in Depew with 12 rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle, police say.
The escalating violence prompted investigators in a Safe Streets Task Force on Thursday to round up 20 members and associates of the Chosen Few, in hopes of preventing the violence from getting much worse.
While supporters of the Chosen Few say they are nothing more than hardworking family men who love their motorcycles, Depew police Capt. Mark Mediak applauded the arrests.
“This is a good day, one of the best days in the village,” Mediak said. “We’ve been dealing with [the Chosen Few] on a regular basis since they came here more than 10 years ago.
The defendants — many of them in their 40s and 50s with scruffy beards, tattoos or long pony tails—were arrested early Thursday on felony racketeering conspiracy charges.
According to acting U. S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter and FBI Special Agent Laurie J. Bennett, the men allegedly conspired to commit bombings, arsons, assaults and murders of their rivals.
Federal agents also alleged that Chosen Few members were behind the April 2004 firebombing of the clubhouse of another biker gang, the Lonely Ones, on Martin Road in Blasdell. They alleged that the firebombing was intended to kill people who were sleeping in the building, but no one was hurt.
“We want a safe community. We don’t want innocent bystanders to get caught in the crossfire between these gangs,” Bennett said.
The task force has been keeping a close eye on the Chosen Few since last summer. In August, agents installed court-authorized listening devices and tiny hidden cameras inside the Chosen Few’s Depew clubhouse, a fortresslike former bank building with a walk-in vault, where illegal weapons were stored.
The feds said they watched and listened as Chosen Few President Alex Koschtschuk and other club leaders denounced the Kingsmen and made plans for violent attacks.
“If you’re a Kingsman, you’re going to go down,” Koschtschuk allegedly said in the clubhouse last August, ranting because the Kingsmen had vandalized a Chosen Few tent at a “Bikes and Blues” gathering. “We’re not going to play games with these guys . . . We’re taking them down . . . Baseball bats, whatever you want, however you want.”
Koschtschuk, 58, a stocky man with a gray beard and gray hair slicked back into a pony tail, was arrested at his Alden home early Thursday morning. He appeared in court wearing a black T-shirt that featured the likeness of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and the words, “Chosen Few M. C. — Ride It Like You Stole It.”
A leader of the Chosen Few since at least the early 1980s, Koschtschuk was identified by police as a State Thruway Authority employee who is currently off work because of a disability. He pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance before U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy.
FBI Agent James A. Jancewicz said Koschtschuk and other Chosen Few leaders encouraged members to use death threats, beatings, guns and explosives against the Kingsmen.
“The Chosen Few are in a violent war with the Kingsmen, and it promised to get a lot more violent,” Jancewicz said. “The latest incident on Friday made us move more quickly to take the case down because we were worried about an explosion of violence.”
While violence between the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen dates back to at least 1997, when a shootout occurred at a West Seneca tavern, Jancewicz said the rivalry really began to heat up last August.
After several incidents between the two gangs, Chosen Few member Michael Segool talked about extreme violence against one Kingsman, just after a meeting that federal agents recorded in January.
“We break every one of his fingers, we break his hands, we break his [expletive] legs, everything,” Segool said, according to court papers. “ ’Cause . . . the only way he’s gonna stop is if you crip him so bad.”
“Something’s got to be done with these guys,” Koschtschuk allegedly told members at that day’s meeting.
Members and associates of the Kingsmen have created trouble, too. Last Friday, Depew police arrested two alleged Kingsmen, after almost a dozen shots were fired at the Chosen Few clubhouse with an assault rifle believed to be an AK-47. The shots apparently were fired just a few minutes after midnight.
“There were no persons present in the building, as it turned out,” Mediak said. “They just drove by and sprayed the front of the building, as well as some windows and doorways.”
Officers charged William R. Slater, 47, of Depew, and Robert L. Salczynski, 46, of Kenmore, with criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief, according to police reports.
A similar incident occurred last Aug. 9, when someone in a passing pickup truck fired shots at the clubhouse. No arrests have been made in that incident, but other officials have said Chosen Few members believe that incident was connected to their feud with the Kingsmen.
Depew Police Chief Thomas Domino said many people who live near the clubhouse have complained about the noise and traffic violations from Chosen Few motorcycles but are afraid to push the issue.
Main Street in Depew is more run-down and less vibrant than many village main streets. It’s dotted with modest homes, an old yellow-brick apartment house, one boarded-up and burned-out house and some commercial buildings with For Sale signs.
This is not Main Street U.S.A.
Reaction to the Chosen Few was mixed Thursday afternoon among the neighbors and people walking by the clubhouse.
“In the summer, it was loud because of their bikes,” said Lia Knoer, 20, who lives two doors away. “Other than that, they were nice. They really did keep to themselves. You can understand why.”
But that seemed to be a minority view. Others seemed less worried about the motorcycle roars and more concerned about the violence, especially the drive-by shots fired last week.
“I was at my friend’s home, I heard the shots, and it freaked everyone out,” said Catie Kotowski, 15, who stays in a house near the clubhouse. “It’s just unsafe here.
“The Chosen Few brings a whole different personality to Main Street,” Catie added. “They’re a gang, basically. With all the drama they cause, I think if they were gone, it would be a lot better.”
Her friend, Shannon Bartz, 15, lives a few doors away and across the street.
“It’s unsafe for all the kids around here, with the shootings and the violence they cause,” Shannon said.
Another neighbor refused to talk with a reporter.
“I ain’t getting shot for nobody,” the middle-aged man said.
Police said six illegal guns were recovered Thursday from the walk-in vault at the clubhouse. Three other illegal guns — two of them illegally modified to make them fully automatic — were found in Koschtschuk’s Alden home.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce identified the following defendants in addition to Koschtschuk and Segool, 25, of Buffalo:
Alan Segool, 48, of West Falls; James Lathrop, 56, of Alden; Bradley Beutler, 36, of Depew; Clyde Utz, 50, of Alden; Brion Murphy, 52, of Attica; Gerald Rogacki, 47, of Alden; Matthew Watkins, 33, of Elmira Heights; Dennis Rogowski, 43, of Cheektowaga; Norman Herzog, 43, of Lackawanna; Lionel Carter, 53, of Belmont; Gary Phillians, 44, of Angola; Paul Roorda, 48, of Buffalo; Robert Treadway, 41, of Depew; Martin Whiteford, 37, of West Seneca; Charles Kuznicki, 38, of East Aurora; Robert Geiger, 42, of Medina; Donald Diana, 47, of Depew; and Robert Summerville, 46, of East Aurora.
Geiger, who wore a big tattoo with the words “Trust No One” on his forearm, was identified by police as a state corrections officer. Alan Segool was identified as a former Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority police officer who now — like Koschtschuk — works for the Thruway Authority.
The Safe Streets Task Force is made up of investigators from the FBI, State Police, the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Buffalo police, Amherst police, Cheektowaga police, the Erie County Probation Department and the state Parole Division.
Bennett also thanked Lancaster police, Depew police and other agencies that supplied officers for Thursday morning’s arrest raids.
A large number of friends and family members came to federal court to support the defendants Thursday, and two of them spoke to The Buffalo News in defense of the men.
“They’re all good guys. A lot of them are educated and have phenomenal jobs,” said one of the women, who identified herself as Beutler’s fiancee but would not give her name. “They live, eat and sleep for their motorcycles [but] they aren’t criminals. I had 10 cops pointing guns at me and my daughter’s heads at 6:01 in the morning.”
“Why aren’t the Kingsmen here?” said the other women, who also declined to give her name. “The Kingsmen have done a lot of things that weren’t retaliated for.”
Authorities said they have charged Kingsmen members in several incidents and the investigation is still continuing. Attorney Paul J. Cambria said he spoke to Koschtschuk after his arrest and may represent him.
Jancewicz said there are about 25 Chosen Few members in Western New York and about 50 Kingsmen.
dherbeck@buffnews.com and gwarner@buffnews.com
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