PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Six people connected to the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club have been charged for racketeering, kidnapping and murder.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon announced the charges Thursday against the club’s national president, Kenneth Earl Hause of Aumsville, Mark Leroy Dencklau of Woodburn, Early Deverle Fisher of Gresham, Ryan Anthony Negrinelli of Gresham and Joseph Duane Folkerts of Battleground.
Officials didn’t name the 6th person included in the indictment.
All 6 people are accused of being involved in a racketeering enterprise.
Dencklau, Fisher, Negrinelli, Folkerts and the unnamed defendant are also charged with murder and kidnapping in the 2015 death of a former club member named Robert Huggins.
Authorities said Huggins was murdered in order to increase the defendants’ positions in the club.
This week’s indictment supersedes an indictment filed in June 2018 against Dencklauu, Fisher and Tiler Evan Pribbernow of Portland for conspiracy to kidnap and murder Huggins.
“Kenneth Hause is the leader of a criminal organization that, through its many chapters and support clubs, has sowed violence and intimidation throughout the Pacific Northwest,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. “This is an organization whose members and associates pride themselves on living outside the law and use kidnapping, assault, murder and other forms of violence to extend and maintain their power.”