Methamphetamine Case : Hell’s Angel Accused of Intimidating U.S. Witness

The president of the San Diego chapter of Hell’s Angels, who owns Rich Man Poor Man Enterprises limousine service, was indicted Tuesday on charges of conspiring to beat up a federal informant, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego announced.

Douglas Chester Schultz, 32, who was free on bond for two drug trafficking charges, was arrested Tuesday on the new charges, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael E. Lasater said.

Also arrested on the beating charges were two of Schultz’s Rich Man Poor Man Enterprises employees: Jesse Martinez, 35, and Gerald Ladley, 45. A third man, Donald Silva, 45, was also charged.

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Shultz and the three men were charged with conspiring to assault William Eugene Barr, a former limousine service employee who was a law enforcement informant about distribution of methamphetamines.

The indictment charges that, in December, Schultz asked Barr if he was working as an informant for the FBI in the drug investigation. It alleges that Schultz retaliated in February, when Martinez, Ladley and Silva, acting on instructions from Schultz, went to Barr’s Spring Valley home and accused him of being “the first to roll over on their chief.”

Martinez, the indictment said, then beat Barr with his fists.

The men pleaded innocent Tuesday when they were arraigned in federal court. Schultz, Martinez and Ladley were being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center; Silva was released on $50,000 bond, Lasater said.

Martinez and Ladley face a detention hearing at 3 p.m. Friday. Schultz’s hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday before a federal magistrate.

If convicted, each man faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Schultz was charged in February, 1985, with methamphetamine violations in Arizona by the Organized Crime Enforcement Task Force Program, but was released on bond.

He was indicted again in November in San Diego by the task force--this time with Ladley--on charges of trafficking in the same drug, known as “speed.” The two were accused of selling the drug from the limousine business on 40th Street. They were both released on bond, against Justice Department recommendations.

On the November charges alone, Schultz could be sentenced to 184 years in prison and a $5.25-million fine. The punishment is possible under a 1984 law that doubles the penalties for drug crimes if committed within 1,000 feet of a school. The limousine property is near Wilson Middle School.

The investigations leading to all of the indictments were carried out by the Southwest Border Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, based in San Diego. It is one of 12 established by President Reagan in 1982 to combat the distribution of illegal drugs.