Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/727440
ByMichaelTarm TheAssociatedPress CHICAGO Six purported leaders of Chicago's power- ful Hobos street gang went on trial Wednesday in a case that could provide a rare look inside the kind of criminal activity fueling gun violence in the nation's third-largest city. A prosecutor displayed photos of killing scenes and held up assault rifles dur- ing opening statements, telling jurors the defen- dants murdered, maimed and tortured their way into controlling lucrative drug markets on Chicago's South Side. The trial is the biggest of its kind in recent city history and could take up to three months. The six men charged with racketeering conspir- acy were not "a group of misguided youth" but "an all-star team of the worst of the worst" who "terror- ized the city," federal prose- cutor Patrick Otlewski said. He told jurors, "You will look into the eyes of mur- derers ... every day." The prosecutor began with a chilling account of how another defendant, purported Hobos hit man Paris Poe, allegedly killed government witness Keith Daniels in 2013, shooting him around 25 times at close range while his horri- fied stepchildren, a 4-year- old girl and 6-year-old boy, screamed inside a car. The family had just pulled into a parking lot af- ter returning from Sunday dinner at a grandparent's house, the kids still playing with toys in the back seat, when Poe emerged from be- hind shrubbery and started firing, Otlewski said. Badly injured, Daniels stumbled out of the car. Poe walked up, stood over him and kept shooting, Ot- lewski said. As he described the slay- ing, the prosecutor walked toward Poe, who was sitting behind a defense table. "Who would do such a thing?" he asked and then pointed at Poe. "That man is in this courtroom ... in that blue shirt — a cold- blooded murderer." An attorney for alleged Hobos boss Gregory Ches- ter told jurors the circum- stances of the defendants' lives were relevant, say- ing his client struggled against all odds to survive in what he called the "cal- dron where these men grew up without opportunities." "This case is about that place," Beau Brindley said. Chester, he added, had occasionally sold drugs to acquaintances. But he told jurors that police fabricated evidence about Chester be- ing a Hobos leader. "At the center of this case is police lies," Brindley said. Molly Armour, a lawyer for defendant Arnold Council, echoed that, saying gov- ernment witnesses had an incentive to lie in hopes of drastically reducing sen- tences for their crimes. Poe, Chester and four other co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they each face up to life in prison. The onus is on govern- ment attorneys in a racke- teering case to demonstrate a pattern of criminal behav- ior by the defendants within a carefully organized struc- ture. Another defense attor- ney, Carl Clavelli, said the Hobos often acted haphaz- ardly as individuals and did not meet the racketeer- ing test. "This is not like the mafia or the Ku Klux Klan where members come and go and the organization persists," he told jurors. The men's motives for killing, the prosecutor said, fell into three categories: killing to boost their status and territory, killing over drugs and killing to elimi- nate those cooperating with law enforcement, like Dan- iels, who only days earlier had testified against the Hobos before a grand jury. The judge ordered that jurors' names be kept se- cret to ensure they are not subject to intimidation. U.S. marshals have said they are already investigating re- ported threats against sev- eral likely witnesses. Among the photographs the prosecution displayed was an image of two Hobos rivals slumped over dead in their SUV after Hobos members allegedly sprayed it with gunfire in a drive-by attack as the victims left a funeral service. At one point, Otlewski held up two black rifles in each hand a few feet from the jury box, saying they be- longed to the defendants. He also held up what he called a high-powered pis- tol with "special bullets" that "ripped through cars and ripped through human flesh." "In the hands of Ho- bos, these were killing ma- chines," he said. Later, Poe's lawyer, Pat- rick Blegen, told jurors to focus on evidence in the months to come. "Calling someone a cold- blooded murdered is not ev- idence. ... Righteous indig- nation is not evidence," Ble- gen said. Prosecutors say the Ho- bos formed from several fractured gangs with home bases in Chicago public housing complexes that have since been demol- ished. Government filings cite one co-defendant, Wil- liam Ford, as explaining in a secretly recorded conver- sation how the gang got its name from an early empha- sis by its founders in 2003 on jewelry and other heists. "After they kept robbin' ... they like, 'Man, we Hobo,'" Ford said, according to court filings. "And Hobos, all they do is sleep and rob." But the Hobos' apparent willingness to resort to vi- olence meant those goals changed over a decade to the point where they be- came one of the city's dom- inant gangs. Another Hobos motto, which Poe has tat- tooed to his back, reflected that ambition — "The Earth Is Our Turf." "They weren't satisfied with a single block," Ot- lewski said Wednesday. "They were building and es- tablishing power and terri- tory." Largest street-gang trial in recent Chicago history currently underway CRIME UNITEDSTATESATTORNEY'SOFFICEINCHICAGO Paris Poe's back tattoo reads "The Earth Is Our Turf." CAMPAIGN 2016 CAROLYN KASTER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at the State Department in Washington. By Jeff Horwitz and Michael Biesecker The Associated Press WASHINGTON In a trove of newly leaked emails, former Secretary of State Colin Powell calls Don- ald Trump "a national dis- grace" and suggests his own Republican Party is "crashing and burning." Powell also laments Hill- ary Clinton's attempt to equate her use of private email at the State Depart- ment with his. The emails, posted on the website DCLeaks. com and first reported by Buzzfeed News late Tues- day, offer insight into the unvarnished opinions of the respected retired Army general who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush. The mes- sages run from March 2015 through last month. Powell, 79, did not re- spond Wednesday to a phone message or email seeking comment. He ear- lier told BuzzFeed that he does not deny the emails' authenticity. In the emails, Powell said he stayed relatively quiet during the rise of Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. "To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him," Pow- ell said. To a former aide he writes: "No need to debate it with you now, but Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah." Powell, a Republican, also suggests frustration with the state of the na- tion's politics. "We all need to start vot- ing for America and not our parties," Powell writes. "Trump is taking on water. He doesn't have a GOP phi- losophy or even a Conser- vative philosophy. We need a revolution and it will be- gin with the GOP crashing and burning up its current form." DCLeaks.com has been alleged to be an outlet for hackers tied to the Rus- sian intelligence groups. The website, which says it intends to expose the mis- use of political power, has previously released emails from other Washington po- litical figures. The release of Powell's emails is the latest in a string of leaks that appear intended to influence the 2016 presidential election. The FBI is investigating how thousands of Demo- cratic National Committee emails were hacked and released, an embarrassing breach that Clinton's cam- paign maintains was com- mitted by Russia to bene- fit Trump. Powell's leaked messages include his thoughts on Clinton's lingering email woes. He criticized Clinton aides for tying him into the controversy over the Dem- ocratic nominee's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Powell has acknowl- edged using a private email account with both senior U.S. officials and for back-channel communica- tions with foreign dignitar- ies. Clinton used a private email server located in the basement of her New York home. Powell wrote that he had told Clinton's "min- ions repeatedly that they are making a mistake try- ing to drag me in, yet they still try." In another spot, he declared of Clinton that "Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris." The messages contain comments that reflect that he, too, sought to use pri- vate email as a way to avoid creating documents re- tained by the government. Decrying "friggin record rules," Powell wrote that he "saw email more like a telephone than a cable ma- chine." Congressional Demo- crats have seized on the use of a private email ad- dresses by Powell and for- mer Secretary of State Con- doleezza Rice as a foil for Republican attacks on Clin- ton. By suggesting that he didn't view work conducted via private email as a per- manent government re- cord, Powell could offer those Democrats addi- tional ammunition. In May, Powell messaged with a former colleague as the State Department's in- spector general prepared to release a report critical of both his and Clinton's use of private email to conduct government business. "Wow, I didn't follow rules," Powell wrote. "I only revolutionized the in- formation system in the en- tire State Department. ... I think I'll bash the Depart- ment tomorrow. Fifteen years later they come up with this. ... Thanks Hill- ary." In leaked emails, Powell calls Trump a 'national disgrace' By Julie Pace and Catherine Lucey The Associated Press WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. When Hillary Clinton was side- lined this week with pneu- monia, her campaign didn't rushtocancelabusyslateof events out West. The presi- dential candidate's husband simply stepped in to take her place. Former President Bill Clinton hobnobbed with wealthy donors at a pair of Beverly Hills fundraisers, including a $100,000-per couple dinner at the home of designer Diane Von Fur- stenberg. He snapped self- ies with fans during a sur- prise stop at a trendy coffee shop in Los Angeles. And he rallied supporters in swing state Nevada. "I'mgladtohaveachance to stand in for Hillary to- day," he told voters in Las Vegas on Wednesday. "She did it for me for a long time. It's about time I showed up and did it for her." Having a former presi- dent on standby is an un- precedented luxury for a White House candidate. It's also a reminder to vot- ers that, when it comes to the Clintons, the couple is a package deal, for better or worse. That's been less overt in the 2016 campaign than in some of the Clintons' pre- vious political endeavors, when they actively pitched themselvesasa"twoforthe price of one" proposition. Other than a prime-time speech at the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton's general election schedule has been purposely low- key, reflecting the Clinton campaign's desire to keep him from overshadowing his wife or creating unnec- essary distractions. But those concerns be- came secondary this week. Hillary Clinton tried to campaign through a bout of pneumonia, but she was sidelined by her doctor af- ter getting dehydrated and dizzy while attending a 9/11 memorial in New York on Sunday. Campaign aides quickly called Bill Clinton's chief of staff to see if he could step inforafewdays.Thetiming wasn't ideal. CAMPAIGN 2016 With wife sidelined, Bill Clinton steps in on the trail 734MainStreet 530-690-2477 11am-9pm Mon.-Thur. 11am - 10pm Fri. & Sat. 11am-8pm Sun. 9 CRAFT BEERS ON TAP Pizza Restaurant Round Up Saloon Round Up Saloon 610WashingtonSt. Red Bluff Supporting Farmers Market with live music on Wednesdaynites call for dates (530) 527-9901 (530) 529-1220 100 Jackson St. Red Bluff Water Aerobic Classes Monthly Special $ 28 00 a month No Enrollment Fee Stop by or call for information LaCorona Garden Center 7769Hwy99E,LosMolinos 530-576-3118 General Hydroponics Fox Farm Soil Grow More Fertilizer YaraMila Fertilizer Chicken Feed Garden Plants ARetirementCommunity 750 David Avenue Red Bluff, CA. 96080 (530) 527-9193 www.tehamaestatesretirement.com Tours Provided Daily THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B