Eugene “Big U” Henley, a chief of the accused crips, will remain behind bars while he faces accusations of fraud, theft, extortion and a racketeering plot, a federal judge of Los Angeles tried on Tuesday.
While Henley, 58, was quietly seated in a white combination, the American magistrate judge A. Joel Richlin cited the violent allegations against him, including the murder of a grass rapper, and what he called “a lot of proofs of obstruction of justice”.
By ordering Henley to remain in detention while waiting for the trial, Richlin said that he feared Henley could flee and that he was potentially a danger to the community.
“There is no condition or combination of conditions which would reasonably ensure that Mr. Henley’s future appearance to the legal proceedings or the security of the community,” said Richlin before the decision.
Arturo Hernandez, Henley’s lawyer, said that his client could be confined to his home and electronically monitored. He also cited the fact that the relatives of his client set up millions of dollars in goods to guarantee his release, which, according to him, made the unlikely Henley would fled.
“You have to give him a chance,” said Hernandez, who represented members of the cartel and, in the 1980s, serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as Night Stalker.
“It was the defendant’s second chance,” he assistant US Atty. Kevin Butler told judge shortly after.
Henley previously served 13 years in prison for trying to steal a deputy from the 33 -pound cocaine infiltration sheriff. He was charged last month on 43 counts, including tax evasion; Decreases of donations to her charitable organization, which receives public money; And direct a racketeering plot in which he would have kidnapped and fatally pulled a young rapper named Rayshawn Williams.
Henley pleaded not guilty to all accusations. And before going, he made videos denying the accusations against him saying: “I did nothing.”
“I was only helping our community,” said Henley on video. “It’s the price of being black and trying to help someone, trying to help your community and do what you can.”
After the hearing, Hernandez said he was planning to appeal the decision. Henley’s wife, who attended the hearing and sometimes wiped tears, refused to comment.
The federal authorities said that Henley, who had helped launch the career of rapper Nipsey Hussle, had created an image of himself as an entrepreneur of the entertainment industry and someone giving back to the community. But behind the scenes, they said, was another story.
“Before the court today, the most dangerous man self -proclaimed in Los Angeles,” said Butler at the detention hearing. “The allegations in this case … prove that this is a precise description.”
If the court released Henley, argued Butler: “He would also have become the most dangerous man in this case, because his whole criminal business is based on fear, intimidation, control.”
“Control of the victims, the control of enemies, control of witnesses, control of Los Angeles,” said Butler.
In a federal complaint, the authorities compared Henley’s “big company” to a “Mafia type organization” which was based on its “stature and long -standing with the 60s and other street gangs to intimidate companies and individuals” in Los Angeles – including Henley – were loaded in the Rollin criminal case of the 1960s.
In a brief deposited before the hearing, the federal authorities allegedly alleged that “to avoid custody, the defendant will undoubtedly continue his double traffic, as he did to the celebrities and the donors that he duped by believing that they helped the young disadvantaged athletes to chase their dreams, when they were in reality.
“Even in a short time in detention, he lives up to his old things, trying to use some of these same celebrities again for his personal gain,” said the government. “He even suggested that he could manipulate the President of the United States to intervene in the case and abandon the accusations, even if he simultaneously refers to the president of the president as the orange man ” when he was in detention. This court should not be fooled by the defendant of the good acts who promises to perform if only he could close the detention doors behind him. “
Among a litany of alleged crimes, the federal authorities accused Henley of directing the theft of an unrecognized dispensary La Marijuana which had ceased to make payments of extortion and to fraudulently obtain the funding of the program of reduction of gangs and development of young people supervised by the office of the mayor of Los Angeles.
Although Butler recognized during the hearing that the murder of Williams was “more a circumstantial affair”, he argued that the rest of the evidence and the accusations “cannot be seriously disputed”. He told the judge that the alleged extortion had been captured on video and audio and telephone and that the embezzlement, charitable fraud and tax crimes have been documented.
Butler told the judge that, at night before his arrest, Henley turned off his phones and fled.
“One of the potential witnesses of some of his crimes in fact asked the government when he approached:” If you can’t even stop it, how can you promise to keep me safe? “” Said Butler. “It is a legitimate concern and which would be exacerbated if he had obtained a deposit.”
More than a dozen Henley family members and friends were present in the court on Tuesday afternoon and listened to the prosecutors played with a video that Henley made before going to the authorities, blaming people publishing on social networks for the case against him. Among those he blamed, Christopher Lovejoy, a boxer known as “600”, who was in the front row.
But Butler denied Henley’s complaint, saying: “None of these people never spoke to the police in this team”.
Before the hearing, tensions were raised. Henley’s family members confronted Lovejoy, wondering why he was in court and if he was there to testify. And they accused Lovejoy, who has more than 100,000 Instagram followers, of being disrespectful towards Henley.
“I am here in support,” he told the family.
“WHO?” A woman identifying herself as Henley’s sister asked.
“The court,” he replied.
When Lovejoy entered the courtroom, he sat in the front row and said to Henley “how are you, guy?” Henley did not react or answered.
During the hearing, Hernandez referred to the case of government as implying “insinuations” and “conjectures”. He praised his client to have gone to the authorities and said it was a sign that Henley was not guilty.
“All the government wants is to throw a lot of things on the wall and see what sticks,” said Hernandez.
At one point, Richlin asked Henley if he was fine. Henley, who was dealing with cramps with his hands being handcuffed before him, told the judge: “I’m stressed.”
While Richlin rendered his decision, he described the accusation act of “fairly extensive” and said: “The court thinks that there are substantial evidence, long evidence, it is not insinuations in the indictment.”
California Daily Newspapers
