VIRGINIA — Defense attorneys are asking a judge to drop kidnapping, rape and assault charges against four men linked to the Hells Angels motorcycle club after investigators allegedly listened to privileged communications.

Court filings accuse the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension of illegally monitoring at least two jailed defendants’ phone calls and/or text messages to their attorneys.

The documents allege that agents were able to intercept key discussions about defense strategy, thereby passing information to the prosecutor and seeking to prevent witnesses from cooperating with the defense.

Gilbert Police Chief Ty Techar, whose agency was tapped by BCA to help review jail communications, told the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office that he believed the examination could have been “more extensive” than that which had initially been brought before the courts. the attention of a prosecutor.

Techar, according to a report, also expressed concern that a BCA agent was “going off the deep end” and said he had heard that the case was “falling apart.”

Clint Austin / File / Duluth Media Group

“Law enforcement has alerted the State not only to illegal wiretapping, but also to attorney-client privileged communications in an attempt to gain an advantage in litigation,” lawyers for defense. “This is a more egregious violation than widespread eavesdropping, and treating it as anything less opens the floodgates to unchecked government surveillance.” »

Prosecutors have yet to file a detailed response, with the judge scheduling a hearing for next month to gather additional information. The BCA declined to respond to specific allegations, citing the active investigation and litigation.

“The BCA is reviewing jail communications, including phone calls and text messages — which are public — as part of active investigations,” spokeswoman Jill Oliveira told the News Tribune.

“Any communication containing attorney/client privileged information is expected to be deleted before we have access to it. However, if we receive information that we believe should have been suppressed, we immediately close the case and contact the county attorney. That’s certainly what happened here.

The cases stem from allegations that a woman was sexually assaulted and a man was kidnapped and beaten at the Hells Angels’ Eveleth clubhouse downtown.

Authorities reported that the man escaped from the group on crutches on Nov. 28 and ran toward police safety, expressing fear that members could find him.

Investigators said they learned the two victims were visiting an Eveleth residence on Nov. 27 when club members arrived. It was reported that the woman was raped there by Paul Anthony Debelak and Eric Anthony Newman.

The man, meanwhile, was allegedly taken to the clubhouse in a van driven by Jake Douglas Novaczyk. He said he continued to be beaten by chapter president Jerand Paul French while other members recorded video.

Authorities have released few details about the alleged motive or the relationship between the parties, other than to say that French was reportedly upset by the man’s association with the woman.

Defense attorneys argue in their new filings, however, that investigators were eager to implicate the club in serious crimes, noting that BCA agents had been conducting surveillance outside the headquarters since at least June 2023.

Lawyers say the alleged victims were using drugs, a practice not tolerated by the Hells Angels, and concocted the story for eager investigators. Defense filings say other witnesses in the house said the rape and kidnapping did not happen, and that there was no DNA or other forensic evidence to support this hypothesis.

Debelak’s attorney, Shauna Kieffer, said she suspected their communications were compromised after her client provided her with the names of some witnesses they should speak to. She said BCA agents “almost immediately” seized these people and ordered them to have no contact with the defense.

The lawyers further expressed concerns about “chronic and ongoing threats” against witnesses, saying at least one person had been “falsely informed that they could be charged with a crime if they did not cooperate with the BCA “, and noting that a recording had been made of one of these people. call.

The attorneys said their fears were realized when a BCA agent told St. Louis County District Attorney Chris Florey that he learned Novaczyk’s defense planned to surprise the state by filing a request for speedy trial at a hearing in July.

Florey immediately alerted defense attorney Robert Christensen, and there is no indication that the prosecutor otherwise benefited from privileged information.

Florey reported to defense attorneys that he had ordered the agent not to monitor attorney-client communications. The agent, he said, responded something like: “Then forget what I just told you. »

“The officer gave no assurance that this would not happen again or that it was a one-time mistake,” the defense attorneys wrote, calling it “egregious conduct” that affects the rights of their clients and turns the prosecutor into a witness.

Florey then spoke with Techar, whose agency had been tapped because of a conflict with the Eveleth Police Department. Chief Gilbert told the prosecutor that “there might be a problem with the texting system” at the jail, with messages intended for attorneys and non-attorneys being mixed up, rather than separated.

Techar added in a follow-up email that he may have “misspoke on the issue of (the agent’s) exit from the deep end,” but said he had been informed that the The BCA agent was “stressed and overworked because of this matter”.

The defense motions seek multiple sanctions up to and including dismissal of charges against all four defendants based on violations of their rights to counsel and due process, witness tampering and “scandalous government conduct.”

Alternatively, the attorneys argued that Debelak and Novaczyk should be released, the agents involved in monitoring the calls should be removed from the case and a hearing should be scheduled to examine the violations in detail.

Judge Robert scheduled a Nov. 22 hearing in the Debelak case for Friday this week, at which the agents are expected to testify about attorney-client issues and testify about the tampering allegations.

The judge also granted Debelak’s release during a hearing Tuesday, eliminating the prior requirement to post $500,000 bail. Debelak will remain on intensive bail.