Legal News

Will a Mongol Give You the Jacket Off His Back?

By Dan Slater

Thomas O’Brien, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, has a reputation for aggressiveness. Now he’s taking on the Mongols, a West Coast motorcycle gang whose Web site, depicting a skull smoking a cigarette, sends chills down our spine.

A Mongols’ motorcycle gang member vest is displayed during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008, in Los Angeles. (AP/Ric Francis)

Amid accusations of “crimes and acts of violence” by federal prosecutors, O’Brien says the Mongols’ trademark will go to the government. “This trademark is subject to forfeiture,” O’Brien said yesterday. “If the court grants our request . . . then if any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back.” (Lucky enforcement officer!)

As McClatchy reports, the trademark forfeiture move comes as authorities filed a 177-page indictment charging 79 Mongols with an assortment of racketeering, drug and money laundering offenses. Prosecutors identified for potential forfeiture the Mongols’ name, a home in West Covina, Calif., and “at least” $5 million. Forfeiture would follow conviction.

Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, according to the AP, granted an injunction that prohibits gang members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling or distributing the logo, which typically depicts the profile of a Mongolian warrior wearing sunglasses.

“It’s an interesting theory, but you’ve really got to wonder whether it would have any practical effect,” David B. Smith, formerly the deputy director of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture office, told McClatchy. “My hunch is the Mongols are just going to keep wearing their patches.”

Free speech scholar Rodney Smolla, dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, told McClatchy that the DOJ’s action poses the possibility of First Amendment violation.

“I will have no comment to offer,” said Michael Doram, the Mongols’ attorney who filed the trademark application in 2003.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).