Biker beatings described to jury

Two months after Thomas Burke refused to deliver meth for the president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Breed Outlaw Motorcycle Club, the biker recruit nearly paid with his life.

On March 8, 2003, chapter president John Napoli allegedly used a power tool to drill a drywall screw into Burke's arm.

Then, Napoli and his members allegedly beat Burke so severely that his eye socket had to be replaced and his face surgically reconstructed.

As Burke lay in a pool of blood, Napoli allegedly tried to set him on fire.

In her opening statement yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Foulkes outlined a series of gruesome beatings, stabbings and near-death experiences suffered by Napoli's own bikers who dared to cross him, or refused to carry out his orders.

Amid the violence, intimidation and gun-toting dealers, more than 100 pounds of methamphetamine were distributed - at $200 per gram - by the Breed in the Bristol-Levittown area in Bucks County.

Napoli's reign of terror against his club members and "hang-arounds" was intended to insulate him from law enforcement and protect the Breed's multimillion-dollar crystal-methamphetamine operation during 2003-06, said Foulkes.

In return, Napoli expected their silence and loyalty, she added. But his management style - marked by "greed, power and arrogance" - backfired.

Ten ex-Breed members or associates will testify against Napoli: His sergeant-at-arms and accused meth supplier, William "Tattoo Billy" Johnson, and Thomas "Fuzzy" Heilman, a member, or "flagholder," for 30 years and an admitted addict who allegedly sold meth.

Napoli's attorney, Arnold Joseph, called the turncoat witnesses "homicidal maniacs," and insisted that Napoli was not one.

"You are not going to see Mr. Napoli in a single drug transaction, or with drugs," he added. "All these people are facing a lot of criminal exposure: sticks of dynamite, fleeing to Florida, murder convictions stealing from Mr. Napoli."

The three are on trial in an meth-trafficking conspiracy case before U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III. The trial is expected to last four weeks.

Besides drug conspiracy, Napoli and Johnson are charged with committing violent acts in the aid of racketeering and possession of firearms and ammunition by a convicted felon. Napoli was charged with illegal possession of a machine gun and, Johnson, with using a firearm in a drug trafficking offense.

Yesterday, Napoli's appearance - short brown hair, a moustache and dressed in an oxford blue shirt with his olive green jacket hung on a chair - was in sharp contrast to the mayhem that Foulkes described.

In 2004, Napoli was appointed Pennsylvania Breed president by New Jersey Breed president John "Shameless" Kovacs, after ousting his predecessor.

James Graber, 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds, was beaten so severely by Napoli and others, he spent four days in an intensive-care unit, said Foulkes.

After beatings, Napoli often took the victim's motorcycles, guns, ammunition and personal belongings such as an $8,000 Harley Davidson 100th-anniversary toolbox, which Napoli sold for $2,500.

Napoli thought he couldn't be touched because he decentralized his operation and did not touch drugs, Foulkes said. He kept a money-counter at home, and used the names of friends and relatives for gun registrations and to hide illicit drug proceeds in safe-deposit boxes, Foulkes said.

His machine gun, rifles, sawed-off shotgun, guns and high-power ammunition were stashed in two storage bins, maintained by an underling, she added.

In a final transaction on June 5, 2006, Napoli's top lieutenant, Johnson, sold five pounds of crystal meth for $99,900 in cash. During a search, drug agents with the state Bureau of Narcotics Investigation found the money in a "Sopranos" video box.

Johnson's attorney, Noah Gorson, warned jurors that the evidence became "tainted" by "overzealous investigators."

Heilman, who allegedly was supplied meth for resale, only had a quarter-ounce when his home was raided, Foulkes said.

Afterward, Heilman told Napoli in a wiretapped call, he was pleased that drug agents didn't find his Breed vest, called his "colors," which was wrapped around a scale used to weigh drugs, Foulkes said.

Heilman's attorney, John Fiorvanti, separated his client from others by focusing on his drug habit and $530 monthly disability payments he received for nearly three years.

After Graber, Napoli's predecessor was beaten, Fiorvanti said, "Heilman took Graber to the hospital and talked to him to keep him from losing consciousness." *