More Outlaws jailed for Morrill's Corner shootout
Portland cops hide important details and side with FSU in deadly dispute
The Portland Police Department disclosed this morning that it has rounded up five more men in connection with the deadly July 30 shootout in Portland’s Morrill’s Corner neighborhood and is searching for a sixth suspect, Kris Haken. Haken, who’s lived in New Hampshire, was lightly wounded that night and identified by police as a participant in the melee, but was inexplicably allowed to leave without arrest or charge, as were several other participants. The PPD now describes Haken as “dangerous” and potentially armed, and is warning the public not to approach him if seen.
The Bollard identified Haken on Sept. 3 as a member of the Outlaws motorcycle club and a participant in the confrontation, which led to the death of 54-year-old Susan McHugh and the arrest of Outlaws member Aaron Karp, currently held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail. We further reported that Haken — a U.S. Army veteran in his mid-40s afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder following tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — shot and wounded a teenage bystander with a shotgun during a 2010 brawl between Outlaws and members of the Hell’s Angels at a pizzeria in Manchester, N.H. Haken was sentenced in 2011 to serve up to 20 years in state prison for second-degree assault and reckless conduct, but was free by the summer of 2017.
Portland police have consistently obfuscated the nature of the dispute and the identities and affiliations of those involved, and today’s press release was no exception. They’ve waited nearly four months to identify Haken as a threat to public safety and are not identifying the five men recently arrested as fellow members of the Outlaws, even though quick social media searches reveal most clearly are. They include 45-year-old Jim Keenan of Bath; Nate Walsh, 48, of Lewiston; Portlander Caleb Pelkey, 33; and Jim Moody, 30, of Bowdoin. Kaleb Cidre, a 22-year-old from Windham, was the fifth man arrested, but it’s not immediately obvious from his posts that he’s a member of a motorcycle club or aspires to be.
The cops’ secrecy has worsened fears of further retaliatory violence stemming from the initial incident at Brookside, a Westbrook restaurant and bar. Earlier on the evening of July 30, a member or members of a motorcycle club affiliated with the Outlaws, Higher Calling, were confronted and assaulted by Bill Holmes, longtime leader of the Portland chapter of the street gang FSU, and Travis Frechette, McHugh’s son. Although Holmes is a former Outlaw who left the club on good terms many years ago and has done tattoo work for club members, his assault on Higher Calling members, including the demand that they remove symbols identifying themselves as such, crossed a red line in outlaw-biker culture, leading to the deadly melee in a Meineke parking lot on Forest Avenue in Portland.
Holmes was seriously injured by either a hammer blow or a bullet to his skull that night, and Portland police sufficiently feared for his safety to post guards outside his hospital room, but allowed him to walk free three days later. Sources say the cops confiscated Holmes’ cell phone and have refused to return it, but he has not been arrested or charged with a crime.
Likewise, Frechette, despite his FSU ties and the fact cops say he participated in the Brookside assault and robbery and subsequently fired eight shots at Karp and other Outlaws in the middle of one of Portland’s busiest intersections, is free and has not been publicly charged with any crimes. Although the question of self-defense in Karp’s case will only be determined in court, the PPD is proceeding on the assumption that McHugh, Frechette, her husband Troy McHugh (who allegedly owned the gun Susan McHugh fired at the Outlaws before she was shot) and Holmes were victims acting in self-defense.
In the wake of the July 30 murder and assaults, authorities acknowledge there’s a high likelihood of violent retaliation, but steadfastly refuse to publicly acknowledge or explain the inter- and intra-gang dynamics at play — a secrecy that only fosters more fear. For example, in the Oct. 21 court order denying Karp bail, the Superior Court justice wrote that “this murder and the Forest Avenue assaults that directly preceded it … appear to be an escalation in level of violence towards individuals who had likely committed the offenses of assault and robbery at the Brookside establishment [Holmes and Frechette]. The court cannot conclude that there is no risk to the public or other individuals if Mr. Karp were to be released on bail.”
Based on discussions with inside sources, here’s what The Bollard knows:
• Holmes is obviously on Higher Calling and the Outlaws’ shit list and in serious danger of a retaliatory attack in a public place. Efforts by Holmes and others to broker a peaceful resolution have yet to result in an appreciable reduction in tensions or risk to public safety.
• National-level leaders of the Outlaws are unlikely to get directly involved in the dispute, due to the relatively small size of FSU (they’ve got much bigger rivalries to contend with), but may be exerting pressure on the local chapter to resolve the offense Holmes and Frechette committed by assaulting and de-patching Higher Calling members.
• Relations between Holmes and erstwhile allies Frechette and Troy McHugh have been strained since the incident that took Susan McHugh’s life, potentially causing a dangerous rift within FSU and the hardcore-music community in which Susan McHugh worked as a concert promoter.
Were the public made aware of these dynamics, they could take steps to reduce the risk of retaliatory violence that authorities believe is a clear and present danger. But rather than constructively engage with (or even fully acknowledge) the clubs involved, the PPD keeps hiding key details. As the Portland Press Herald noted in their article earlier this morning, department spokesman Brad Nadeau “declined to share any information on whether police believe the [five recently arrested] men are connected with either [the Outlaws or Higher Calling] motorcycle club.”