Hells Angels member convicted of illegally clearing lot, filling wetlands

A jury found Ed Shaughnessy, president of the local chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, guilty of altering terrain and filling wetlands without required permits in Belknap County Superior Court yesterday. Shaughnessy was found not guilty of timber trespass, a class B felony. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for the week of July 2.

The charges were filed against both Shaughnessy and Black Oaks, LLC, of which he is a principal. Shaughnessy and Black Oaks, LLC stand convicted of three class A misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. In addition, as a corporation Black Oaks LLC was convicted of a class B felony, which could carry a prison term of three-and-a-half to seven years, for illegally filling wetlands.

The charges arose in 2005 when Shaughnessy was observed constructing an access road to a landlocked 11.1 acre parcel, owned by Black Oaks, LLC, which is bordered on the north by the 23 acre lot at the foot of Fillmore Ave. where the Hells Angels clubhouse is located and on the east by the Gilford town line. The parcel is enveloped on the south and west by 108 acres of woodland owned by Ori Ron of Swampscott, Mass., as White Oaks Realty, LLC. Shaughnessy built the graveled road on a deeded right-of-way crossing Ron's property.

In a trial lasting three days, Lauren Noether, former Belknap County Attorney, and Esther Piszczek, who prosecuted the case for the N.H. Attorney General's Office, marshaled some 30 witnesses and filed four dozen exhibits to convince the jury that Shaughnessy stripped about six acres of the 11.1 acres owned by Black Oaks, LLC of vegetation and filled wetlands on Ron's property while building the road to the back lot without obtaining the necessary permits from the N.H. Department of Environmental Services. P. Scott Bratton, who represented Shaughnessy, claimed that although others have committed similar violations, his client was charged and prosecuted because he is a Hells Angel member. However, early in the trial Judge Bruce Mohl ruled that Bratton could not present arguments or evidence that his client was a victim of selective prosecution.

Before the trial opened the state, on the strength of an alleged conversation overheard by an off-duty Sanbornton police officer, claimed that Shaughnessy had threatened the life of Lt. Chris Cost of the Belknap County Sheriff's Department and asked the court to increase Shaughnessy's bail to $10,000 cash or corporate surety. Mohl denied the request, but did modify the conditions of Shaughnessy's bail to forbid him to carry any firearm or weapon or to contact local and state environmental officials, especially, and witnesses who testified at his trial, as well as not to come within 100 feet of Cost.