Related story: Gang member found dead in jail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the government prepares to disclose details of its case against 55 members and associates of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, federal prosecutors are trying to protect their sources of information about the gang's inner workings.

In a sprawling indictment unsealed earlier this month, prosecutors allege members of the national club used violence and intimidation to control territory stretching from New Jersey to Florida.

Part of the indictment accuses members of conspiring with a prison guard to kill an imprisoned Pagan they believed was cooperating with authorities.

"The [Pagans Motorcycle Club] does not tolerate cooperation with the government and has a policy of beating up or otherwise harming those it perceives to be 'snitches,'" Assistant U.S. Attorney Blaire Malkin wrote in a motion for a protective order filed on Monday.

"The PMC has a system that it uses to pass information about cooperators from inside prisons to members of the PMC on the outside."

Pagans have used court filings in the past to go after those they deemed to be snitches, Malkin noted. For example, when the FBI searched the St. Albans home of Floyd B. "Diamond Jesse" Moore, the gang's national vice president, in April 2008, agents found discovery materials, including FBI interview reports, from the case against Vincent "Hot Rod" Morris.

In 2005, Morris admitted that he and fellow Pagan Paul Edward "Pauley" Hysell robbed a bank in Big Chimney in February 2004. After he was sentenced to prison, Pagan leaders became convinced he was cooperating with the government.

"Once Morris was labeled a snitch, the PMC formulated a plot to have Morris murdered," Malkin wrote. "PMC associates recruited a prison guard, defendant Michael Stevens, to aid in the attack on Morris and paid an inmate at the prison to carry out the attack."

Related story: Gang member found dead in jail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the government prepares to disclose details of its case against 55 members and associates of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, federal prosecutors are trying to protect their sources of information about the gang's inner workings.

In a sprawling indictment unsealed earlier this month, prosecutors allege members of the national club used violence and intimidation to control territory stretching from New Jersey to Florida.

Part of the indictment accuses members of conspiring with a prison guard to kill an imprisoned Pagan they believed was cooperating with authorities.

"The [Pagans Motorcycle Club] does not tolerate cooperation with the government and has a policy of beating up or otherwise harming those it perceives to be 'snitches,'" Assistant U.S. Attorney Blaire Malkin wrote in a motion for a protective order filed on Monday.

"The PMC has a system that it uses to pass information about cooperators from inside prisons to members of the PMC on the outside."

Pagans have used court filings in the past to go after those they deemed to be snitches, Malkin noted. For example, when the FBI searched the St. Albans home of Floyd B. "Diamond Jesse" Moore, the gang's national vice president, in April 2008, agents found discovery materials, including FBI interview reports, from the case against Vincent "Hot Rod" Morris.

In 2005, Morris admitted that he and fellow Pagan Paul Edward "Pauley" Hysell robbed a bank in Big Chimney in February 2004. After he was sentenced to prison, Pagan leaders became convinced he was cooperating with the government.

"Once Morris was labeled a snitch, the PMC formulated a plot to have Morris murdered," Malkin wrote. "PMC associates recruited a prison guard, defendant Michael Stevens, to aid in the attack on Morris and paid an inmate at the prison to carry out the attack."

After federal agents learned of the plot to kill Morris, 41, they took steps to protect him, and Stevens was placed on administrative leave, according to the filing.

"Orders to harm such [suspected] cooperators have come directly from Moore," the motion states.

At a detention hearing last week for David Keith "Bart" Barbeito, the Pagans president, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Loew said authorities found ledgers in Barbeito's home listing every Pagans member -- and a list of every Pagan who was incarcerated.

Stanley Needleman, Barbeito's lawyer, said during the hearing that the Pagans sent money to members in prison and to their families.

Malkin's motion asks U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston to take steps to ensure that the information disclosed by the government to various defendants is not distributed to other Pagans. The government is scheduled to disclose the first round of information on Oct. 27.

Moore and Barbeito, who both face federal racketeering charges, are being held without bond while the charges against them are pending. They and the other defendants are scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 15.

Prosecutors have played portions of surreptitious recordings of purported conversations including high-ranking Pagans, but have carefully avoided identifying cooperating individuals in open court.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.