By Bill Hess
Herald/Review
Published on Friday, October 10, 2008
TOMBSTONE — A group of motorcyclists has been banned from a couple of establishments in this Old West town after disrupting the community last weekend.
And the Tombstone Marshal’s Office is investigating the incident and considering pursuing charges.Members of the Legacy Riders, a group made up primarily of sons of Vietnam War veterans and some younger veterans, are accused of starting a bar brawl about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night in the Crystal Palace Saloon on historic Allen Street.
R.J. Herrig, one of the owners of the bar, said the incident looked like a “bad biker gang movie.” The saloon is one of the establishments to ban the Legacy Riders.
Two local men in their early 20s who were standing at the bar talking with the waitresses were victims of the fight, Herrig said.
In the saloon’s second-floor office, he showed security video of the incident. The footage shows the fight from three different angles.
Panning on the two young men, whom Tombstone Marshal M.J. Smith identified as Michael Molina and Richard Ramirez, Herrig pointed out a member of the Legacy Riders who was watching the duo.
The unidentified biker eventually walked up to the pair and a conversation began. What was said could not be heard because the system does not record sound.
One of the victims is seen lowering his head and cupping an ear in his hand as if he was trying to hear what the biker was saying when the assailant struck out at the younger man, hitting him in the side of the face knocking him to the floor.
“He was cold-cocked,” Herrig said before showing the video.
In no time, other bikers began to gather around the pair as fists flew, driving the other victim to the floor. Soon they were being kicked and stomped on. “There were 20 to 30 people beating them,” Herrig said.
Molina and Ramirez were dragged out of the bar as the confrontation spilled over on to Allen Street. As members of the biker group left the establishment, they pushed aside an elderly patron and were hitting women, Herrig said.
Members of the Cochise Ghost Riders, another motorcycle group, tried to help the two victims, but they too were overwhelmed, he said.
In the six years he, his mother Kim, and another person have owned the Crystal Palace Saloon, there has never been such a fight in the establishment, Herrig said. “We should have known something might have happened, because there was a small fight Friday night (in the bar),” Herrig remarked, adding that incident also included Legacy Riders.
Kim Herrig said she was concerned about the men being beaten. They have always been polite customers. As the two were being dragged outside the establishment, one of them grabbed on to the front door, trying to stop being taken out of the bar, according to what was seen on the video taken by one of the security cameras. The two victims are not bikers.
The bar’s security man could not stop the event because of the group’s size, R.J. Herrig said. When his mother went outside, she saw one of the beaten young men prone in the street, “and I thought Danny was dead,” Kim Herrig said. She said she called out for someone to call 9-1-1 after seeing the man wasn’t moving and that there was a lot of blood. Ramirez and Molina were taken to a hospital in Tucson, where they were treated and released the next day.
Kim Herrig said during Helldorado Days, which is Oct. 17-19, there are many biker clubs that come to Tombstone, and they are usually well behaved.
The Herrigs said they are bothered that it appears the Marshal’s Office was delayed in responding and that no arrests were immediately made.
Smith said the two deputy marshals who went to the scene knew the best thing to do was to diffuse the situation and not start arresting people immediately. Another man, whom the marshal said he only had a first name of “Justin,” was hit in the face by a folding baton. Although that man declined medical treatment, he will have to have some facial surgery.
Although he has the names of two Tucson men who allegedly assaulted the local residents, Smith said the investigation is continuing and charges of rioting, aggravated assault and other criminal citations are pending. All the hotels and motels in Tombstone have been asked to provide guest lists of those who were from the group, the Tombstone marshal said. The Herald/Review was unable to locate a point of contact for the group
Based on information he has already obtained from other jurisdictions, Smith said this group of Legacy Riders have been banned from some bars in Yuma, and the American Legion post’s officers in Tombstone voted Wednesday to ban the group.
Jeff Sweet, the bar manager of American Legion Post 24 in Tombstone, said the bikers had been in the veterans’ service organization facility in conjunction with a Vietnam veterans group and caused problems last week. The marshal said there will be extra security during Helldorado Days.
R.J. Herrig said the biker group’s sergeant-at-arms failed in his oversight responsibilities and even justified what happened Saturday night in the Crystal Palace Saloon by saying the bikers are all brothers and had to protect one another. “Thirty against two isn’t protecting one another. That was disgusting,” he said.
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