Publication: Union-Tribune
By Ken Ritter
ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:38 p.m. September 28, 2006

LAS VEGAS - Defense lawyers asked jurors Thursday to doubt the word of government informants and former Hells Angels who are expected to testify that the motorcycle club is a criminal ring that plotted a bloody casino brawl against a rival gang in 2002.

"Snitches are notoriously unreliable," said Alan Caplan, the San Francisco-based lawyer for Michael Smullen, 48, a Pinole, Calif., resident and former president of the Richmond chapter of the Hells Angels.

Defense lawyers for 11 Hells Angels being tried on federal charges for a brawl that left three people dead continued in opening statements to insist that the Hells Angels defended themselves after being attacked by rival Mongols at the Harrah's Laughlin hotel-casino.

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