Motorcycle gang members charged with assaulting, disarming bouncer
ST PAUL MN December 28 2018 — A 34-year-old St. Paul man is accused of stealing a gun from a bouncer at a bar during an assault by motorcycle gang members, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday, Dec. 26.
Three other men also were charged in November, but the complaint against Joseph Michael Pranter was sealed until his arrest, which came on Wednesday.
Pranter is charged with aiding and abetting aggravated robbery and third-degree assault, along with committing a crime for the benefit of a gang and illegal gun possession. Pranter is ineligible to possess firearms because of a past conviction for terroristic threats, the complaint said.
In late October or early November, a bouncer at the St. Paul Saloon confronted Pranter about wearing Hells Outcast gang colors inside the bar on Hudson Road near Earl Street. A Los Valientes Motorcycle Club member intervened, telling Pranter and another Hells Outcast member to leave the bouncer alone because he was just a “kid making some extra money,” the complaint said.
When the bouncer was working Nov. 9, Pranter came in wearing a Hells Outcast sweatshirt. Another man entered wearing a Hells Outcast vest “and the bouncer politely told him he couldn’t wear that in the bar,” the complaint said.
The bouncer suddenly found himself surrounded by others, including John George Johnson, 56, and Patrick Thomas Maykowski, 52, both St. Paul residents, according to the criminal complaints against them.
Johnson “sucker punched the bouncer from behind and Maykowski and other Hells Outcast members joined in punching and kicking the bouncer,” said the complaints charging them with aiding and abetting third-degree assault and crime committed for the benefit of a gang.
The bouncer was taken to the hospital; his eye was swollen shut from the assault and he was diagnosed with a torn cornea.
After his arrest, Johnson told police they went to the bar “to discuss why Los Valientes could wear their colors in the bar, but Hells Outcasts cannot,” according to the complaint against him. Johnson claimed the bouncer replied, “(Expletive) those guys, I’ll shoot them” and “he snapped as soon as he heard the word ‘shoot’ and he punched the bouncer before he got shot.”
Also charged in the case is Justin Raymon Wainner, 41, of Oakdale, who threatened to “shoot up the bar,” according to a complaint filed against him in November.
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