PORTLAND – A Madison man faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that included the ambush shooting of a Hells Angels member in central Maine last fall.
Michael “Madman” Pedini, 39, a former state and national “enforcer” in the Outlaws motorcycle club, appeared Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court.
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He pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of conspiracy to commit violence in aid of racketeering. Pedini has been in jail since November on state drug-trafficking charges, and will remain in state custody until his sentencing Dec. 10.
Pedini was among 27 alleged members and associates of the Outlaws from several states who were indicted on various charges in June. The indictment in federal court in Richmond, Va., capped a two-year undercover investigation of the activities of the motorcycle club and its alleged national president, Jack “Milwaukee Jack” Rosga.
Pedini’s case was transferred to Maine because he agreed to plead guilty and waive his right to a trial in Virginia.
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, Pedini was calm and respectful during the 30-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge George Singal. He told the judge that a summary of the case, prepared by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff, was accurate.
In that document, Wolff said Pedini and another member of the Outlaws, Thomas “Tomcat” Mayne, shot and seriously injured a Hells Angels member on Oct. 8, 2009, outside a Hells Angels clubhouse in the Somerset County town of Canaan.
According to Wolff, the shooting was payback for an assault and robbery by the Hells Angels against two Outlaws outside a gas station in Connecticut.
Pedini, along with Thomas Benvie of Sanford, the alleged president of the Maine Outlaws chapter at the time, attended a large gathering of the motorcycle club in Arkansas on the weekend of Oct. 2, 2009, Wolff said. At that meeting, Pedini and Benvie allegedly got orders from Rosga to retaliate against the Hells Angels in Maine.
After the shooting in Canaan, Pedini and Mayne received new patches indicating they had committed a violent act on behalf of the gang.
Mayne, 58, was shot and killed at his home in Old Orchard Beach during a raid on the morning of June 15, as federal agents nationwide were arresting several of the defendants charged in the indictment out of Richmond, Va.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed up to arrest Mayne around 6 a.m. at the house at 5 Sandy Circle. Agents said someone shot at them from inside the house as they stepped out of their vehicles, and Mayne was killed when they returned fire.
Investigators recovered a shotgun and a handgun inside the house. One of the agents discovered later that a bullet had damaged the ceramic plate covering his Kevlar vest.
Pedini, Benvie and Joseph Allman of Hollis were the three Maine residents who were charged in the indictment. Benvie and Allman have pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit violence in aid of racketeering.
Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:
tmaxwell@pressherald.com
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