Former Hells Angels boss denied prison unit move

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This article was published 28/06/2019 (2408 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Manitoba Hells Angels president Dale Sweeney has lost a bid to be returned to Stony Mountain Institution’s minimum-security unit.

In a ruling Wednesday, Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser dismissed Sweeney’s application for a writ of habeas corpus.

Sweeney, 49, argued his August 2018 removal from the prison’s minimum-security unit (formerly known as Rockwood Institution) and transfer to its medium-security unit unjustly deprived him of his liberty.

“Security classifications and transfer decisions are due a high degree of deference from the courts,” Keyser said. “Correctional Services Canada (CSC) has the jurisdiction to reclassify and transfer inmates in a federal penitentiary as long as the process is procedurally fair and the decision was reasonable.”

In 2013, Sweeney pleaded guilty to heading a sophisticated cocaine trafficking ring and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

According to CSC documents, a decision was made to re-evaluate Sweeney’s security classification following an incident of “threatening and violent behaviour” in July 2018.

A subsequent investigation uncovered evidence “believed reliable” that Sweeney headed an operation trafficking in drugs, including steroids, and ordered the assault of another inmate.

A search of Sweeney’s incarceration unit, which he shared with several other inmates, uncovered rolling papers, syringes, a cellphone, debt sheets, pills and steroids.

The source or sources of the damaging allegations were not disclosed to Sweeney nor in public court documents “on the basis there are reasonable grounds to believe that… disclosure would jeopardize the safety of one or more persons,” the CSC documents say.

“The similarities between (the crimes for which Sweeney has been convicted) and the reported information also lend confidence to the information.”

Sweeney argued in a court affidavit that protecting the identity of the source or sources made it impossible for him to rebut the allegations.

Keyser said she was satisfied disclosure of the sources would “jeopardize the safety of numerous individuals as well as, potentially, security in the penitentiary.”

Sweeney alleged a security evaluation “arbitrarily” added four points to his institutional score, automatically placing him in the medium-security classification.

Sweeney said he has committed no disciplinary offences while in custody, has no drug or alcohol issues, no psychological concerns and is not an escape risk. He said he is also “actively involved” in peer offender prevention services, providing guidance and counselling to inmates suffering psychological problems or thoughts of suicide.

“CSC representatives continue to request my participation in (peer offender prevention services),” Sweeney said in his affidavit. “I do verily believe that if there was any legitimate cause to upgrade my security classification, CSC would not want me participating in (that) and having open access to Stony Mountain Institution.”

Sweeney was denied day parole in December 2017, after parole officials found his claims he would dissociate himself from the Hells Angels motorcycle gang once released were not “compelling.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca