Testimony from Pagans, trooper at assault trial

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Lt. Terry Katz, a retired Maryland state trooper who spent two and a half years undercover as an associate member of the Pagans, testified Thursday that two “one-percenter” clubs can’t exist in the same territory.

Katz testified as an expert witness in Washington County Court in the trial of two Pagans — Matthew Vasquez, 31, of Monessen and Joseph Olinsky III, 46, of McKeesport, who also took the stand Thursday.

They are being tried on charges of attempted homicide and aggravated assault in the April 18 beating of former Pagan Troy Harris at the Slovak Club in Charleroi.

Harris left the Pagans and joined the Sutars Soldiers. Katz, a federally certified expert, testified that the Sutars Soldiers, based in Western Pennsylvania, were created by Dennis “Rooster” Katano, a former Pagan, as the ultimate disrespect to the Pagans, who wear a patch with Sutar, a fire god, in the center. The Pagans have other rivals, but Sutars Soldiers are the enemy, Katz explained.

Vasquez and Olinsky admitted to being two of seven Pagans who went to the Slovak Club that night, but they testified Thursday that they didn’t go there because of Harris. They claim they were at the Slovak Club because they were hanging out after their weekly meetings and had plans to go to a couple of bars. 

Four of the other men have accepted plea deals, and the seventh is a cooperating witness whose case will be resolved after the trial.

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