Mascot can return to Summerfest

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Friday, June 18, 2004
By GRAEME ZIELINSKI

Motorcycle club wins civil suit to let members wear previously banned attire

Charlie will miss Britney at Summerfest, but that’s her problem.

Britney hurt her leg.

Charlie, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club mascot at the center of a civil rights lawsuit filed last year, will be on hand as part of the attire that was previously banned but, in a recent deal, will be allowed at Summerfest.

“I think the agreement we entered into is fair to everybody. We felt very strongly about the free-speech issue,” Michael Hupy, a lawyer representing the Milwaukee Outlaws, said Thursday.

Last summer, Jim Sworske Jr., Jack Daugherty and Chris Gunderson got the boot from the fest, and each was issued a $150 municipal citation for disorderly conduct after refusing to remove his Outlaws “colors,” which include Charlie, a fearsome skull above a set of crossed pistons.

Officials from Milwaukee World Festival Inc., which administers grounds leased from the city, had argued they had the right to proscribe the patches because of the Outlaws’ sometimes-troublesome history.

In the 1990s, a violent war had erupted between the Outlaws and the encroaching Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang and their surrogates, resulting in murders and a sprawling federally run investigation.

But the Outlaws argued that they should not be tarnished as a group for the actions of the few and, through Hupy, the three men sued the city, Summerfest and a Milwaukee police detective who had facilitated the citations, alleging that their First Amendment rights had been violated.

“We’re just looking for a fair shake,” J.D. Davies, a member of the Milwaukee Outlaws, said Thursday.

And that’s what both sides said was the final deal.

Under it, the Outlaws get to dress as they would, with the caveat that no trouble erupts this summer as a result of the attire.

“This is a workable agreement, and our board is willing to put it in place on a trial basis for this year’s Summerfest,” Howard Schnoll, the new president of Milwaukee World Festival said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ordered last week that the Outlaws civil rights case would be dismissed if the pact held to Sept. 15.

The three Outlaws still face fines from the municipal citations, but Jan Smokowicz, an assistant city attorney, said those would be dropped, too, if everything went as planned.

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