Two men with connections to the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club are accused of conspiring to commit an assault in late March.
Michael Jon McCreary, 52, was charged Wednesday, April 24, with aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, both class C felonies. Earl Benjamin Brewer, 49, was charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, a class C felony.
Police say that Brewer paid McCreary $2,000 to attack one of Brewer’s former co-workers.
Officers were called to the 900 block of Energy Street on the morning of March 28 and found a man with a bleeding cut on his head, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Northwest District Court. The man told police that at around 7 a.m. that day, he’d heard a knock on his door and saw someone outside he didn’t recognize, so he didn’t answer the door.
He said about two hours later, the same man knocked again, but he still didn’t answer, court records indicate. He saw the man, later identified as McCreary, get into a silver Ford F-150 pickup.
Around 9:30 a.m., the man got in his own pickup truck to leave, but when he put it in gear, he heard a loud noise, charging documents state.
He saw the lugnuts had been removed from the front passenger-side wheel, causing the wheel to fall off.
The man told police that he saw McCreary in the same silver F-150 from earlier in the morning parked about 100 yards away and started to walk toward him. McCreary introduced himself as “John Bishop” and the two shook hands, investigators wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
When the man turned around, McCreary hit him in the head with a large wrench, court documents said. The man threw his phone and headphones at McCreary, and McCreary drew a large knife and started to chase him.
McCreary shouted “That’s what you get for trying to snitch on work!” as the man ran away, police said. The man told officers he believed the assault was related to a previous job, and that some of his coworkers from that job were associated with the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club.
A witness saw the assault, police wrote in the charging documents, and a witness also told officers that Brewer paid McCreary $2,000 to make sure the man McCreary assaulted “did not make it to work.”
Police were able to review text messages between McCreary and Brewer, who recently became associated with the Sons of Silence, court records state. Brewer is a former coworker of the man who was attacked.
The two charges are the second time this month McCreary has been accused of an assault related to the Sons of Silence. On April 12, he was charged with a class C felony count of aggravated assault after an incident on April 6 at the Grand Williston Hotel.
A man at the hotel told police he’d been working as a security guard when there was a private party that included members of the club. He said he saw McCreary hit another person on the head and stepped in to stop the situation from escalation, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
McCreary, who was wearing a vest with “Sons of Silence” on it, pushed him, and a group of other men in similar vests surrounded him, court records said. The group told him to “Stay out of club business,” the man told investigators.
The man said he fell and then McCreary hit him on the head with a foot-long metal flashlight, charging documents indicate.
At a bond hearing Wednesday, Eric Lundberg, assistant state’s attorney for Williams County, said McCreary was accused of committing three assaults on three different people in less than a month. McCreary was charged with a class B misdemeanor count of simple assault on Tuesday, April 23.
“The state is very concerned about the danger to the community,” Lundberg said.
Jeremy Curran, McCreary’s defense attorney, said his client had a limited criminal history and had never failed to appear for court. He said McCreary had ties to the community and lived with his wife of 25 years.
Northwest District Judge Josh Rustad set McCreary’s bond at $15,000 for both cases. A bond hearing for Brewer had not been scheduled as of Thursday afternoon.