A Social Club Or A Neighbor's Nightmare? -- Zoning Laws Finally Close Biker Hangout

Ever since Marlon Brando rode into town in "The Wild One," a recurrent bad dream has been to have a motorcycle club move in next door.

That's what appears to have happened in a North Seattle neighborhood: A house at 4025 Ashworth Ave. N. is owned by Gypsy Jokers, Inc., according to tax records.

Although the records list the owner as that corporation, there's no active corporation by that name in the state, raising the question of who the actual owner is.

"I don't know," says Patrick Daly, a Tacoma attorney who has sometimes represented the club.

Daly says there might have been a corporation by that name at one time, but he's not sure himself, and he's trying to find out by looking through state archives.

Such uncertainties have recently brought the house under fresh official scrutiny. Friday, more than 10 police officers and officials from the city's Department of Construction and Land Use went to the house to serve an administrative warrant, so officials could see whether the house really is a single-family residence.

That question has been unanswerable since at least 1979, when the DCLU and police first began getting complaints.

"Mr. (name deleted) stated that he saw the occupants carrying what he believed to be a machine gun into the house in the past. Mr. (deleted) further stated that the two Doberman pinschers were running loose and menaced him last Monday when he was leaving for work," a 1979 police report says.

The neighbor who filed that complaint says he eventually had to leave the area. "I finally moved in 1984, I got so tired of them," he says. "It was impossible to get anyone to do anything about it."

Uncertainties and complaints about the house have continued for 14 years. Police say it's been impossible to get an informant inside the house.

The most recent official scrutiny stemmed from a declaration made by another neighbor March 4. She says she was invited into the house about two years ago by Robert Walker, whom she called "the club manager."

"From what I observed, the interior of the house did not appear to be arranged as a single-family residence. The interior was actually set up like a club or bar. There was a huge, curved professional bar with 10 bar stools in the dining room next to the north wall.

"The club quite frequently has parties during the summer months beginning Thursday nights and often running through Tuesday morning," she says. "There were often 30 to 50 motorcycles parked all over the neighborhood."

Eventually, the complaints attracted the DCLU, since the neighborhood is not zoned for a club, nor as a place to serve liquor. Kenneth Swanigan, a DCLU manager, says he began in September trying to arrange with Daly to inspect the inside of the property, but never could set a time.

On March 16, Swanigan filed a zoning-violation notice, ordering the "private club" be closed. Swanigan also says it was critical that an interior inspection be done, and that's what happened Friday.

Valerie Mudra, manager of DCLU's enforcement unit, says all the interior walls had been removed, there was a full-length bar, commercial coolers and four video games. "We verified that it wasn't being used as a single-family residence," she says.

The next step will be to try to impose a $75-a-day fine, dating back to the last known compliance date, which was Dec. 31., says Mudra. Lt. Debbie Allen of the police north precinct says the house also may be closed through a new city public-nuisance law.

"It's an ongoing problem that we've never had a tool to prevent," she says, adding that if it's done, it would be the first application of the ordinance.

Robert Williams, 38, a Gypsy Jokers member at the house last week, says the entire matter is a misunderstanding.

"It's pure harassment, as far as I'm concerned," says Williams. "We're not what most people think we are. We've been here 15 years. This is the first time the police have ever been in the house. I make sure everyone stays honest in this thing. To me, it's an invasion of privacy."

Williams also denied the property is any kind of a club. "It's not a party house. We've got two full bedrooms downstairs," he says, although he declined to invite visitors in.

It's impossible to tell much about the interior from the outside. Windows have been covered with insulating boards and two padlocks secure the front door.

The Gypsy Jokers themselves have been involved in sporadic law-enforcement actions for years. In 1989, King County police raided a house in White Center and arrested nine people. They also seized 15 guns, and shot and killed a Doberman. Earlier the same year, a former Gypsy Joker member was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stomping a man to death. Court records indicate he had been kicked out of the club for being too violent.

Now Daly says the Gypsy Jokers are tying to sell the house on Ashworth and are moving somewhere else. "I won't tell you where, though," he says. And answers from Robert Walker, who has paid the $1,497-a-year taxes on the house, remain equally elusive.

"Just went out for a bike ride," says his answering machine.