In his professional life, Christopher Bingham worked as a correctional deputy for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. But in his secret life, he used the alias “Charles Tate” to communicate with members of the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang, in which sheriff’s investigators believe he was deeply immersed.
During Bingham’s preliminary hearing at the San Bernardino Justice Center, which began on Thursday, April 18, and is expected to wrap up Monday, prosecutor Alberto Juan presented evidence seized from Bingham’s home in Twentynine Palms during a March 23 raid that followed his arrest in Riverside County earlier that day during a traffic stop. Bingham was riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles with two Mongols members wearing fully patched vests, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Investigators seized about 160 firearms, firearms accessories and explosive devices from Bingham’s home, along with a multitude of Mongols paraphernalia, including a fully patched leather vest and Mongols T-shirts, stickers, literature and other memorabilia. The search culminated a nearly four-month investigation.
Bingham posted bail, only to be arrested again on April 4 after he was charged with 10 felony counts, including the theft of a Remington 870 less-than-lethal shotgun — reportedly stolen from the Sheriff’s Department’s Morongo Basin station in Joshua Tree — and possession of a machine gun, a short-barreled AR-15 assault rifle, two explosive projectile devices and four gun silencers.
On April 16, the District Attorney’s Office filed an amended complaint against Bingham, adding three additional felony counts of possession of destructive devices. Bingham has denied membership in the Mongols and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Among the items seized from Bingham’s home during his second arrest were two cellphones, from which investigators were able to extract two separate Instagram accounts he used, according to testimony during Friday’s proceedings before Judge Alexander R. Martinez.
Detective Jeremy Spinney testified that on one of Bingham’s Instagram accounts he used the handle “Dirtycadyna,” went by the name Charles Tate and discussed Mongols tattoos, rallies and motorcycle runs with Mongols members from other chapters.
Bingham, according to Spinney, sent one woman a flier for a March 23 Mongols rally. He inquired about where to purchase Mongols apparel and discussed the meaning of “omerta,” a term used by outlaw bikers and other organized crime syndicates that refers to a code of silence when witnessing criminal activity and not cooperating with law enforcement.
“Omerta” was emblazoned in black on Bingham’s white motorcycle helmet at the time of his March 23 arrest. The Mongols colors are black and white. Bingham also was wearing a belt buckle with the letter “M” and other Mongols attire at the time.
“We believe he had direct ties to the Mongols,” said Detective Joshua Gile of the sheriff’s gangs and narcotics division during his testimony Friday.
In one text conversation with a Mongols member who went by the screen name “Nightmare Berdoo” — with whom Bingham had been riding with on the day of his first arrest — Bingham disparaged his own professional brethren, calling law enforcement the “biggest gang in California,” Gile said.
On Bingham’s motorcycle helmet, just below the word omerta, was the number 1312, a code meaning “all cops are bastards.”
At the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino where he worked, Bingham plastered Mongols-related stickers on his locker, including one that read “RFKNSIDE,” which is a business operated by the Mongols that sells T-shirts, hats and other apparel, and another that said Victimville, referring to the Mongols’ Victorville chapter, according to court testimony and evidence presented in the case.
During the raid at Bingham’s home, his wife told Spinney her husband made the Mongols vest, called a “cut,” himself and ordered the patches online. She said the vest was for “training purposes,” and that in her 11 years living with Bingham, no Mongols gang member had ever visited their home, Spinney said during Friday’s proceedings.
During an April 10 interview at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he is being held on $240,000 bail, Bingham told investigators, “One-hundred percent I am not a Mongols gang member.
“Things are not as they seem,” he added.
His attorney, Jeff G. Moore, is challenging the integrity of Bingham’s March 23 arrest, and also revealed Friday that the 9mm Glock Bingham was carrying at the time of his first arrest was not unregistered, as the Sheriff’s Department has stated.
CHP Sgt. Scott Beauchene testified Friday that the gun came up unregistered through the state Department of Justice when he ran the serial number, which included the letters “U” and “S” at the end of the number. But when sheriff’s investigators ran the serial number through the DOJ system after the gun was booked into evidence, this time without the two letters at the end, it came back registered to Bingham.
As a sworn deputy, Bingham — even when off duty — does not need a concealed weapons permit to carry a firearm, Moore said. Yet he was arrested on suspicion of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm.
Beauchene acknowledged Friday that he would have been uncomfortable arresting Bingham on the gun offense had a sheriff’s deputy not been on scene who was more familiar with his alleged background. The CHP sergeant said he would have just given Bingham a ticket for speeding.
During a break from court proceedings Friday, Moore said of his client: “His arrest was illegitimate. It was an invalid arrest.”
