The assault case against a member of the local Hell’s Angels motorcycle club is built on flimsy evidence, unreliable informants, and broad yet shaky claims of criminal racketeering activity by the organization, a defense lawyer argued today.

At a detention hearing for Robert “Bugsy” Moran Jr., attorney Scott Green maintained that the government has spent years apparently trying to build a criminal case against club members and came away with nothing but a five-year-old assault that prosecutors charged last week before the statute of limitations expired.

Moran, 59, is accused of using a baseball bat to assault a drunken man at a Lyell Avenue bar in May 2006. Prosecutors also last week charged four others with either helping set up or covering up the beating of the man, who supposedly made a disparaging comment about the club.

Authorities allege that the beating was part of a racketeering enterprise, carried out to strengthen the individuals’ standing with the Hell’s Angels.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Harvey urged U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian Payson to keep Moran jailed pending trial. Federal probation officers recommended that Moran, who only has a minor criminal record, be released on electronic monitoring.

Payson today did not rule on Moran's detention, asking Green to provide more information about the property of a Moran friend that might be used to post bond. Payson also asked Green to determine whether Moran could maintain a job other than his current employment as a commercial driver, which does not have set hours.

Harvey has claimed that Moran is too violent to release, but Green pointed out that police have no claims of violent crimes by Moran since the alleged assault. Since police suspected Moran of the assault in 2006, “one must wonder why don’t you take this kind of person off the street,” Green said.

“The case that they have now is no different than the case they had four years, 11 months ago against my client,” Green said.

Harvey said this week that the arrest in the assault took so long because of the cover-up by alleged co-conspirators.