Clinton Neal Walker, 35, of Bradenton, was fired a year ago
after an internal investigation concluded he had “unwavering loyalty” to the
Outlaws, long considered the state’s dominant motorcycle club.
He was the first Hillsborough employee to be investigated
for gang activity under a series of county ordinances that prohibit membership
in any organization the state or federal government considers criminal,
including the Outlaws St. Petersburg Chapter where Walker was a member.
Arbitrator Charlotte Gold released her ruling in
mid-January, ending a year-long fight by the local chapter of the International
Association of Fire Fighters to save Walker’s job. Her report provided new
insight into biker gang culture within the county’s fire department and
throughout the Tampa Bay area.
“HCFR employees, including chiefs and a fire medic, attended
MC (motorcycle club) events,” Gold wrote, and “many of its members were
ex-military.”
Walker earned a Bronze Star, among other medals and awards,
while in the U.S. Marine Corps. And as a county firefighter he was awarded a
Medal of Valor.
But Walker also had a long disciplinary history and
“conducted himself in a manner that was detrimental to the department,” Gold
wrote.
“The conclusion is inescapable that he affected the county’s
standing in the community,’’ Gold wrote in her report. “His behavior ultimately
reflected poorly on the county and his profession in general.”
Walker testified he had resigned from the Outlaws in October
2016, before the county issued a directive prohibiting all employees from
“being a member of or voluntarily participating with any outside gang, as
defined in the FBI’s 2015 National Gang Report.”
The ban came two months after
Walker was arrested in Key West for throwing the first punch in a bar fight
that left two employees injured and involved as many as 15 other Outlaws, one
wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it and others who used racial slurs.
Walker ultimately negotiated a plea deal for the Key West
fight and received a paid suspension from the county for 30 days. He was still
serving that suspension when now-retired Hillsborough County Fire Rescue
Captain James Costa, then president of the Outlaws St. Petersburg chapter, was
shot by members of the rival 69ers Motorcycle Club while riding his motorcycle
in south Hillsborough in July 2017.
According to the report, Costa fired back. The shooting has
since been tied to the shooting death of another Outlaw, Paul Anderson, in
December 2017.
Walker was one of about 10 Outlaws who got a call from Costa
and another Hillsborough County Fire Rescue medic telling them that Costa was
being taken to a medical center in Manatee County with bullet wounds.
Though he wasn’t on duty, Walker dressed in his Fire Rescue
uniform and accompanied Costa into the hospital, taking his motorcycle vest
with Outlaw insignia and initially refusing to turn it over to law enforcement.
“By wearing his HCFR t-shirt at the hospital, he gained
favor for himself in violation of the county’s uniform regulations,” Gold wrote
in her report. “He then proceeded to place the interests of a friend and mentor
— an individual who continued a strong relationship with a motorcycle gang —
over and above those of law enforcement.”
According to the report, Fire Rescue management has known
about both Walker and Costa’s membership in the Outlaws since about 2008. Costa
joined the Outlaws in 2002, and recruited Walker while working as his
supervisor in Sun City Center’s Fire Station 28.
The new rules, and the ensuing investigation into Walker’s
conduct, happened as a wave of bar brawls, bad behavior and execution-style
killings between rival biker gangs swept across the Tampa Bay area, implicating
firefighters in Hillsborough, Polk and Pasco counties.
SOURCE: Tampa BayTimes
