Last indicted Rolling 60s gang member is finally behind bars

Jace Radke

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

Keith Kelly managed to avoid federal and local authorities for more than a year after being indicted on racketeering charges involving his alleged participation as a member of the Rolling 60s street gang.

On Monday Kelly wasn't able to avoid capture any longer as authorities found him hiding in the bathroom of a downtown residence after he allegedly flushed some rock cocaine down the toilet, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Koppe said at Kelly's detention hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Kelly was the last outstanding defendant in a group of 22 alleged Rolling 60s gang members named in an 88-count racketeering indictment charging drug trafficking, murder and other crimes. Twenty-one of the defendants were charged in August 2003, and a 22nd defendant was added and charged in March 2004.

U.S. Magistrate Peggy Leen ordered Kelly be placed in jail while he awaits trial, saying that she believes him to be a flight risk.

"You knew that there was an indictment outstanding for some time, but you eluded authorities for several months," Leen said at Thursday's hearing.

FBI special agents with the violent crimes division, and the Criminal Apprehension Team, a local fugitive task force made up of personnel from the FBI, Metro Police, Henderson Police and other law enforcement entities, arrested Kelly, FBI spokesman Special Agent David Schrom said.

Koppe said that authorities found empty baggies and drug residue under a bed in the residence. When she said Kelly flushed the cocaine down the toilet, Kelly interrupted and denied flushing drugs.

Metro Police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all had a hand in the investigation into the violent crimes alleged to have been committed by members of the Rolling 60s in the past decade.

In all federal prosecutors have indicted 42 members or associates of the Rolling 60s, and 23 of those defendants have been convicted.

Kelly is named along with 21 others in the largest case pending. Seven of the 22 defendants in the case have pleaded guilty, and four of those seven have already been sentenced to prison. The remaining defendants are facing a trial, but a date has not yet been set as attorneys work through the discovery process.

Charges against the defendants named in the main case date back to grocery store robberies in 1992, and also include operating "drug houses," dealing crack, transporting a minor across state lines to engage in prostitution, arson, murder and firearms charges.