An Erie resident has avoided prison for his role as a drug courier with the Pittsburgh-based chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle Club.
The defendant, Mark Stockhausen, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to time served and ordered to serve three years of supervised release, similar to probation.
Stockhausen, 43, faced a sentence in the recommended guideline range of 12 to 18 months for his guilty plea to conspiracy to traffic in at least 252 grams of cocaine, or about a half a pound, in 2020, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville sentenced him to time served and supervised release on Jan. 9.
A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh in December 2020 named Stockhausen and 29 other defendants in a sweeping indictment that targeted the Pittsburgh chapter of the Pagans. The defendants were members or associates of the club, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh said.
Stockhausen was arrested on Dec. 21, 2020, and had been out of prison on an unsecured bond of $20,000, according to court records. He was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Erie but prosecuted in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, where the U.S. District Court for the the Western District of Pennsylvania is based.