A private investigator implicated during the investigation of Denair Road Dog Cycle owner Robert Holloway, was sentenced to prison Monday.
Gary L. Ermoian, 52, of Modesto was convicted after a trial in August 2010, of conspiring to obstruct justice and was sentenced Monday to six months in prison and six months in a community corrections center, according to the Department of Justice.
Ermoian’s co-defendant, Steve Johnson, a retired correction officer, was convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice, perjury and making false statements to a grand jury during the same trial.
The two men were the last two defendants to be tried by federal prosecutors as part of their two-year investigation into Holloway and his Denair business. Holloway pled guilty to four charges of racketeering in 2010 and was sentenced to four years in prison.
As the wiretap evidence introduce at trial revealed, in September 2007, Ermoian, acting on confidential law enforcement information received from a retired Stanislaus County Deputy sheriff, alerted Holloway to the fact that search warrants might be executed at Holloway’s residence and business. Thereafter, Ermoian and Holloway discussed how to hide evidence from law enforcement, and Ermoian and Johnson discussed possible law enforcement surveillance activity at Road Dog Cycle, according to the Department of Justice.Ermoian operates a private investigative firm based in Modesto.Johnson’s sentencing is set for May 16.To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.
