Additional charge, criminal gang enhancement added against 4 Pike’s Pub beating suspects
By WPTA Staff August 12, 2025
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – An Allen Superior Court magistrate approved a motion by a prosecutor to add a criminal organization activity charge and criminal gang enhancement against four Pike’s Pub beating suspects.
The charges and enhancements were added against Jerrad Impton, Christopher Yoho, Douglas Zuber and Ryan Minick. Two other suspects, Vard Warnock and Justin Wert, have upcoming hearings on Aug. 25 and 18, respectively.
Warnock’s upcoming hearing is set to focus on the motion to add the criminal organization activity charge and notice of intent to seek a criminal gang enhancement. The new charge has already been added against Wert.
The six men were charged in May after a video of an attack at Pike’s Pub was widely shared on social media. It showed several white men — identified by police as being affiliated with the Outlaws Motorcycle Club — beating James Simmons, a Black man, and using racial slurs.
Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tom Chaille has also moved to try all the men together, rather than holding separate trials.
In his motion, the prosecutor said the charges “stem from a series of acts that were part of a common scheme or plan and are so closely connected in time, place, and occasion that it would be difficult to separate proof of one charge from proof of the others.”
Court documents for the men outlined their alleged roles in the beating. Each of them was initially charged with felony battery and misdemeanor criminal recklessness.
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