Members of a motorcycle club and a street gang worked together in an attempt to kill an Indiana judge in hopes of derailing a domestic abuse trial, prosecutors alleged Friday, hours after police announced they had arrested five people in connection with the investigation.
Steven Meyer, a Tippecanoe County Superior Court judge, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, were injured Sunday afternoon in the attack at their Lafayette home. Steven Meyer suffered an injury
to his arm and Kimberly Meyer an injury to her hip, according to authorities.
Probable cause affidavits unsealed Friday paint a sordid picture of a plan to attack the judge that unfolded over several weeks and how surveillance video, a trail of discarded clothing and a tip from a restaurant helped investigators piece the case together.
At the center of it all is 43-year-old Thomas Gregory Moss of Lafayette. The documents describe him as high-ranking member of Phantom MC, a Detroit-based motorcycle club with ties to the Vice Lords street gang.
Court records show Moss was charged in 2024 with beating his ex-girlfriend and firing a gun in her home. He was set to stand trial in that case Tuesday in front of Meyer.
A Lafayette woman named Amanda Milsap allegedly approached Moss' ex-girlfriend at her home in Pennsylvania several weeks prior to Sunday's attack. She told her that Moss and the Vice Lords wanted to pay her $10,000 not to testify against him.
Moss' ex-girlfriend refused to accept the money. Raylen Ferguson, an affiliate of the Almighty Vice Lord Nation gang, and the woman he lives with, Zenada Greer, then traveled to Lafayette from Lexington, Kentucky, several days before the shooting, prosecutors allege.
Ferguson traveled to the Meyers' home on Jan. 16 and knocked on the door saying he had a food delivery, but left, the records said. He returned to the home on Sunday afternoon, police said. The home's surveillance video shows he was wearing and a mask and carrying a shotgun. Investigators later determined that another Phantom MC member, Blake Smith, had purchased the gun in early January, according to the records.
Ferguson knocked on the Meyers' door and said he was looking for his dog. When Steven Meyer told him that he didn't have his dog, Ferguson opened fire through the door, according to the records.
Police using a search dog later found the shotgun and Ferguson's mask and clothes discarded near the Meyers' home. Analysts matched DNA found on the mask to Ferguson.
Investigators used the home surveillance video to zero in on the food Ferguson brought to the Meyers' house on Jan. 16 and tracked it to restaurant where Ferguson had bought it. The restaurant's surveillance video showed a person who was dressed and walked like Ferguson leaving the restaurant.
Police from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky as well as U.S. marshals and the FBI worked on the case before the Lafayette Police Department finally announced late Thursday that Ferguson, Moss, Smith, Milsap and Greer all had been arrested.
Moss, 43, Ferguson, 38, and Smith, 32, each face attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery and intimidation counts. Milsap, 45, faces bribery and obstruction counts. Greer, 61, was charged with helping a criminal and obstruction.
Moss' attorney in the domestic abuse case, Ben Jaffee, did not immediately return a message left at his office Friday. Court records did not list attorneys for the other four people facing charges in connection with the judge's shooting.
Steven Meyer issued a statement thanking police and saying that it's important to allow the judicial process to move forward.
Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush also released a statement saying a special judge appointment is expected Monday.
Threats against judges have been on the rise in recent years.
Rush noted in a news release that more than 150 of 214 judges who responded to a 2023 security survey said they had been threatened.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recorded 188 threats against judges in that state in 2024, the most recent year data was available. That compares with 232 threats in 2023 and 74 threats in 2022. Retired Wisconsin state Judge John Roemer was shot and killed in 2022 by a man he had sentenced to prison for burglary.
The head of the U.S. Marshals Service said in congressional testimony in 2024 that the number of threats against federal judges had more than doubled over the last three years.
