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 case against one of their own, prosecutors alleged Friday, hours after police announced the arrests of five people in connection with the investigation.
Steven Meyer, a Tippecanoe County Superior Court judge, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, were injured Sunday afternoon during the attack at their Lafayette home. Authorities said Steven Meyer suffered an injury to his arm, while Kimberly Meyer was injured in her hip.
Probable cause affidavits unsealed Friday describe a disturbing plan to attack the judge that unfolded over several weeks. Investigators pieced the case together using surveillance video, discarded clothing, and a tip from a restaurant.
At the center of the case is 43-year-old Thomas Gregory Moss of Lafayette. The documents describe him as a 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 inside her home. He was scheduled to stand trial in that case Tuesday before Meyer.
Several weeks before Sunday’s attack, a Lafayette woman named Amanda Milsap allegedly approached Moss’ ex-girlfriend at her home in Pennsylvania. Prosecutors said she told the woman that Moss and the Vice Lords were willing to pay her $10,000 not to testify against him.
Moss’ ex-girlfriend refused the offer. Prosecutors allege that Raylen Ferguson, an affiliate of the Almighty Vice Lord Nation gang, and the woman he lives with, Zenada Greer, then traveled from Lexington, Kentucky, to Lafayette several days before the shooting.
According to records, Ferguson went to the Meyers’ home on Jan. 16 and knocked on the door while claiming to have a food delivery but left shortly afterward. Police said he returned Sunday afternoon. Home surveillance video showed him wearing a mask and carrying a shotgun. Investigators later determined that another Phantom MC member, Blake Smith, had purchased the gun in early January.
Ferguson knocked on the door and said he was looking for his dog. When Steven Meyer told him he did not have the dog, Ferguson opened fire through the door, records said.
Police later used a search dog to locate the discarded shotgun, along with Ferguson’s mask and clothing, near the Meyers’ home. Analysts matched DNA found on the mask to Ferguson.
Investigators also used surveillance footage from the home to identify the food Ferguson brought to the house on Jan. 16 and traced it to a restaurant where it had been purchased. Surveillance video from the restaurant showed a person dressed like Ferguson and walking in a similar manner leaving the business.
Police agencies from Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, along with U.S. marshals and the FBI, worked on the investigation. The Lafayette Police Department announced late Thursday that Ferguson, Moss, Smith, Milsap, and Greer had all been arrested.
Moss, 43; Ferguson, 38; and Smith, 32, each face charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery, and intimidation. Milsap, 45, faces bribery and obstruction charges. 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 defendants.
Steven Meyer issued a statement thanking police and emphasized the importance of allowing 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 increased in recent years.
Rush noted in a news release that more than 150 of the 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 available. That compares with 232 threats in 2023 and 74 threats in 2022. Retired Wisconsin Judge John Roemer was shot and killed in 2022 by a man he had previously sentenced to prison for burglary.
In congressional testimony in 2024, the head of the U.S. Marshals Service said threats against federal judges had more than doubled over the past three years.
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