The brutal beating of a Hells Angel associate in Newark late last month is part of a broader attempt by the Pagans Motorcycle Club (PMC) to expand its territory into northern New Jersey, NJ Advance Media has learned.

On April 24, a man who told police he just left the Hells Angels clubhouse on Clinton Avenue in Newark was beaten with a baseball bat as he was getting gas at a nearby station. 

Days later, Robert DeRonde turned himself into authorities and was charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses.

DeRonde, 54, of Edison, is accused of hopping out of a pickup truck and then using an aluminum baseball bat to beat a man so bad that he left him hospitalized with three broken ribs, authorities said.

A New Jersey endocrinologist hired a member of a motorcycle gang to kill his wife more than five years ago after she threatened to expose an illegal prescription drug ring the doctor was running with the gang, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner announced murder charges against James Kauffman, 68, in the May 2012 death of his wife, April. Ferdinand Augello, 61, a member of the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, was also charged with murder in April Kauffman's death -- and was also charged with trying to have James Kauffman killed.

Six other members of the gang were charged in connection with the drug ring.

Prosecutors said that Kauffman gave free prescriptions to people sent by Augello and that Augello would receive $1,000 per script or a number of pills after the script was filled. Those that received them either used the drugs or sold them.