CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club who has been charged with hitting a pedestrian while driving drunk pleaded guilty to federal gun charges on Wednesday.

Donnie Ray "Hoss" Workman, 36, of Red House, admitted that he possessed a gun in 2008 while he was a regular user of cocaine.

A general member of the Charleston chapter of the Pagans, Workman was one of 55 defendants named in a sweeping, 44-count racketeering indictment against members and associates of the club unsealed in October.

Workman pleaded guilty to a different charge in November, admitting that he participated in a conspiracy to act as a bodyguard by carrying a gun on behalf of Pagans national vice president Floyd "Jesse" Moore, who as a convicted felon was not allowed to carry a gun.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston ruled that the federal statute that makes it illegal for someone "employed for" a convicted felon to carry a gun "in the course of such employment" meant that the would-be bodyguard had to be paid wages or receive some other tangible benefit or payment.

Defense attorneys in the Pagans case have argued that to employ means to hire as an employee, while prosecutors maintain that the law means that felons may not use other people to carry guns on their behalf. In Moore's case, according to the government's theory, he was able to use his senior position in the Pagans to order underlings in the club to do his bidding.

Prosecutors said they intend to appeal Johnston's ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

Johnston's ruling set aside Workman's earlier plea, since the government conceded that it could not prove that Moore paid any of his alleged bodyguards.

As part of Workman's new deal, he admitted that in February 2008, after Moore instructed various members of the Charleston chapter to obtain concealed weapons permits, he took a handgun safety course with other Pagans.

"While participating in that course, Mr. Workman possessed and fired a Smith & Wesson revolver," states a stipulation of facts entered as part of Workman's plea. "At the time... he was a regular user of cocaine and had been a user of cocaine for several years."

Last month, Putnam County Sheriff's Deputy J.R. Coleman charged Workman with DUI, DUI causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident causing injury and three other misdemeanors after Workman allegedly struck Jennifer Rollins, a mother of two, as he was driving home from a bar June 24.

According to the police report, Workman admitted that he had eight or nine beers before he got behind the wheel. Police also found four beer cans in the bed of his truck, and his blood alcohol content was 0.085, above the legal limit of 0.08, according to court records.

Rollins was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator, and doctors performed emergency surgery to remove her spleen. She recently returned home to recover from her injuries, which also included a fractured pelvis and a broken wrist, according to a family member.

State charges against Workman stemming from the alleged drunk driving incident are still pending.

Workman had been on home confinement since March 22, when U.S. Magistrate Mary E. Stanley altered the conditions of his bond after he was arrested by a Winfield police officer on separate DUI charges.

He faces up to 10 years in prison on the federal gun charge when sentenced by Johnston on Oct. 26.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.