>Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 01:40:06 -0800
>From: Headwaters News <Headwaters@enews.org>
>
> H E A D W A T E R S F O R E S T N E W S
> News 10-12-97 -- Monday, October 12, 1997
>------------------------------------------------------------
> JUDI BARI WINS A BATTLE
> Court upholds conspiracy charges against FBI agents
> and false arrest charges against Oakland Police
>
>Oakland, CA -- In a key ruling in the Earth First! bombing case, U.S.
>District Court Judge Claudia Wilken refused to grant immunity from
>prosecution to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oakland
>Police Department (OPD) for their mishandling of the 1990 car bombing of
>Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. The civil rights lawsuit, filed in 1991,
>charges the FBI and OPD with false arrest, illegal search and seizure, and
>conspiracy to violate their first amendment right to organize for social
>change.
> Judge Wilken's ruling could be the most significant victory yet for
>the activists, clearing the way to take this landmark civil rights case to
>a jury trial.
>
>Key points of Judge Wilken's ruling
>
> Wilken's ruling states plaintiffs have made an adequate showing that
>the FBI and Oakland Police deliberately misrepresented clear evidence
>regarding the location and makeup of the bomb in order to justify the false
>arrest of Bari and Cherney. Wilken also upholds the right to sue individual
>officers and agents for illegal searches, and a conspiracy to "chill
>plaintiffs' advocacy on behalf of Earth First!" in violation of their first
>amendment rights. She found that FBI special agents Frank Doyle, John
>Reikes, Stockton Buck, John Conway, Walter Hemje, and Philip Sena and
>Oakland Police Lt. C. Michael Sims, Sgt. Robert Chenault, and Sgt. Michael
>Sitterud must stand trial for what Bari and Cherney assert were deliberate
>attempts to disrupt, discredit and intimidate Earth First!
> The ruling states that plaintiffs have made a reasonable showing that
>the Oakland Police had no probable cause to arrest Judi Bari, who according
>to police records was placed in custody just three hours after the
>explosion. Further, Wilken upholds the illegal search charges and agrees
>there is "substantial showing of deliberate falsehood or reckless disregard
>of the truth" on behalf of the police agents. She states that without the
>misrepresentation of the facts, including the false characterization of
>Bari and Cherney as violent terrorists, the magistrate would not have
>granted the search warrant.
> The strongest language in the ruling deals with the assertion that
>the FBI engaged in a conspiracy to violate Bari and Cherney's First
>amendment rights. She upholds these charges, stating that the FBI supplied
>false or misleading information to the OPD that contributed to the false
>arrest and illegal searches. According to Wilken, "A jury could infer from
>this evidence that defendants...acted out of animus towards Plaintiffs
>advocacy."
> Judge Wilken however, dismissed from the case FBI COINTELPRO
>specialist Richard W. Held, who was the Special Agent in Charge of the San
>Francisco FBI office at the time of the bombing. Despite his history and
>expertise in counterintelligence aimed at political activists, including
>direct involvement in the well-known FBI COINTELPRO campaigns against the
>Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, Held claims that he
>was unaware of the misconduct of the agents under his supervision and of
>the FBI operation against Bari, Cherney and Earth First! Plaintiffs are
>appealing this part of the decision.
> The ruling also provides for the lawsuit to continue in the name of
>the estate of Judi Bari, in light of her death of breast cancer on March 2,
>1997.
>
>The Earth First! Bombing Case
>
> On May 24, 1990, a motion triggered anti personnel bomb exploded
>beneath environmental/labor activist Judi Bari's car seat as she drove
>through Oakland, California with fellow activist Darryl Cherney. Bari &
>Cherney were the two most prominent organizers for Earth First! Redwood
>Summer, a campaign of non-violent protests targeting corporate logging
>practices.
> Instead of trying to find the bomber, the FBI and Oakland Police had
>the activists arrested and then attempted to frame them on charges of
>transporting the very explosives that were used to try to kill them. The
>arrest directly contradicted the physical evidence, and ignored previous
>death threats against the pair. The bomber remains at large.
> The Plaintiffs allege that the conspiracy against Bari and Cherney
>was part of a larger FBI COINTELPRO operation against them and Earth First!
>COINTELPRO, the FBI's notorious counterintelligence program, was ordered
>disbanded in the 1970's after the Church hearings by the U.S. Senate found
>the practice unconstitutional. COINTELPRO is an FBI program designed (in
>the words of J. Edgar Hoover) to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit and
>otherwise neutralize" activists and groups advocating social change in the
>U.S. The case of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney shows clearly that COINTELPRO
>is alive and well in the '90s.
> The full text of U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken's October
>15th decision, dramatic police photos, and the original motion by the
>Plaintiffs are all are available on the Redwood Summer Justice Project web
>site a http://www.monitor.net/~bari.
>
> For additional information and interviews contact:
> Dennis Cunningham, Lead Attorney 415-285-8091
> Alicia Littletree, Earth First! 707-462-9145
> Tanya Brannan, Redwood Summer Justice Project 707-887-0262
>(after 10/27/97)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>S E N T B Y Headwaters Sanctuary Project and Bay Area Action.
>Repost at will -- Please include all attributions & contact info.
>www.HeadwatersForest.org | headwaters@enews.org
Tom Boland
Homeless Organizers' Support Team (HOST)
Fax: (617) 623-5353
E-mail: wgcp@earthlink.net