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.
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.
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)
Return to Anarchy for Anybody