Jury found FBI & police lied/ framed activists. $4.4M Award in 2002

re-post from last year 2002




Jury finds FBI & police lied/framed activists. $4.4M Award

4.4M Earth First! Award
Jury finds that FBI, Oakland police framed Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari in the 1990 bombing of their Subaru


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/11/state1548EDT0108.DTL

Jury awards Earth First! activists $4.4 million
(06-11) 12:56 PDT OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) --


Twelve years after they were arrested in the bombing of their own car, two Earth First! activists were awarded about $4.4 million Tuesday in a federal suit claiming they were framed by Oakland Police and FBI agents.

After 17 days of deliberations, jurors awarded the money to activist Darryl Cherney and the estate of Judi Bari, who died of cancer in 1997.
Cherney and Bari were injured when a bomb exploded in their Subaru while they were driving in Oakland in May 1990. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis.
The two were arrested within hours, but the case fell apart weeks later when prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges.

Cherney and Bari sued investigators for false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. They claimed officials ignored evidence exonerating the activists and lied to try to make their case...

..skip...

The list of defendants eventually was narrowed down to seven former and current FBI agents and Oakland policemen. Jurors were asked to determine whether investigators deliberately violated the pair's Fourth Amendment rights against false arrest and illegal searches. They also were asked to determine if investigators chilled Cherney and Bari's free speech rights by portraying them as chief suspects in the bombing, casting a cloud over whatever they had to say.
"You've got to send a message that the lies and false claims in this case will never happen to someone else," plaintiffs' attorney J. Tony Serra said in his closing argument.

The case began April 9 with attorneys for the activists trying to show that investigators were "out to get" Cherney and Bari. For instance, investigators said the bomb was in the rear of the car, where it would have been visible to Cherney and Bari. But an FBI analysis showed the bomb was shoved under the front seat.
......Lawyers for the activists had tried to argue that the FBI has a history of targeting activists. They wanted to introduce testimony about the FBI counterintelligence program -- COINTELPRO -- that investigated groups such as the Black Panthers in the 1960s and early '70s. However, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken rejected that effort

....more....

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quote -

"I didn't realize I was important until they made me shut up."
- Tommy Smothers

:toast:

smear job? That's who should be prosecuted.

The following is just one of thousands of documents finally released after 17yr court battle SFChronicle has fought with US government over
release of FBI documents.

Very, very, very damning information of the corruption, illegalities, and political thugs the FBI & CIA were (still are?)



Be sure and go to www.sfgate.com for all the links -

MASSIVE amount of info on FBI & CIA illegalities -
http://sfgate.com/campus/


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http://sfgate.com/news/special/pages/2002/campusfiles/documents/6b1.shtml

The Ellingwood Meeting, Page 1

After Chronicle Reporter Seth Rosenfeld filed suit under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act challenging the deletions, a federal appeals court found that the memo was not about law enforcement, but unlawful FBI intelligence activities concerning the University of California.

The court ordered the FBI to release the full memo, which reveals that the late Herbert Ellingwood, Governor Reagan's Legal Affairs Secretary, met with DeLoach at FBI Headquarters to discuss the Reagan Administration's plans for the "destruction of disruptive elements on college campuses." According to the memo, Ellingwood said that the Reagan Administration planned to "hound" the protest group and was considering using tax investigations and "psychological warfare" against them. The uncensored memo also reveals that Ellingwood asked the FBI for "intelligence" information to use against protest groups, that the FBI had secretly given the Reagan Administration such assistance in the past, and that Hoover approved Ellingwood's request by writing "O.K." at the end of the memo.