Judi Bari, the FBI and the Oakland Police: Death and posthumous civil rights trial[edit] On 2 March 1997, Bari died of breast cancer at her home near Willits.[34] Bari and Cherney had filed a federal civil rights suit claiming that the FBI and police officers falsely arrested the pair and attempted to frame them as terrorists so as to discredit their political organizing in defense of the redwood forests.[35] In 1997, the law enforcement officers named in the civil rights suit were sued for conspiracy to violate Bari and Cherneys First and Fourth Amendment rights.[36] On 15 October that year, the agents lost their bid for immunity from prosecution. Also on 15 October, federal judge Claudia Wilken dismissed from the case FBI supervisor Richard Wallace Held, who had been prominent in the agencys COINTELPRO effort, on the grounds that he had no duty to oversee the daily duties of his subordinate agents.[37][38] In 2002, a jury in Baris and Cherneys federal civil lawsuit found that their civil rights had been violated. As part of the jurys verdict, the judge ordered three FBI agents and three Oakland police officers to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Baris estate. The award was a response to the defendants violation of the plaintiffs First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and for the defendants various unlawful acts, including unlawful search and seizure in violation of the plaintiffs Fourth Amendment rights. At trial the FBI and the Oakland Police pointed fingers at each other.[34] Oakland investigators testified that they relied almost exclusively on the F.B.I.s counter-terrorism unit in San Francisco for advice on how to handle the case. But the F.B.I. agents denied misleading the investigators into believing that Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney were violence-prone radicals who were probably guilty of transporting the bomb.[39] While neither agency would admit wrongdoing, the jury held both liable finding, [B]oth agencies admitted they had amassed intelligence on the couple before the bombing.[40] This evidence supported the jurys finding that both the FBI and the Oakland police persecuted Bari and Cherney for being bombed instead of trying to find the true perpetrators in order to discredit and sabotage Earth First! and the upcoming Redwood Summer, thereby violating their First Amendment rights and justifying the large award. Simply, instead of looking for the actual terrorists, they persecuted the victims of that terror because of their political activism.[41] After the trials gag order was lifted, jurors made it clear they believed the agents were blatant liars. Investigators were lying so much it was insulting .... Im surprised that they seriously expected anyone would believe them ... They were evasive. They were arrogant. They were defensive, said juror Mary Nunn.[42] - Wikipedia
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 22:48:08 +0000
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