[mobglob-discuss] California jury awards EarthFirst! activists $4.4 million

[Greg Simmons]

California jury awards EarthFirst! activists $4.4 million 

Wednesday, June 12, 2002
By Michael Kahn, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal jury Tuesday awarded $4.4 million to two EarthFirst! activists whose lawsuit accused the FBI and Oakland police of framing them for a 1990 bombing to discredit their radical environmental group. 
The U.S. District Court jury found authorities violated Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney's civil rights by arresting and investigating them after a pipe bomb exploded in a car they were driving in Oakland. 

Police arrested the two - who were both injured in the blast - within hours of the explosion, saying they believed they were transporting the bomb for possible environmental sabotage. There has never been any explanation for the presence of the bomb in the car. But prosecutors never brought charges because there wasn't enough evidence in the still-unsolved case. 

Cherney and Bari, who died of breast cancer in 1997, sued the FBI and Oakland police in 1991 for false arrest and illegal search, alleging they were framed as part of an FBI conspiracy aimed at hurting EarthFirst!'s reputation. "The thing about EarthFirst! is we are very tenacious," Cherney said after the verdict. "The FBI messed with the wrong people, and we needed to set an example that if the FBI violates your civil rights you should take them to court.'' The jury's award comprised compensatory and punitive damages. 

Representatives from the Oakland Police department were not immediately available for comment while a spokesman for the Department of Justice would only say his agency was considering the verdict to decide the next legal step. 

During the trial, defense attorneys argued that while mistakes may have occurred, authorities had reasonable cause to conclude Bari and Cherney were responsible for the bombing because of their affiliation with the radical environmental group. 

RADICAL REPUTATION 

EarthFirst! was founded in 1979 and thrived in the following decade as it garnered a reputation for a campaign of "eco-defense" that involved spiking trees with long nails to prevent logging, downing power lines, and destroying equipment used to build homes and roads in wilderness areas. 

But lawyers for Cherney and Bari - who requested a delay from the original Oct. 1 trial date because they did not want to target FBI agents so close to Sept. 11 - said authorities sullied the pair's reputations by unfairly labeling them as bombers and violent militants. They also told the jury that investigators failed to probe an anonymous letter sent to a local newspaper by a writer who claimed to be "the Lord's avenger" that provided details of the bomb and said it targeted Bari for her involvement in an abortion rights demonstration. 

While the jury did not uphold the conspiracy claim, attorney Dennis Cunningham said he was pleased the panel held investigators accountable for trampling Cherney's civil rights by seeking to clamp down on his right to free speech about environmental issues. "The verdict shows what we have been saying about the FBI for some time; that they instigated a vicious frame-up in order to disrupt people's legitimate political activities," Cunningham said. 


Copyright 2002, Reuters
All Rights Reserved

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/mobglob-discuss/attachments/20020611/8582ed8c/attachment.html>