03-12-2012, 10:32 PM
http://judibari.org/
FBI Seeks to Destroy Bomb Evidence
Motion to Preserve Bomb Evidence, August-September 2010
In a brazen move, the FBI, which never honestly investigated the evidence in the Judi Bari bombing, has given notice that they intend to destroy the remaining evidence in the still unsolved attempted murder. Surviving plaintiff Darryl Cherney files an objection to the destruction of evidence and moves the court to order the FBI to preserve the evidence and either turn the it over to him for DNA testing and other forensic analysis, or to deliver it to a certified 3rd party for testing. The FBI objects, saying it wants to destroy the evidence and claiming that the remains of two bombs are "contraband" which can not be released to a private individual.
The motion is set for hearing Sept. 8, 2010, in Federal Court in San Francisco before Magistrate Judge James Larson. A press conference follows the hearing and will be held in the plaza adjoining the San Francisco federal building at 450 Golden Gate Ave.
You can read the motion and supporting documents from the Legal Documents page.
Press Release
For Immediate Release, Sept. 7, 2010
Motion and supporting documents available online at
http://www.judibari.org/%60legal_index.html
Motion to Stop FBI from Destroying Bomb Case Evidence
Hearing Wed., Sept. 8, 9:30AM in San Francisco
Press conference to follow hearing at 450 Golden Gate
Contact: Darryl Cherney; Ben Rosenfeld or Dennis Cunningham, Attorneys
Following the 20th anniversary of the 1990 car bombing and attempted frame up of Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, civil rights attorneys Dennis Cunningham and Ben Rosenfeld will argue a motion in San Francisco Federal Court, 450 Golden Gate at 9:30 am this Wednesday, Sept. 8 in Courtroom F, 15th Floor before Judge James Larson, to prevent the FBI from destroying two sets of bomb remnants. The motion asks that those remnants and other evidence to be turned over to Cherney or an agreed upon laboratory for DNA and other forensic testing to determine the identity of the bomber. A press conference on the plaza outside the Federal Building will follow the hearing.
The case stems from the FBI and Oakland Police attempts to pin a political bombing on the victims rather than look for the terrorist who tried to kill Judi Bari by hiding a motion-triggered pipe bomb under the driver's seat of her Subaru station wagon. The explosion interrupted Bari and Cherney's musical roadshow in which they traveled to colleges to encourage people to participate in for the Redwood Summer campaign to stop the logging of ancient redwoods. They had pulled out of Oakland just before noon, heading to UC Santa Cruz to perform on that fateful May 24, 1990 when Bari's car exploded on Park Blvd. near MacArthur. Oakland police and FBI agents instantly declared Bari and Cherney the only suspects despite the fact that all of the physical evidence pointed at an assassination attempt and that they provided the FBI on the day of the bombing with a folder full of death threats targeting them.
Bari (posthumously) and Cherney won a successful civil rights trial in 2002, in which the jury agreed that their First and Fourth Amendment rights had been violated when the FBI and OPD falsely arrested them and illegally searched their homes--all in order to discredit and silence them. The events took place in a highly charged year. A ballot initiative--Forests Forever (Proposition 130) on the November ballot-- would have banned clearcutting and preserved ancient forests among other proposed reforms. It was defeated by just over one percentage point in a major setback.
The FBI, intent on framing Bari and Cherney, has never conducted a sincere investigation. It has failed even to analyze lifted fingerprints or to do DNA forensics. Cherney, however, has conducted his own investigation, collecting and analyzing evidence in pursuit of the bomber the FBI appears intent on hiding. "There is a logging truck's load of forensic evidence in this case," said Cherney.
A letter taking credit for two bombings, including the bomb in Bari's car, signed "The Lord's Avenger," provided details on the design of another bomb that barely went off at the Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Cloverdale, CA two weeks before the car bombing, as well as details of the car bomb. The bomb in Cloverdale is nearly intact and could provide DNA and other forensic evidence that could identify the bomber.
A jury awarded the two $4.4 million - in Bari's case, to her estate. Later, the parties settled for a total of $4 million, inclusive of attorney's fees. The parties also agreed that: (1) the FBI would return evidence to Oakland; (2) Oakland would turn over evidence to Cherney; (3) the parties would certify any disputes to the Court; and 4) that May 24, 1990 be proclaimed Judi Bari Day by the city of Oakland, which did, in fact, occur.
Jury's message to feds in $4.4 million verdict for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
(revised 6/19/02)
On June 11, 2002, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers.
The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants tried to frame Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer. That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests.
"The jury exonerated us," said Darryl Cherney. "They found the FBI to be the ones in violation of the law. The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted. Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw."
"It's really beyond our wildest dreams," said Darlene Comingore, Judi Bari's friend and executor of her estate who stood in for her as co-plaintiff in this suit. "We hope the FBI and Oakland and all the police forces out there that think they can violate people's rights and get away with it are listening because the people of the state of California and Oakland today said, 'No, you can't. You can't get away with it.' "
Lead attorney Dennis Cunningham said the message he hopes the verdict sends is that: "Ashcroft is doing precisely the wrong thing to abandon the (Levi) guidelines and let the FBI go after dissent with a free hand. It's clear that their intention is not about fighting terrorism, it's about suppressing dissent. That's what the FBI has always been about. Hopefully it will make Congress think twice about giving them a free hand."
Please click here to continue reading this article, with more interpretation of the meaning and importance of the verdict by the media as well as by individual participants and observers, including one of the jurors.
FBI Seeks to Destroy Bomb Evidence
Motion to Preserve Bomb Evidence, August-September 2010
In a brazen move, the FBI, which never honestly investigated the evidence in the Judi Bari bombing, has given notice that they intend to destroy the remaining evidence in the still unsolved attempted murder. Surviving plaintiff Darryl Cherney files an objection to the destruction of evidence and moves the court to order the FBI to preserve the evidence and either turn the it over to him for DNA testing and other forensic analysis, or to deliver it to a certified 3rd party for testing. The FBI objects, saying it wants to destroy the evidence and claiming that the remains of two bombs are "contraband" which can not be released to a private individual.
The motion is set for hearing Sept. 8, 2010, in Federal Court in San Francisco before Magistrate Judge James Larson. A press conference follows the hearing and will be held in the plaza adjoining the San Francisco federal building at 450 Golden Gate Ave.
You can read the motion and supporting documents from the Legal Documents page.
Press Release
For Immediate Release, Sept. 7, 2010
Motion and supporting documents available online at
http://www.judibari.org/%60legal_index.html
Motion to Stop FBI from Destroying Bomb Case Evidence
Hearing Wed., Sept. 8, 9:30AM in San Francisco
Press conference to follow hearing at 450 Golden Gate
Contact: Darryl Cherney; Ben Rosenfeld or Dennis Cunningham, Attorneys
Following the 20th anniversary of the 1990 car bombing and attempted frame up of Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, civil rights attorneys Dennis Cunningham and Ben Rosenfeld will argue a motion in San Francisco Federal Court, 450 Golden Gate at 9:30 am this Wednesday, Sept. 8 in Courtroom F, 15th Floor before Judge James Larson, to prevent the FBI from destroying two sets of bomb remnants. The motion asks that those remnants and other evidence to be turned over to Cherney or an agreed upon laboratory for DNA and other forensic testing to determine the identity of the bomber. A press conference on the plaza outside the Federal Building will follow the hearing.
The case stems from the FBI and Oakland Police attempts to pin a political bombing on the victims rather than look for the terrorist who tried to kill Judi Bari by hiding a motion-triggered pipe bomb under the driver's seat of her Subaru station wagon. The explosion interrupted Bari and Cherney's musical roadshow in which they traveled to colleges to encourage people to participate in for the Redwood Summer campaign to stop the logging of ancient redwoods. They had pulled out of Oakland just before noon, heading to UC Santa Cruz to perform on that fateful May 24, 1990 when Bari's car exploded on Park Blvd. near MacArthur. Oakland police and FBI agents instantly declared Bari and Cherney the only suspects despite the fact that all of the physical evidence pointed at an assassination attempt and that they provided the FBI on the day of the bombing with a folder full of death threats targeting them.
Bari (posthumously) and Cherney won a successful civil rights trial in 2002, in which the jury agreed that their First and Fourth Amendment rights had been violated when the FBI and OPD falsely arrested them and illegally searched their homes--all in order to discredit and silence them. The events took place in a highly charged year. A ballot initiative--Forests Forever (Proposition 130) on the November ballot-- would have banned clearcutting and preserved ancient forests among other proposed reforms. It was defeated by just over one percentage point in a major setback.
The FBI, intent on framing Bari and Cherney, has never conducted a sincere investigation. It has failed even to analyze lifted fingerprints or to do DNA forensics. Cherney, however, has conducted his own investigation, collecting and analyzing evidence in pursuit of the bomber the FBI appears intent on hiding. "There is a logging truck's load of forensic evidence in this case," said Cherney.
A letter taking credit for two bombings, including the bomb in Bari's car, signed "The Lord's Avenger," provided details on the design of another bomb that barely went off at the Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Cloverdale, CA two weeks before the car bombing, as well as details of the car bomb. The bomb in Cloverdale is nearly intact and could provide DNA and other forensic evidence that could identify the bomber.
A jury awarded the two $4.4 million - in Bari's case, to her estate. Later, the parties settled for a total of $4 million, inclusive of attorney's fees. The parties also agreed that: (1) the FBI would return evidence to Oakland; (2) Oakland would turn over evidence to Cherney; (3) the parties would certify any disputes to the Court; and 4) that May 24, 1990 be proclaimed Judi Bari Day by the city of Oakland, which did, in fact, occur.
Jury's message to feds in $4.4 million verdict for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
(revised 6/19/02)
On June 11, 2002, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers.
The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants tried to frame Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer. That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests.
"The jury exonerated us," said Darryl Cherney. "They found the FBI to be the ones in violation of the law. The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted. Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw."
"It's really beyond our wildest dreams," said Darlene Comingore, Judi Bari's friend and executor of her estate who stood in for her as co-plaintiff in this suit. "We hope the FBI and Oakland and all the police forces out there that think they can violate people's rights and get away with it are listening because the people of the state of California and Oakland today said, 'No, you can't. You can't get away with it.' "
Lead attorney Dennis Cunningham said the message he hopes the verdict sends is that: "Ashcroft is doing precisely the wrong thing to abandon the (Levi) guidelines and let the FBI go after dissent with a free hand. It's clear that their intention is not about fighting terrorism, it's about suppressing dissent. That's what the FBI has always been about. Hopefully it will make Congress think twice about giving them a free hand."
Please click here to continue reading this article, with more interpretation of the meaning and importance of the verdict by the media as well as by individual participants and observers, including one of the jurors.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass