Sanchez, a Sundancer from the Mt. Hood region in Oregon, stands accused of having held three police officers at gunpoint during a confrontation at the El-Em Pomo rancheria near Clearlake Oaks last January 3. He has been held in Lake County jail on high bail since the day following the incident.
El-Em was wracked by gunfights and arsons from last August through December, after an intratribal dispute erupted involving domestic relations and sharing of casino revenues. Word reached the Sundance Society and our local Human Rights Monitoring Project (HRMP) that food was in short supply at El-Em, and that the Sheriff's Department was unable or unwilling to quell the disturbances. Sanchez was one of several people who came to El-Em last December to deliver material aid and to provide volunteer security. According to HRMP members, one of officers who was involved in the January incident had tried to discourage them from taking food to El-Em, describing the reservation as "like Bosnia."
According to police reports and preliminary hearing testimony, three state and local officers entered the reservation in plain clothes, driving an unmarked car. Suspecting these unknown individuals were among those responsible for prior acts of violence, three members of El-Em's security team responded. The police claim that the Native Americans boxed in the police vehicle, pulled guns on the officers, and that John Sanchez threatened them with death on two occasions. Local residents state that Sanchez never was armed during his stay at El-Em; eyewitnesses report that he did not exhibit any weapon, and that no threats were uttered.
According to Sanchez's attorney, MEC member Don Lipmanson, police bad faith or ineptitude lies at the heart of this case. Officers could have contacted tribal leadership to alert them to law enforcement's planned arrival, or at least identified themselves before provoking a confrontation which might have ended tragically but for John Sanchez's spiritual commitment to nonviolence.
HRMP encourages the public to attend the trial in order to show support for John Sanchez and for El-Em's efforts to restore peace in their own community. The trial is expected to run from Tuesdays through Thursdays throughout May, in department one at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport. For more information about trial dates, please call the MEC at 468-1660 or Don Lipmanson at 895-3041. For information about El-Em or John Sanchez's efforts to bring peace to that community, please contact Jim Brown at 998-ELEM.
Contributions to the John Sanchez Defense Fund can be sent to PO Box 395, Navarro CA 95463. Donations will be used to support John Sanchez's family during his ordeal.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
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