Three days before Judi died, her legal team argued Judi's motion before Judge Claudia Wilkin, asking the Judge to agree that the FBI and OPD do not have immunity from prosecution in this case. The Judge ruled in our favor for most of the FBI agents and OPD officers named in the complaint, but let several members of the FBI's top ranks, including COINTELPRO operative Richard Held, out of the case. Our plan was to move forward on the case against the agents and officers still named in the case, while trying to compile enough evidence of wrongdoing to bring Held and the others back into the lawsuit.
The response of the FBI and Oakland cops in this case has been a relentless strategy of delay. Not long after Wilkin's ruling came down, we got notice from the Oakland Police that they were appealing the ruling. That was in December of 1997, at which time the FBI told us they would not turn over any more documents until Oakland's appeal was resolved. The ninth circuit court of appeals is terribly backlogged, with the average appeal lasting from six months to a year and a half. We were forced to drag the FBI into a hearing before a magistrate judge to force them to continue pretrial discovery, and to continue to make their files available to us.
In the meantime, the hearing before the court of appeals was set for February 10, 1999. We were extremely relieved to finally have a court date, until we got a letter from Oakland's attorney, Karen Rodriguez, informing us that she was going to be in Europe for a golf trip in February, and the hearing must be rescheduled. Oral arguments before the court of appeals were reset, and will now take place on April 15, 1999.
Both sides will argue before a three-judge panel, with Oakland explaining why they should be released from the case and our lawyers showing why Oakland should remain part of the case. We believe Oakland's appeal is completely frivolous and filed only to delay the case; we expect to win the argument.
After the appeal by the Oakland Police is resolved, the next step in the lawsuit is to set a date for trial. This has been a very long time coming, but we hope to have a date set by the end of the summer. Barring any other kind of unexpected delay by the FBI or Oakland defendants, the trial date will most likely be set for sometime in the year 2000. From the thousands of pages of files and reports we've already gotten from the FBI, the legal team has many unresolved questions that we need to iron out in order to make our case at trial.
Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney's lawsuit against the FBI is more than just a legal struggle. In order to stay in court, and to publicize the outrageous rights abuses we've been able to document so far, it is necessary to get the word out about the case as much as possible.
If you would like to host a speaker from the legal team to come to talk about the case to your group or in your community, please contact us through the MEC or through the Redwood Summer Justice Project at (707) 887-0262. We will gladly send you information about the case and we can put you on the mailing list to receive updates as the case comes to trial. Our address is P.O. Box 14720, Santa Rosa, CA 95402.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
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