From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Jun 13 2002 - 01:11:18 MDT
This is a *very strange story*. What's the view inside the USA?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/national/12FRAM.html?todaysheadlines=&page
wanted=print&position=top
June 12, 2002
Environmentalists Win Bombing Lawsuit
By EVELYN NIEVES
OAKLAND, Calif., June 11 - Twelve years after they were accused of
carrying a bomb that exploded in their car, two Earth First
environmentalists were awarded $4.4 million in a federal civil suit
contending that their rights had been violated by the local and federal
officers who arrested them.
After 17 days of deliberations, a jury found that six of seven defendants
- three F.B.I. agents and three Oakland police officers - had violated the
rights of Darryl Cherney, now 46, and Judi Bari, who died of cancer in
1997. One F.B.I. agent was cleared.
Mr. Cherney and Ms. Bari were injured when a homemade, studded pipe bomb
exploded in Ms. Bari's Subaru wagon in May 1990 in Oakland as they were on
their way to lead a presentation to promote demonstrations that summer
against the logging of ancient redwood trees.
Hours later, Ms. Bari, whose pelvis was crushed by the blast, and Mr.
Cherney, who was slightly wounded, were arrested by the Oakland police and
the F.B.I., which said the bomb had accidentally detonated while the pair
were transporting it to use for ecoterrorism.
The charges were dropped six weeks later for lack of evidence, and no one
else was ever charged in the blast. But Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney, who
remains an Earth First leader, swore to clear their names.
[etc for full story]
Damien Broderick
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