And now:"S.I.S.I.S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: NOTE: Please send inquiries or comments about this post to the original sender, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, *not* S.I.S.I.S. Apologies for duplication of postings. ----------Forwarded message-------- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 00:36:53 -0800 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Nicholas Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Alert in Bear Lincoln case Greetings to supporters of justice for Bear Lincoln: Looks like bad news is about to break in the Lincoln case. It appears to me the Attorney General's office is going to take it away from Mendocino County's newly elected D.A., Norm Vroman. If so, it will be revealed at a court hearing Friday, Jan. 15 at 9 a.m, in Ukiah, California at which Vroman will make his first appearance in the case. The purpose for the hearing was supposed to be to either set a retrial date or for Vroman to dismiss the case. Bear, a tribal resident of the Round Valley Indian Reservation near Covelo, was acquitted in September 1997 of murder in the 1995 death of Mendocino deputy sheriff Bob Davis. But the jury was split 10-2 in favor of acquittal on the lesser charge of manslaughter. On the eve of her campaign for reelection, then-DA Susan Massini announced she had decided to retry Bear for the manslaughter charge. The retrial date was postponed twice, conveniently ending up after the election, this month. Massini lost to challenger Norman Vroman, who stated during the campaign that unless there was strong evidence in the case that he was unaware of, based on the 10-2 vote for acquittal he would dismiss the case against Lincoln. But in December Massini revealed in court that she had referred the case to the state Attorney General's office, asking it to take over the prosecution. She alleged that Vroman had made an unconditional campaign promise not to retry Lincoln if elected, and therefore he was biased and not qualified to decide whether to prosecute. Vroman said he never made an unqualified promise, and said that if elected he would look at the file before deciding. But after he won the election, he said in December that Massini had sent the file off to the A.G., and he hadn't been able to see it. Massini denied this to me, saying the file was in her office where it had always been, and that Vroman could see it if he wanted to. But today Vroman told me the Lincoln case file is indeed in the hands of the A.G.'s office in San Francisco, and he still hasn't been able to see it. He said he just spoke to the Deputy A.G. who's handling the case, and Vroman won't see the file until Friday, when the Dep. A.G. brings it with him to Ukiah. I observed that made it hard for him to deal with the hearing, and he replied, "It makes it impossible." He said the A.G.'s office has had the file since November 15, because he found the cover letter from Massini to the A.G. giving that date. Massini told me then that the file was right in her office, where it always had been, and that it was available for Vroman to see. I've phoned the Dep. A.G. handling the case, and am waiting for a call back. I'll definitely pursue it Tuesday. It looks like ex-D.A. Massini, ex-Sheriff Jim Tuso and ex-A.G. Dan Lungren have plotted to snatch the case from the jaws of justice. Even though all three are dead ducks now, their evil ghosts are still haunting Bear Lincoln. If the A.G.'s office were not planning to take the case away from Vroman, it seems to me they would have returned the file to him by now so he could prepare for Friday's hearing, and they certainly wouldn't tell him they're going to keep the file from him until the day of the hearing. The A.G. has the duty and power under the California Constitution to supervise the actions of all D.A.s and sheriffs in the state, and to step in and prosecute any case where he feels the law is not being adequately enforced. There has been a major organizing campaign going on in the Bay Area to get people to travel to Ukiah to attend the hearing. This is even before the AG stepping in, which hasn't broken yet. I received a mailing last week from the National People's Campaign which included a handwritten letter from Bear and a flyer with Bear's photo on it urging people to "Come to Ukiah to support Bear Lincoln. Tell the new D.A. to keep his promise: drop the charges now!" This comes from the National People's Campaign on Mission St. in S.F., which shares a web site with International Action Center, a national organization based in New York and headed by Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Atty. General under Carter, now one of Leonard Peltier's attorneys. The website is http://www.iacenter.org Please help get the word out for people to come to Ukiah for the Friday hearing to support justice for Bear. This case has been going on for almost four years now, and it's time to lay it to rest. People may want to contact new Atty. General Bill Lockyer in Sacramento to let him know his office is apparently being used in a last desperate attempt to obstruct justice by three dead ducks. 1300 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone: (916) 445-9555, Fax: (916) 324-5205 For a full background on the Bear Lincoln case, please go to http://www.monitor.net/monitor/rv/rv-background.html Then watch the Albion Monitor for the latest developments at http://www.monitor.net/monitor For more information call the Mendocino Environmental Center in Ukiah at 707-468-1660 :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
