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Cops, FBI lied about probe, juror says
Woman speaks out on Earth First trial after gag order lifted
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/03/BA190647.DTL
Three weeks after they ordered Oakland police and the FBI to pay Earth First
organizers $4.4 million, jurors were allowed to speak for the first time Tuesday, and
one of them said "investigators were lying so much it was insulting."
"The FBI and Oakland (police) sat up there and lied about their investigation," said
juror Mary Nunn of Oakley. "They messed up their investigation, and they had to lie
again and again to try to cover up. I'm surprised that they seriously expected
anyone would believe them."
Nunn spoke out about the verdict Tuesday after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken,
responding to the request by the Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune, lifted her gag
order on jurors giving interviews.
Wilken's order applies to the media but does not permit jurors to discuss the case
with attorneys.
Four jurors declined to be interviewed. The other five did not return calls or could
not be reached.
Wilken issued the gag order minutes after the jury announced its verdict on June 11
in a civil trial stemming from a May 24, 1990, car bombing in Oakland.
In one of the biggest civil rights verdicts of its kind, the 10-member jury
unanimously ordered FBI agents and Oakland police officers to pay damages to the
estate of Earth First activist Judi Bari and fellow organizer Darryl Cherney.
Both organizers were injured in the bombing -- and then arrested by investigators
who thought Bari and Cherney were carrying a bomb to use it elsewhere.
The environmentalists said investigators had never seriously considered that the
unknown person who placed a pipe in Bari's car might be opposed to Earth First.
The jury unanimously found six investigators -- FBI agents and police officers -- had
violated the pair's constitutional rights to free speech and protection from unlawful
searches.
Bari, who died of cancer in 1997, and Cherney argued that the investigation,
which has never cleared them as suspects, had undermined their credibility and hurt
their ability to promote forest preservation.
Nunn said that after a five-week trial members of the panel all found "the FBI really
lacked credibility" in testimony. She said in deliberations members of the jury talked
about contradictions in the accounts of Oakland police and the FBI.
"Police tried to blame their mistakes on the FBI, but the FBI was trying to shove the
blame right back," Nunn said. "No one in law enforcement was willing to say 'we
made a mistake' and stand up and admit it. They were evasive. They were arrogant.
They were defensive."
She said jurors had agreed early in deliberations that the Cherney and Bari had
been wronged but spent more than two weeks determining exactly who among the
investigators was responsible and how to apportion damages.
The jury, after some disagreements, deadlocked on one count involving Cherney's
arrest and exonerated law enforcement on a conspiracy count.
But overall they handed Bari and Cherney a big victory.
"We took our time and tried to do everything right," Nunn said.
The night before the jurors made their final votes, she said "I got on my knees and
prayed to God to stop me if this is the wrong thing. I've never done anything like
this. Going against the FBI is a big deal. I wanted to be sure."
Nunn, a ticket agent at American Airlines, said she wanted protection from terrorism
like the Sept. 11 attacks. But her jury experience made her skeptical about giving
law enforcement a blank check to bypass civil liberties.
"This trial taught me what it means to be American," Nunn said. "I realize that
freedom is something we can never take for granted. . . . We are free because we
hold people in power to a higher standard."
Chronicle staff writers Janine DeFao and Erin Hallissy contributed to this report. / E-
mail Jim Zamora at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 17
End<{{{
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