November 18, 2002
Some will remember when our case first made global headlines in 1997, when we released police video footage of officers forcing pepper-spray-soaked Q-tips directly into our eyes during nonviolent sit-ins. Stemming from our love of the ancient trees of Headwaters Forest, then evolving into a fight for basic civil rights, our pepper spray lawsuit aims to stop police use of chemical agents as weapons of political repression.
After our first trial ended, a federal judge dismissed our pepper spray lawsuit when the jury deadlocked and a mistrial had been declared. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated our case and sent it back for another trial. The United States Supreme Court (the highest court in the land), last year set aside this ruling, and instructed the appeals court to reconsider its decision. The appeals court again ruled that the jury should decide whether the use of pepper spray violated the protesters' constitutional rights.
On November 4, 2002, the U. S. Supreme Court, without comment, declined to consider the appeal of former Humboldt County Sheriff Dennis Lewis and his former chief deputy?now sheriff?Gary Philp. Attorneys representing Humboldt County had hoped the Supreme Court would kill the pepper spray lawsuit. The justices let stand the U.S. appeals court ruling that the case may go forward to trial because the two officers may not claim immunity from being sued.
The federal trial judge has set our first hearing (to set a trial date) for January 23, 2003. This gives us just enough time to prepare our pretrial motions and trial strategy and organize for a huge presence at the hearing!
Joining us for what is sure to be a powerful political trial will be the attorneys from the Judi Bari vs. FBI trial, which just this summer won a whopping $4.5 million verdict against the FBI for its sinister antics against activists.
Linking Judi's story with our pepper spray case is an important step in telling our movement?s history. Government and Big Timber wanted to crack Judi's Redwood Summer organizing in 1990 just as they wanted to punish us with pepper spray for our beliefs in 1997. Protecting the woods of the North Coast has been?and continues to be?a long struggle, and we're honored to see our work mirrored in those who've come before.
For more information, please write to the Pepper Spray Fund, c/o Trees Foundation. Action is the antidote to despair!
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2002