Cops, FBI lied about Bari probe, juror says

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.

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 freebecause 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 jzamora [at] sfchronicle.com.

©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 17