Investigation Requested for Arlo Looking Cloud

REQUEST TO INVESTIGE ABUSE CONCERNING ARLO LOOKING CLOUD


On behalf of Arlo Looking Cloud, his blood relatives, friends, his first cousin, Lucy Bull Bear, and myself, Janis Schmidt, do request an thorough investigation into the harmful interrogation techniques employed by Government authorities to coerce Arlo into a confession for a crime he did not commit.

We are appalled at Arlo’s deteriorating mental state that may have been caused by the very people who are supposed to protect him from harm. Arlo is disoriented, confused, and is exhibiting personality traits of a person who has endured severe brain washing.

Arlo was accused, tried, convicted, and sentenced for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, without any substancial evidence, with a lawyer who failed to defend him, and others who suppressed the truth.

Recently, Arlo was moved from the Pennington County jail in Rapid City to a prison in Florence, Colorado. We fear for Arlo’s safety and mental state where authorities can apply memory destroying drugs to Arlo furtively behind prison walls, so that he will never be able to testify to the truth should he ever be granted a retrial.

I asked Arlo in February, 2004, when Lucy Bull Bear and I visited him in jail in Rapid City, “How long has this type of interrogation been going on?” He said, “Ever since 1994, when they would scoop me up off the streets of Denver. They would give me drugs and alcohol. They told me they could get me off if I would agree that AIM was behind the murder of Anna Mae.”

“Were you an AIM member?” I asked.

Arlo laughed. “Not really. I thought what they were doing was a good thing, but I wasn’t anyone important in the Movement.”

Arlo used to call me frequently. He sounded reasonably happy and we talked about art among other things. Then the phone calls stopped. My sources in the Pennington County jail tell me that Arlo is being given drugs, that his state of mind is deteriorating, that all of his teeth fell out.

I last visited Arlo the end of April. He had changed. His speech was slow. He appeared morose. He never smiled. He called me on May 11th. In a small, frightened voice he asked me, “What’s going to happen to me?”

That is the question I have for you, ladies and gentlemen. What is going to happen to Arlo? What is being done to Arlo’s mind and physical well-being in the name of justice? Do we have another Abu Ghraib going on here?

Please contact me at Janis Schmidt, jlschmidt [at] gwtc.net phone 605-455-2239
Or Lucy Bull Bear at 605-455-1138

Cc: Senator Tom Daschle
Amnesty International
ACLU
Center For Constitutional Rights