Pepperspray case goes to jury

For immediate release
April 26, 2005, 2 pm

Pepper Spray Civil Rights Case Goes To Jury

Contacts: Karen Pickett, media phone: 510-548-3113

Background and legal documents available at
http://www.nopepperspray.org. Press packets including video footage
and courtroom drawings are available through the above number.

San Francisco-After closing arguments in federal district court
today, the Pepper Spray By Q-Tip civil rights case was given to the
eight-person jury to decide the questions of 4th Amendment
Constitutional rights violations and excessive force by the Humboldt
County Sheriffs' Dept. and Eureka Police.

In dramatic closing statements that illustrated sharp differences
between the two sides, four attorneys contributed to closing
arguments: Dennis Cunningham and Tony Serra for the plaintiffs and
Nancy Delaney and William Bragg for the defendants. Lead attorney
Dennis Cunningham invoked past civil disobedience in U.S. history,
such as the Suffragette Movement when women chained themselves to the
White House and sit-down strikes for the eight hour work day.
Cunningham argued that while the plaintiffs were moved by their
principles to act on behalf of the old-growth redwood forest, police
responding to their sit-ins had several alternatives at their
disposal before moving to the extreme tactic of inserting pepper
spray directly into their eyes.

Defense attorney Bill Bragg, on the other hand, invoked visions of
"empower[ing] men in white sheets to come into churches and chant,
'Send them back to Africa!', empower[ing] an ex-spouse to come in at
Thanksgiving and lock down to the dinner table, empower[ing] men with
swaztikas to march into synagogues and yell, 'Kill the Jews!'Š" if
plaintiffs prevail in what Bragg called a "small group imposing its
beliefs on others."

The jury went home for the day at 2:30 p.m. They will deliberate on
Wednesday from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and at that time reveal their
schedule for the remainder of the week, if they have not reached a
verdict by mid-day Wednesday.
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