San Francisco, CA. - The jury has just returned a unanimous verdict for the activists/plaintiffs, finding the County of Humboldt and City of Eureka liable for excessive force used by Humboldt County Sheriff's Deputies and Eureka Police Officers when they applied pepper spray directly to the eyes of the eight nonviolent forest defense protesters in three incidents in 1997. Former sheriff Dennis Lewis and present sheriff Gary Philp also were found liable for causing the use of excessive force by ordering the unprecedented use of pepper spray on the passive, locked together sit-in demonstrators.

The jury awarded nominal damages of $1 to each of the plaintiffs, who made it clear all along that they weren't suing for the money, but to bring about a change of policy, to stop the use of pepper spray in Humboldt in the way it was used on them. A 2003 settlement offer by the activists, who felt vindicated after their trip to the Court of Appeals, contained similar terms to the outcome of this lawsuit; law enforcement will be deterred from applying pepper spray directly to the eyes of peaceful people, and Humboldt County and City of Eureka will owe for attorneys fees that may reach over a million dollars following two additional jury trials.

Attorneys for the pepper spray Plaintiffs, Dennis Cunningham, J. Tony Serra, Bob Bloom, Ben Rosenfeld and Bill Simpich, made up part of the award winning legal team that beat the FBI in 2002 on behalf of Earth First! Organizer Judi Bari, who was the victim of a car bomb assassination attempt in 1990, which was covered up by the FBI and Oakland Police.