California Grand Juries Lock Up Witnesses

California Grand Juries Lock Up Witnesses - Oread Daily

In San Diego, a federal judge ruled yesterday two activists must
stay in jail in an effort to get them to testify before a grand jury
investigating arson and a controversial speech from two years ago.
The Union Tribune reports that the judge said "no" to defense
attorneys who argued that enough time has passed to know that
there's no chance the pair will testify.

David Agranoff, 31, and Danae Kelley, 21, have been in custody for
45 days, and their detainment has become more punitive than
coercive, their attorneys argued before U.S. District Judge Irma
Gonzalez.

Defense Attorney Jeremy Warren, told the judge. "I know Mr. Agranoff
will not testify. "Warren said Agranoff has lost his job and a
chance to go to school, but still refuses to testify before the
grand jury.

Julie Blair, representing Kelley, said her client wouldn't testify
despite "miserable" conditions in jail. "She's never indicated to me
that she's going to testify," Blair told the court. "She's never
going to testify no matter how long it takes."

A third activist, Nicole Fink, has been jailed for two weeks for
refusing to testify before the same grand jury.

The Grand Jury is reportedly investigating an arson that caused $50
million in damage to a massive condominium complex under
construction next to the UTC shopping mall in University City on
Aug. 1, 2003.

It is also investigating whether Rodney Coronado, a Tucson, Ariz.,
animal rights activist, broke a federal law in a Hillcrest speech
that night when he demonstrated how he set an earlier arson.

The jailed activists were at that speech. Other grand jury witnesses
have said the questions focused on the speech and who possibly
attended.

Before they were taken into custody July 12, Agranoff and Kelley
said they didn't know who started the fire and said it would violate
their free-speech rights to be forced to testify in the secret grand
jury proceeding.

Prosecutor Stephen Cook argued that the government should be able to
hold the activists in until the grand jury investigating the case
ends its service. The panel is scheduled to finish by the end of the
year, but may have its service extended until June.

"The nature of today's hearing highlights the problem with the Grand
Jury process," Warren said. "Everything's done in secret."

Meanwhile, just last week a judge up in the California Bay area
jailed a former member of the Black Panther Party for refusing to
testify before a grand jury investigating the killings of two San
Francisco police officers in the early 1970s. Ray Michael Boudreaux,
62, who has worked for 23 years as an electrician for Los Angeles
County, is being held indefinitely at San Francisco County Jail on
the order of Superior Court Judge Robert Dondero.

Boudreaux served in the Vietnam War, returned home in 1968 and soon
joined up with the Black Panthers in Oakland, his attorney said,
working at a breakfast program in the schools. He now lives in
Pasadena.

No one knows what the prosecution wants from Boudreaux. The special
assistant attorney general, who is bringing the case before the
grand jury, did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. The
prosecutor in court did tell the judge that Boudreaux is "a bright
individual."

FBI Withchunt.com reports Boudreaux's attorney challenged the legal
validity of the limited immunity offered by prosecutors, saying it
failed to protect his client's Fifth Amendment rights. "The
privilege against self-incrimination seems to be meaningless to
them,'' attorney Michael Burt said."They figure, 'We want your
testimony. Testify against yourself -- you are just going to have to
trust us that we are not going to make improper use of that.' It's a
little scary."

Burt argued that Boudreaux had reason to be skeptical of any
government deal. He called to the stand Jill Elijah, a Harvard Law
School professor, who testified that given the FBI's history of
civil rights violations against the Black Panthers, "Mr. Boudreaux
would have no reason to trust any representations made to him by the
government with respect to his immunity, his safety or his
protection from prosecution.''

Elijah testified that "it's been well-documented that well over 30
members of the Black Panther Party across the United States were
assassinated by the FBI, or in tandem with the FBI and local police
force operatives.'' Sources: Voice of San Diego, Union Tribune (San
Diego), FBI Witchhunt.com

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