October 1, 2001 Trial Date Set for Bari Lawsuit
Against FBI and Oakland Police Department
Date: Monday, May 15, 2000
From: Hayduke Rocks!
Breaking News!
Earth First! Redwood Summer organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were the victims of a car bombing attack on May 24, 1990 as they were traveling between organizing meetings and promotional events. Because of a flaw in the construction of the bomb, both Bari and Cherney survived the bombing that according to an FBI bomb expert was designed to kill them. Judi, however, suffered excruciatingly painful injuries that in many ways crippled her until her death in 1997.
In 1991, Bari, Cherney and the Redwood Summer Justice Project filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police for violating the civil rights of the activists, and for various crimes involving the investigation of the bombing and the framing of Bari and Cherney for bombing themselves.
Nine years of frivolous FBI motions have prevented the lawsuit from going to trial so far. Richard Held, Jr., head of the San Francisco FBI office during the time of the bombing and investigation, was thrown out of the lawsuit as a defendant by Judge Claudia Wilken in one of these motions.
On Friday, May 12, a trial date was finally set for the suit, according to Darryl Cherney, interviewed Friday on the KMUD News. The case is now scheduled to go to trial October 1, 2001 in Oakland, CA. That will be eleven years and four months after the bombing took place on an Oakland city street.
Cherney is gratified that the case will finally go to trial, and is happy with the date because it will give the legal team time to depose 50 more FBI agents, timber workers and other possible witnesses to the murder attempt and smear campaign. It will also give them needed time to file the motions to try to bring Richard Held back into the case as a defendant. According to Cherney, Judi Bari's last request was "to not let Held off."