Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Eric McDavid - Trial Report from 9/10/07


Date: September 11, 2007

Court Report September 10, 2007

1.Jury Selection
2.Government's Opening statements
3.Defense Opening Statements
4.First Government Witness
5.Anna to testify
6.Vegan food for Eric

Yesterday (Monday) was was the first day of Eric's trial. The morning was
taken up by jury selection and then a break for lunch. After lunch we
heard both sides' opening statements and the first prosecution witness.


Jury Selection
To select jurors the judge asked them a variety of questions about their
background and whether or not they could be fair and impartial as jurors.
The most notable question was when the judge asked the jurors if they were
members of PETA, the ALF or the ELF, if they were supporters or if anyone
they knew are members or supporters. After the judge finished questioning
the jurors, the lawyers were allowed to do their peremptory challenges,
the process that allows each side to dismiss a set amount of jurors
without cause. Twelve jurors (7 men and 5 women) and two alternates (men)
were instructed on their obligations as jurors and empaneled and then the
court recessed for lunch.

Government's Opening Statements
After lunch the US Attorney Steve Lapham began his opening arguments,
which he describes as a preview of the government's case. The US Attorney
(USA) began his preview with the words "this case is about an ecoterror
plot to use fire and explosives to attack targets in Northern
California". He said that Eric was the leader of this conspiracy and that
he recruited the three, pumped them up and provide "philosophical
indoctrination". Not long after that he described the ELF, which he claims
Eric is a part of, as a "leaderless resistance". He then went on to
describe "Anna" as "a person who managed to make friendships and
acquaintances in the anarchist and radical ecoterror movement". "Anna"
apparently turned 21 last month. According to the government, Anna's
involvement with the FBI began in 2003 when Anna a was 17 year old
sophomore at a community college in Florida. She decided to do an
undercover project infiltrating a group of people preparing for the FTAA
protest in Miami. Allegedly, an investigator who was enrolled in her class
was impressed by her report which he showed his supervisor. His supervisor
apparently offered her work for "over a year attending protests where
illegal activities were expected to take place". The US Attorney claims
that she believed she was done after that, but then was called up by the
FBI in Philadelphia and asked if she would work undercover at the biotech
protest in Philadelphia in 2005. The US Attorney talked about her
interactions with Eric at Biotech in Philly, Crimethinc in Bloomington and
Pointless fest in Philly during the summer of 2005. The USA said that the
conspiracy began over the course of these three events. The USA said that
Eric, Zach, Lauren and Anna came out to California in November of 2005 to
discuss their alleged bombing campaign. Anna bought Lauren a plane ticket
to California. The USA says that to convict someone of a conspiracy they
have to prove these three elements:
1)that there is an agreement between two or more people to do something
that the law forbids
2)became a member of the conspiracy knowing its object and intending to
accomplish them
3)that there was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy
The USA says Eric/Zach/Lauren/Anna talked about claiming their action for
the ELF and going underground afterwards. The USA states that Anna
furnished the three with recipes to make explosives, but that they were
fake recipes and could never have made an explosives device "the FBI would
never give them a real one". USA said they planned go down to an
"anarchist commune" in Fresno but that the FBI didn't want to "lose
control" of them, so she got them a cabin in Dutch Flat wired by the FBI
with audio/video bugging devices. USA discussed how Anna introduced the
"burn book" to the group. This was supposed to be a book where they could
write down all their ideas, that would get burned at the end. USA says
that Zach and Lauren downloaded google maps to look at satellite photos of
possible targets and that this was one of the overt acts. USA says another
overt act was boiling bleach in a pyrex container that eventually broke.
This was allegedly to make explosives from Anna's fake bomb recipe. USA
says they targeted Nimbus Dam. He says they visited it to do
reconnaissance but "I believe they looked at the Dam and decided they did
not have the wherewithal to do it". He also said they target unspecified
cell phone towers and power stations and the Institute of Forestry
Genetics (IFG). USA says they visited IFG and used fake names and a fake
stories to get a tour and do reconnaissance. Then USA said it was
"important to talk about why this case comes to a termination when it
does".
According to him this was a series of three "stressful" events. The first
is that they got pulled over by the CHP and she was afraid her cover was
going to be blown. The second is that Eric found a small recording device
in her car attached to her tape player, though she was able to convince
him it was just a component of her car. Apparently the final decisive
incident was that Anna had an argument after a pyrex bowl in which the 4
boiled bleach broke. The stress of the day caused a huge argument with
the other three because she felt they were not moving fast enough and did
not have a plan. This led to her leaving the house for two hours and
telling her FBI handlers that she was through. Apparently they convinced
her to go back for one more night and agreed to end the operation and
arrest Eric, Lauren and Zach.

Defense Opening Statements
"What is essential is often invisible to the eye"
Mark Reichel, attorney for Eric McDavid, began his brief opening statement
with the above quote from the French children's story "The Little Prince".
He went on to explain to the jury that they had been hearing the
government's version of the facts, but to grasp the true story they would
have to look at these facts in context and approach this case from a
different perspective. Nothing exists in a vacuum and we have to know
what has gone on before. He compared Eric, Lauren and Zach to
tumbleweeds, saying that there has to be a powerful, horrific force at
work to keep them on the same path. He said that the true beginning of
the story was in August 04, when Anna met Eric. The jury, Mark said,
would have to focus on intent - where it came from and who's it was.
Where does everything originate?

First Government Witness
The government's first witness was Bruce David Naliboff, a Lt. of criminal
investigation with the Yolo County District Attorney's office since 2002.
He was a police officer for 20 years before that, with 16 years on the UC
Davis police force. His testimony consisted primarily of information he
had gleaned about the ALF, ELF and anarchism from surfing the internet and
putting thing in binders since 1997. Mark moved to bar his testimony
because it was prejudicial but was denied by the judge. Then Mark moved to
bar his testimony because he his testimony was about what the "ultimate
truth" of the case was about - which experts are not allowed to do because
that is for the jury to decide. The judge denied Mark's motion again,
stating that Naliboff was not an expert. This, despite the fact that after
much debate Judge England seemed to have decided at last Friday's hearing
that Naliboff was an expert (at the hearing he said, in reference to
Naliboff being an expert "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a
duck..."). When cross examined by Mark, Naliboff admitted that one did not
have to be an anarchist to be vegan or be a criminal to be an anarchist.
He also described discussing his testimony with the prosecutor and the FBI
agent the day before and receiving instruction from them. He originally
said that to law enforcement "direct action means illegal activity". He
later clarified that by saying "in my mind it is a misdemeanor crime to
further your casue". He was very reticent to define anarchism after Mark
asked him about famous anarchists and veganism and finally described it as
"a people's philosophical way of life".

Anna to testify
It was revealed in court yesterday that Anna was supposed to testify
today. But then the government revealed that they had 13 pages of notes
from Anna that they claim they have never heard about or seen. The USA
said that Anna thought she had gotten rid of them, but then just found
them on her computer. The notes cover some of the periods of time when
Anna says Eric made incriminating statements that cannot be corroborated
by any
electronic surveillance. This delayed Anna's testimony until Tuesday,
September 11.


Vegan Food For Eric
Please continue to call the jail and politely insist that Eric be given
vegan meals. We have been told that Sgt. Ilg is responsible for the
decision to deny Eric food. You may want to request to speak to him when
you call.
916-874-6752
916-874-6905
Apparently the jail has been telling people a variety of stories that
range from "Eric is getting commissary" to "no one is getting commissary".
These statements are both false. Eric has money in his commissary account
and was inexplicably denied access to commissary while others received it.
Do not be deterred by lies. Just request that the jail resume giving Eric
vegan meals immediately and resume his access to commissary.

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