SF8 Hearing and Update
Please support Richard Brown and the SF 8 by attending Wednesday’s
bail reduction hearings starting at 9 am, 850 Bryant St, SF in
Department 23 (on the third floor). The hearing will likely adjourn
at about noon and will then resume at 2pm.
Update for Tuesday, August 7th
Only 2 brothers in court again!
Court opened with all defense lawyers arguing that all defendants be
present for all legal proceedings. The Attorney General argued that
there was no legal requirement given that bail motions were not about
legal evidence, rather are about individuals addressing individual
bail issues. Judge Moscone ruled that because of a “lack of
furniture” to accommodate all eight defendants and because he
basically agreed that there were no mutual issues and that counsel
representing the absent defendants were present, that only Ray
Boudreaux and Richard O’Neal would attend today’s (and Monday’s) bail
hearings.
Strenuous objections were made by the defense attorneys.
James Bustamante, Richard O’Neal’s attorney presented arguments in
favor of a reasonable and attainable bail. He, like Michael Burt,
Ray’s attorney, argued that the only evidence linking Richard to the
case were statements made by Ruben Scott whose testimony was proven
to be perjurious by 2 courts in the past, who recanted cooperative
testimony by explaining that he was tortured in New Orleans in 1973
along with other Black activists, and who was given complete immunity
by a 2004 grand jury in San Francisco for any role he might have
played in 1971 connecting him to the death of a SF Police Officer at
the Ingleside Station – this in exchange for further cooperative
statements.
This key government witness and other matters in evidence are
consistently being challenged – and this is why other attorneys want
the brothers to be in court.
Extensive statements were submitted regarding Richard O’Neal’s ties
to work, community and family. Many members of his family and friends
were present. Testimony was given by a long-time friend, Fannie
Sanders, who has known Richard since childhood. Despite being
challenged by the Attorney General, Fannie was eloquent and
unflappable in her attesting to Richard O’Neal’s important role in
the community and to his family.
Similar testimony had been heard last month and this week for Ray
Boudreaux. Today’s hearing included the State prosecutor’s argument
to increase bail for Ray from $3 million to $5 million.
The crux of the State’s arguments and case about bail rests on:
statements made by and hearsay attributed to Ruben Scott by police
investigators
the creating of a perception of their danger to the community if
released which remains unsubstantiated
government statements about DNA – reports have never materialized
from recent samples that tie any of the brothers to any forensic
evidence – the state has never produced any test results (from tests
done over a year ago), creating the impression that the results are
exculpatory
Arguments made by the State Attorney General claim that the main
activities of the eight men was to be part of a “gang” that conspired
to attack police officers and that the nature of the government’s
allegations were sufficient to deny attainable bail. No arguments
were made to support claims that Ray Boudreaux or Richard O’Neal
would be flights risks, no substantial arguments were made to support
innuendo that they are a danger to the community today.
The most egregious argument of the prosecutor likened this case to
the recent old-case prosecutions of crimes against Black communities
and civil rights leaders in the South. Prosecutor Dave Druliner
stated that they (the prosecutors) were just like the guys
prosecuting these civil rights cases. But Ray Boudreaux’s attorney,
Michael Burt, sharply rebutted such claims by clearly contradicting
these claims explaining that the difference in these Southern cases
was that these prosecutions were prevented by institutional racism –
by prosecutors’ refusal to pursue white supremacists who targeted
Blacks. “Institutional racism didn’t prevent this (the SF 8)
prosecution for 35 years…what has changed is not the evidence but the
will to proceed,” said Burt. The FBI has been “dogging all these
men with hundreds of agents, pursuing this conspiracy in the hopes
that somebody would turn, and they haven’t.” (and not to speak of
COINTELPRO's targeting of the Black liberation movement and its
activists)
Michael Burt concluded that the case raises issues of unjustified
delays because the State prosecutors have proffered no new evidence,
and are relying mainly on statements by and attributed to Ruben Scott
who is not only a victim of torture himself, but has offered
contradictory and false statements for years to prosecutors and now
serves their purposes once more.
Judge Moscone has yet to make any decisions regarding bail, and
arguments resume Wednesday for bail reduction for Richard Brown.
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