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Plaintiffs' Case Wraps Up in Pepper Spray By Q-tip Trial
The pepper spray by Q-tip trial to determine whether activists' Fourth Amendment rights were violated when law enforcement inserted Q-tips soaked in liquid pepper spray directly into their eyes continues in SF Federal court.
For immediate release Sept. 16, 2004
Contact: Karen Pickett, 510-548-3113
Plaintiffs' Case Wraps Up in Pepper Spray By Q-tip Trial
Young Pepper Spray-Doused Activists On Stand Thursday; Defense Puts Case On Next Week
Beta cam video news releases and courtroom drawings are available through the contact phone number. Video images, legal documents, other background and links available at http://www.nopepperspray.org. Press packets are available in the courtroom or through the above contact.
San Francisco, Calif.-The pepper spray by Q-tip trial to determine whether activists' Fourth Amendment rights were violated when law enforcement inserted Q-tips soaked in liquid pepper spray directly into their eyes continues in SF Federal court.
On Wednesday, Sept. 15, the jury heard from five of the young activists who were subjected to the pepper spray by Q-tip applications as they were locked to each other in sit-in actions in 1997. Their emotional and dramatic testimony, supported by police videotape footage shown in the courtroom, followed questioning of police officers who carried out the coercive procedure that Amnesty International calls "tantamount to torture". The activists recounted their temporary blindness, trauma and extreme pain as they told of panic attacks and nightmares that stayed with them long after the incidents.
The next witnesses on the stand will include the two named defendants:
… Chief Deputy (now Sheriff) Gary Philp of the Humboldt County Sheriffs Dept. (HCSD) who researched pepper spray and gave the order to his special response team to apply pepper spray in this totally unprecedented manner, and
… Sheriff Dennis Lewis who was then head policy maker for the HCSD and also approved the procedure.
On Monday, the Defense case is expected to open with more witnesses and continue through Wednesday, Sept. 22, when it will then go to the jury of four women and four men, who have been listening to testimony since Sept. 8.
The lawsuit stems from three Headwaters Forest protests in 1997, at the height of the campaign to save ancient redwoods. Activists had locked themselves to each other at sit-in protests in rural northern California. To remove them, Sheriffs' deputies used the unheard-of tactic of application of pepper spray by Q-tip. The activists filed suit, and the first trial in 1998 ended in a hung jury. After appeals in higher courts, the case is being retried.
Court is in session 8:30 a.m.to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday before Judge Susan Illston, in Courtroom 10, 19th floor of the Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco.
###
Contact: Karen Pickett, 510-548-3113
Plaintiffs' Case Wraps Up in Pepper Spray By Q-tip Trial
Young Pepper Spray-Doused Activists On Stand Thursday; Defense Puts Case On Next Week
Beta cam video news releases and courtroom drawings are available through the contact phone number. Video images, legal documents, other background and links available at http://www.nopepperspray.org. Press packets are available in the courtroom or through the above contact.
San Francisco, Calif.-The pepper spray by Q-tip trial to determine whether activists' Fourth Amendment rights were violated when law enforcement inserted Q-tips soaked in liquid pepper spray directly into their eyes continues in SF Federal court.
On Wednesday, Sept. 15, the jury heard from five of the young activists who were subjected to the pepper spray by Q-tip applications as they were locked to each other in sit-in actions in 1997. Their emotional and dramatic testimony, supported by police videotape footage shown in the courtroom, followed questioning of police officers who carried out the coercive procedure that Amnesty International calls "tantamount to torture". The activists recounted their temporary blindness, trauma and extreme pain as they told of panic attacks and nightmares that stayed with them long after the incidents.
The next witnesses on the stand will include the two named defendants:
… Chief Deputy (now Sheriff) Gary Philp of the Humboldt County Sheriffs Dept. (HCSD) who researched pepper spray and gave the order to his special response team to apply pepper spray in this totally unprecedented manner, and
… Sheriff Dennis Lewis who was then head policy maker for the HCSD and also approved the procedure.
On Monday, the Defense case is expected to open with more witnesses and continue through Wednesday, Sept. 22, when it will then go to the jury of four women and four men, who have been listening to testimony since Sept. 8.
The lawsuit stems from three Headwaters Forest protests in 1997, at the height of the campaign to save ancient redwoods. Activists had locked themselves to each other at sit-in protests in rural northern California. To remove them, Sheriffs' deputies used the unheard-of tactic of application of pepper spray by Q-tip. The activists filed suit, and the first trial in 1998 ended in a hung jury. After appeals in higher courts, the case is being retried.
Court is in session 8:30 a.m.to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday before Judge Susan Illston, in Courtroom 10, 19th floor of the Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco.
###
For more information:
http://nopepperspray.org
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med info;
Meibomian glands - inside eyelid produce oily secretion that keeps eyelids from sticking together
Glands of Zeis - Base of eyelash hairs produce oily secretion to keep eyelashes supple
layers of eye;
sclera - white of eye
cornea- curved transparent lens
inner layer choroid - blood vessels for nurturing eye, ciliary muscles and ciliary nerve
Tears secreted continuously from lacrimal glands located above outer corners of each eyeball, contains water, mucoid proteins and lysozyme (to digest invasive airborne bacteria)
Cornea is richly supplied with nerves subserving touch and pain, slightest irritation by dust specks set up reflex that leads to blinking and more tears.
Interruption of the ophthalmic fibers from the cornea represents one cause of absence of the corneal (blink) reflex in both eyes. Condition called "tic doulouteax (painful twitch) or trigeminal neuralgia, excrutiating stabs of pain radiate along a single branch of the fifth nerve, the lacrimal nerve containing sensory fibers from lacrimal gland. Lacrimal nerve is branch of first division ophthalmic nerve.
more info later..
Meibomian glands - inside eyelid produce oily secretion that keeps eyelids from sticking together
Glands of Zeis - Base of eyelash hairs produce oily secretion to keep eyelashes supple
layers of eye;
sclera - white of eye
cornea- curved transparent lens
inner layer choroid - blood vessels for nurturing eye, ciliary muscles and ciliary nerve
Tears secreted continuously from lacrimal glands located above outer corners of each eyeball, contains water, mucoid proteins and lysozyme (to digest invasive airborne bacteria)
Cornea is richly supplied with nerves subserving touch and pain, slightest irritation by dust specks set up reflex that leads to blinking and more tears.
Interruption of the ophthalmic fibers from the cornea represents one cause of absence of the corneal (blink) reflex in both eyes. Condition called "tic doulouteax (painful twitch) or trigeminal neuralgia, excrutiating stabs of pain radiate along a single branch of the fifth nerve, the lacrimal nerve containing sensory fibers from lacrimal gland. Lacrimal nerve is branch of first division ophthalmic nerve.
more info later..
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