Long-time Black Activists and Grand Jury Resisters Harassed and Jailed

Over the last several weeks, five Black activists have been resisting a California State Grand Jury investigating incidents over 30 years old. Three of them are currently in custody for refusing to cooperate with the government investigation.

This afternoon (Wednesday, Sept 21), the California State Supreme Court found that the procedures followed to hold one of them, Ray Boudreaux, on contempt charges, were defective. The Supreme Court has ordered that he be brought to court Thursday morning. It is possible that the other two activists will also be brought to court and that they may all be released. However it is expected that they will be ordered to return on September 27th at which point they could be held in contempt again and re-jailed.

The California Supreme Court ordered Wednesday that the Sheriff of San Francisco is ordered to show cause forthwith why petitioner is not entitled to immediate release on the grounds that the declaration of the Deputy Attorney General in support of the order to show cause fails to state a valid court order.The Supreme Court's order was served on Judge Dondero and he ordered Ray produced at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Druliner's position is that he should be released pending the filing of a new order next Tuesday when the grand jury goes back in session. The Supreme Court did not reach any other issues. All defendants currently in custody should show up at the hearing at 10:30 since they are in jail under identical orders.

Also this week, a San Francisco judge declined to jail Black activist Richard Brown Wednesday for refusing to cooperate with a California State Grand Jury on the basis that the proper procedures had not yet been followed. Richard is due back in court on Tuesday, September 27th. His lawyer, Richard Mazer, made a persuasive argument challenging both the procedures and the use of this Grand Jury in harassing activists.

A judge in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, September 20, refused to enforce the subpoena for Black activist John Bowman’s appearance before the same grand jury in San Francisco. His decision was made pending a ruling by the California Supreme Court on an appeal involving Grand Jury immunity that was filed on August 29th on behalf of another Grand Jury resister and Black activist, Ray Boudreaux. John Bowman’s attorney, Doug Parr, argued that the current Grand Jury process was abusive and cited the proceedings of a previous grand jury that also subpoenaed John Bowman June 30th. Attorney Parr also argued that the impact of John Bowman’s torture by police in New Orleans in the 1970s and the emotional trauma caused by these current proceedings constituted a further abuse of the judicial process. The judge gave a lengthy decision from the bench explaining how the court system was supposed to work for everybody.

The first person subpoenaed to the current grand jury was Ray Boudreaux, another long-time Black activist. Boudreaux declined to testify. He asserted his Constitutional rights and argued that they would be violated if he complied with the Court’s Order. On Monday, August 29th a contempt hearing was held before Judge Robert Dondero of the California Superior Court. Judge Dondero ordered Ray Boudreaux to be held in contempt for refusing to give testimony. Despite a lengthy hearing that included testimony from attorneys Carol Smith and Soffiyah Elijah about the history of government COINTELPRO attacks against the Black movement and specifically how activists were tortured in New Orleans in the 1970s to gain information, the California judge ruled that Boudreaux had no basis for mistrusting the California Attorney General's offers of immunity. Ray Boudreaux was a strong presence in the courtroom as he listened to the arguments of his attorney, Michael Burt, challenging the coercive and punitive nature of the grand jury proceedings.

Since then, Black activists Hank Jones and Harold Taylor were also held in contempt for refusing to testify. They and Ray Boudreaux will continue to be held in the San Francisco jail until this grand jury term expires, October 31.

Background on the Grand Jury targeting Black Activists in San Francisco

Shortly after the founding of the Black Panther Party, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described it in September 1968 as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

By July 1969, the Party had become the primary focus of COINTELPRO and was the target of 233 of the 295 authorized “Black Nationalist” COINTELPRO actions. The FBI placed illegal wiretaps on Party headquarters in Oakland, San Francisco, and nationally, infiltrated the organization with numerous agents, used every possible means to provoke violence within the organization and engaged in a number of schemes to arrest, detain, falsely accuse, incarcerate and murder members of the Black Panther Party.

The San Francisco Police Department worked closely with the FBI during the sixties and seventies to promote the goals of “neutralizing” and destroying the Black Panther Party. Two of the San Francisco Police Department Inspectors who worked in tandem with the FBI to promote these goals were Frank McCoy and Ed Erdelatz.

In August 1973, several Black Panthers were arrested including John Bowman, Ruben Scott and Harold Taylor were arrested in New Orleans.

McCoy and Erdelatz were on hand in New Orleans immediately after their arrest (as were detectives from New York City) and participated in the interrogation that took place over the course of several days. They were investigating the killings of two San Francisco policemen that took place in the early 1070s.

When Bowman, Scott and Taylor didn’t answer questions by McCoy and Erdelatz, the San Francisco policemen exited the room and members of the New Orleans Police Department proceeded to torture the detainees using various methods including the following:

· Stripping them naked and beating them with blunt objects
· Blindfolding them and throwing wool blankets soaked in boiling water over their bodies
· Placing electric probes on their genitals and other parts of their bodies
· Inserting an electric cattle prod in their anus
· Punching and kicking
· Slamming them into walls while blindfolded

Their screams were heard throughout the jail. After a period of torture, McCoy and Erdelatz would return to the room, and continue questioning them. Each time the answers they sought were not forthcoming, the San Francisco police would leave the room and the torture would resume. This process lasted several days. The three men were interrogated separately and were held in solitary confinement. Bowman, Scott and Taylor all suffered permanent physical and psychological damage.

These two Inspectors are not new to accusations of physical abuse as the San Francisco Examiner ran a series of stories in the 1970s suggesting McCoy and Erdelatz had coerced testimony from a witness connected to a Chinatown slaying.

In 2003, McCoy and Erdelatz began roaming the country in an apparent attempt to interview numerous individuals alleged to be involved with or have knowledge of the 1970s incidents. At times they were joined by San Francisco Police Inspector and FBI Special Federal Officer Joseph Engler. They went to people’s homes and places of employment. They visited prisoners in the New York State prisons where they were incarcerated. They attempted to interview spouses, former spouses and family members. At least one person in the Bay Area was commandeered off the street as he drove home from work and taken for interrogation. They used thinly veiled threats, intimidation and harassment. They demanded that some individuals provide saliva samples. Some people were served with federal grand jury subpoenas to provide fingerprints.

The actions of McCoy, Engler and Erdelatz in 2003 and 2004 were connected to a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of California also investigating the incidents that are the focus of these grand juries. In the summer of 2004, the federal grand jury expired.

In May 2005 a California State grand jury was convened and began taking testimony regarding these same incidents. That grand jury was purportedly investigative in nature. It was expected that the government would next present evidence to an indicting grand jury. However in August 2005 another investigative grand jury was convened. This time a group of people identified by the government as targets were subpoenaed. Both of these grand juries were conducted by the California State Attorney General rather than the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. Working in tandem with the state AG was an Assistant United States Attorney.

The full role of the federal government in this investigation is yet to be revealed. What is clear is that no federal, state or city agent or police officer nor government agency has ever been held culpable for the illegal acts, violence, imprisonment and murders conducted in the name of COINTELPRO nor has there been any admission that these activities are continuing under the Patriot Act or under any other name.