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News :: Civil & Human Rights : Crime & Police : Environment : Government Secrecy : Protest Activity |
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Earth First! Activists Win $4 Million Judgment Against FBI, City of Oakland |
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by BCN
(No verified email address) |
23 Apr 2004
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Cherney and Bari claimed in the lawsuit that they were unfairly targeted in the probe in an attempt to discredit their work. They also contended that investigators seeking search warrants made false and reckless statements, including an incorrect assertion that round-topped nails used in the pipe bomb were the same as flat-headed nails found in Bari's home. |
OAKLAND (BCN) -- The U.S. Justice Department and city of Oakland have signed off on a $4 million settlement of a long-running civil rights lawsuit filed by two environmental activists injured in a 1990 car bombing in Oakland, according to lawyers in the case.
Jim Wheaton, a lawyer representing attorneys for Darryl Cherney and the late Judi Bari, and Deputy Oakland City Attorney Maria Bee said Thursday that the parties in the case signed the settlement over the past week.
The Justice Department, representing three retired FBI agents, and the city of Oakland, representing three present and former police officers, will each pay $2 million.
Cherney and Bari, members of the environmental group Earth First! were injured when a bomb exploded beneath Bari's car seat as they drove through Oakland on May 24, 1990.
The two North Coast residents were on a speaking tour to promote Redwood Summer, a campaign to protest the logging of old-growth redwoods. The cause of the bomb was never explained.
Cherney and Bari claimed in a 1991 lawsuit that the FBI and Oakland police violated their constitutional rights when they were arrested and investigated for the bombing.
Bari, who was left paralyzed by the bombing, was arrested in her hospital bed by Oakland police and Cherney was also arrested within hours of the blast on suspicion of possessing and transporting explosives.
But Alameda County prosecutors declined to file any state charges and no federal charges were ever filed.
Bari died of breast cancer in 1997 but her estate continued the lawsuit on behalf her two now-adult daughters.
In 2002, Cherney and Bari's estate won a $4.4 million jury verdict in the court of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken against the three FBI agents and three Oakland officers for violating their rights to free speech and protection from illegal searches.
Cherney and Bari claimed in the lawsuit that they were unfairly targeted in the probe in an attempt to discredit their work. They also contended that investigators seeking search warrants made false and reckless statements, including an incorrect assertion that round-topped nails used in the pipe bomb were the same as flat-headed nails found in Bari's home.
Several other agents and officers, including Richard Held, former chief of the FBI's San Francisco office, were dropped as defendants at various stages of the lawsuit.
The settlement brings an end to the case with the two government agencies agreeing to forgo appeals and the plaintiffs agreeing not to seek additional attorney's fees estimated at more than $4 million.
Bee said, "It's a good resolution in that it saves the city several million dollars of exposure for attorney's fees and appellate costs."
Wheaton said the jury verdict was the largest jury award levied against the FBI and that the final settlement is among the largest settlements reached with the agency outside of court.
Wheaton said that although the plaintiffs agreed not to seek additional compensation for attorneys' fees, their lawyers will in fact be paid out of the $4 million settlement. He declined to disclose the amount of the payments.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said, "There's nothing I can tell you at this stage."
Miller said the agency could not comment because nothing has been filed in court. Bee said the settlement was reached out of court, but that when all payments are made a notice will be filed in Wilken's court stating that the 2002 judgment has been satisfied.
The 2002 jury award included $2.9 million for Bari's estate and $1.5 million for Cherney.
The Oakland City Council approved the city's $2 million share of the settlement last year, but Wheaton said the final details were not ironed out until last week.
(Copyright 2004, Bay City News. All rights reserved.)
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