Bear Lincoln Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

by Nicholas Wilson

In a plea bargain in the current case, Lincoln pled guilty to one of two felony counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling last March.

Defense attorney Phil DeJong charged that the severity of Lincoln's sentence had more to do with the alleged murder he was acquitted of than the crime he pled guilty to. DeJong had sought probation so that Lincoln could continue drug and alcohol rehabilitation that he began several months ago after his release on bail.

In an exclusive Monitor interview just before entering the courtroom for sentencing, Lincoln said he had acted out of pent-up anger against his cousin Pat Lincoln for shooting at his mother while he was in jail for two years awaiting trial on murder charges. Pat Lincoln was arrested but not prosecuted for the shooting.

Bear Lincoln said the offense against his mother had bothered him for years. "It was revenge. I didn't plan it, it just came out. I was intoxicated and high and had completely lost control. So now the story (of Pat shooting at my mother) is getting out to the public, and that's all I ever really wanted. I'm here to face whatever prison time the judge wants to give me."

Before the sentencing DeJong said he was unhappy with the probation report's rationale in calling for a five-year prison sentence, and said it appeared Lincoln was being punished for the crime which a jury acquitted him of in 1997. DeJong said Lincoln's alcohol problem was "certainly understandable given his background and given the stress and trauma that he's been through. Aside from his DUI and driving on a suspended license he's had an unblemished record since 1979. He was required to attend AA meetings three times a week as a condition of bail, and he's been going more than that. He seems convinced of the poisonous and corrosive influence that alcohol has been. In my view, this is a case that cries out for probation, and I'm just amazed that the sentencing recommendation came as it did. I've seen other shooting-into-dwelling cases such as this one, where there were no injuries, where probation was routinely granted."

Said Lincoln, "They're including the 1995 case against me -- not on paper of course -- even though I went through their system and was acquitted by their jury that they picked, and they're still not happy. So if I'm sentenced to prison today it won't be because of this one charge of shooting at an inhabited dwelling. What I did was wrong; I know that. It was something that happened; something that just overtook me. I made a mistake, and that's all I can say. I'm not making any excuses."

Lincoln supporters likewise charged that this prison sentence was law enforcement's revenge on Lincoln for the death of the deputy. Indeed, some half-dozen deputies sent letters to the judge that were included in the probation report, and all urged "the maximum penalty permitted by law." At least one of the letters contained innuendo that Lincoln was to blame for the deputy's death, even though the murder-case jury found that Lincoln had fired in self-defense and that the slain deputy may well have been shot by the other deputy on the scene. Several of the deputies who wrote letters attended the sentencing hearing.

DeJong argued that there is no reason Lincoln should not be granted probation, since the probation report showed 11 years of no offenses whatsoever. The report was wrong in saying that he violated parole, DeJong said, and he has never been on felony probation. "Bear has had drug and alcohol problems that he has made an effort to control," said DeJong. "He has a longstanding difficult relationship with Pat Lincoln. Aside from his alcohol problem he has been a law-abiding member of the community." The probation officer agreed that he had erred and asked the judge to delete several references to alleged parole violations.

District Attorney Norman Vroman spoke only briefly, arguing for denial of probation, and saying, "The very act of what he did out there shows a total disregard for human life. The only way the chain of violence (on the reservation) is going to stop is if Lincoln is sentenced to prison."

DeJong called two witnesses to the stand on Lincoln's behalf: his mother, Lucille Lincoln, to confirm that she had been shot at by Pat Lincoln, and Lincoln's friend Cyndi Pickett as a character witness. Pickett said she has never seen any violence in Lincoln, and had never seen him even angry, even though she spent a lot of time with him. Pickett said she had known Lincoln about ten years and had become his close, platonic friend and confidant since his acquittal of the murder charges.

Pickett said she had seen him almost daily for the past three years, and she did notice that he had an alcohol problem. She never saw him drinking before 1995, but after his release from over two years in jail there were occasions when he got into a drinking binge. But then he would recover and not drink for months. She didn't hold his alcohol problem against him because she saw that he was trying to control it and was successful most of the time.

Very few people have been given the opportunity you have been given, to be a leader in your community. You received national recognition. With that comes responsibility to community and self. You neglected it and totally failed in your responsibility. You had this golden opportunity to lead your people, and I'm very sorry you didn't do so in a positive and constructive fashion. Shooting at an inhabited dwelling is a serious crime under any circumstances, but particularly when under the influence of drugs and alcohol; you have no ability to control where you shoot. It is with some sadness that I'm going to deny probation in this case. It appears there is little likelihood that you will be successful in probation.

Mr. Lincoln, I listened to testimony in support today and read the letters of support. There is no question that you have an alcohol problem. You may be mild-mannered when sober, but there's plenty of evidence that you're not when drunk. The Court sentences you to the middle term of 5 years in state prison, with credit for 38 days time served. In addition there will be a $1000 fine plus an additional $1000 fine stayed unless parole is revoked.

Lincoln, who had been free on $100,000 bond, was then handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. About two dozen Lincoln supporters and family members filed out, including Lincoln's mother, who was in tears.

Asked if it was fair of Judge Orr to say Lincoln had been handed a golden opportunity and hold him to a higher standard of responsibility, DeJong said, "Well, if being in jail for two years for a crime you didn't commit is a golden opportunity I guess the judge is right. He defends himself from a police ambush and suddenly he's a Native American icon, the reincarnation of Sitting Bull. It's ridiculous! If I'd spent two years in jail waiting to see if they're going to pump me full of poison I might be nipping on the bottle a little myself."

DeJong concedes that shooting at the houses was a serious crime, but said that he felt that up to a year in jail followed by probation and rehabilitation would have been an appropriate sentence.

Cyndi Pickett, who lives on the reservation, also commented, "We have shootings in reservation housing from time to time, and half the time the police don't even come out. But when Bear Lincoln is the suspect we have three-quarters of the law enforcement payroll of Mendocino County show up. He's just another human being, and he's being held to a higher standard than others in the community that he comes from."

• Dan Hamburg (former Congress member and Green party gubernatorial candidate): "Judge Orr's comments before sentencing were very presumptuous, very much talking down to Bear Lincoln, saying that he had an extra responsibility not go get into trouble. In fact, Bear Lincoln never asked to be put on trial for his life. He never wanted to be a political hero. He never made any pretensions about being a leader. And it's true that all of us who are friends of Bear feel sorry that he's in this predicament, but that kind of patronizing tone that I heard in the courtroom is the reason that we have so many of these problems in the first place."

• Cyndi Pickett (long-time friend): "After the (murder) trial was over, there were a lot of people making plans for Bear as an activist. They were automatically assuming that he would take on that role, and I think that's totally unfair... He didn't ask to be an icon. He didn't voluntarily become a minister of a church so that he should be held to a higher standards. He didn't ask for it and I don't think he necessarily took it on. He's just Bear Lincoln, and I think he needs to be held to the same standards as anyboy else in the community. I felt that it was total bullshit, and no one has the right to say that he has to be the one to lead his people. That is too much to put on a person. He's already dealt with enough."

• Richard Becker (International Action Center in San Francisco): "It's very clear that this is retaliation for what happened earlier when he was acquitted against great odds. We know that the state, the county, the police, and the sheriffs want to get him. And now he's going to state prison, which is a very dangerous situation for him to be in given what's happened in the past. So I think that everyone who has been concerned about Bear needs to keep watching and keep supporting him. This is just another stage, and a more dangerous stage for him. "

• Luis Talamantez (California Prison Focus activist): "The last thing you want to do is be sent to prison with any kind of innuendo or implication that you were involved previously in the death of law enforcement personnel. Though he was acquitted of that charge, the Department of Corrections will summarily find him guilty of that at his first classification committee and make him pay for that. It's up to us out here to push the Dept. of Corrections to give him minimum security placement, as his five-year sentence indicates. At these maximum security prisons like Tehachapi and Corcoran people are being brutalized, and given beatings and extra punishment, especially to someone like Bear. Persecution, retaliation -- these things are alive and practiced every day in California prisons, based on our findings. So Bear still needs our support during his stay in prison, because the California Department of Corrections kills prisoners, maims them, and ruins them for life, even in a relatively short period like five years. He'll be sent to Reception Guidance Center at San Quentin, and they'll process him for 90 days. They may decide to send him to minimum security prison, which his sentence deserves, and not cart him off to some faraway dungeon like they do to some, especially political prisoners."

Ironically Arylis Peters' home was shot into in 1995 by a member of the Britton family whom he saw in the act. But in contrast to the massive police response to the Lincoln incident last sprint Peters had to call to the Sheriff's Dept. four times before a deputy was sent to take a report. Peters was told that no arrest could be made based on his eyewitness testimony and the recovered bullet. This was the incident referred to at the end of the previous Monitor story about the new charges against Lincoln, although that story mistakenly quoted Cora Lee Simmons saying it was Leonard Peters rather than his brother Arylis who was the victim.