Albion Monitor /Features

The Short Investigation of Jonathan Hill

by Mark Heimann

"Hill was getting too close to the truth"

A serious attempt at discerning the truth of what happened April 14th and in the days that followed was conducted by Jonathan Hill, a tribal criminal investigator from Jackson Reservation, California. Hill spent a week talking to victims of police abuse, studying the scene of the shootings and interviewing Sheriff's deputies. He told the AVA that he had uncovered specific incidents of police misconduct during their search for Bear Lincoln, and that he had strong suspicions of a police cover-up by some Sheriff's deputies concerning the deaths of Leonard Peters and Deputy Bob Davis. He said he did not think Sheriff Tuso was involved in a cover-up, but that he might be guilty of "not wanting to know." Hill felt he was close to breaking the case open when he was called back to the Jackson Reservation and pressured to resign. "I was digging too good, that's why the Sheriff wanted me out of there. I was not fired. I resigned under political pressure from the Washington BIA and the California District of the BIA. The pressure came from Sheriff Tuso. Tuso says from one side of his mouth, 'Come on up.' And on the other side of the mouth he is working as fast as he can to get me out of there." California Intertribal Council member Ed Tabor, asked if Hill's firing was related to his work in Mendocino County, replied, "It's a direct reflection of what happened here. Directly." Intertribal Council Chairman Vern Johnson added, "We have our suspicions that he (Hill) was getting too close to the truth and they figured this was a way to get rid of him." Hill is currently assisting the Civil Rights Division of the FBI in their investigation of the shooting and the police abuses that followed. William Forsythe, FBI special agent in charge, has characterized the official versions of that violent night as "a police cover-up."

What Really Happened?