Attorney General To Take Over Bear Lincoln Case?
by Nicholas Wilson
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by Nicholas Wilson |
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The
Bear Lincoln case has taken a new twist with the California Attorney
General's office possibly set to take over prosecution. Deputy A.G. Michael O'Reilly confirmed Tuesday that he will travel from his
San Francisco office to be at Friday's hearing in Ukiah, but made
no further comment.
Lincoln will appear in court January 15 to learn whether he will be retried on manslaughter charges in the 1995 Round Valley shooting death of Deputy Sheriff Bob Davis. This was to be the first appearance in the case of Mendocino County's new District Attorney, Norman Vroman. During the election campaign Vroman had said that, in light of the jury's 10-2 vote favoring acquittal, he would be inclined to dismiss the case unless there was evidence against Lincoln that he was unaware of.
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As
previously detailed in the Monitor, about a week after losing the
election, former D.A. Susan Massini requested then-A.G. Dan Lungren to
review the case, alleging that Vroman had made it a campaign promise not to
retry Lincoln. Massini claimed this amounted to Vroman basing the retrial
decision on politics rather than the facts of the case, and that this was
abuse of his discretion and grounds for the A.G. to take the case away from
him.
Vroman said that he never made any such unqualified promise, and intended to make the retrial decision only after reviewing the Lincoln case file. He said he hadn't seen the file because Massini had sent it to the A.G., but Massini denied that and told the Monitor the file remained in her office where Vroman could see it if he wanted to. Now six weeks later, Vroman told the Monitor on Monday that the Lincoln case file is indeed in the hands of the A.G.'s office in San Francisco, and he still hasn't been able to see it. He said he had just spoken to Dep. A.G. O'Reilly, and learned he won't be able to see the file until Friday, when O'Reilly brings it with him to Ukiah. Asked if that didn't make it hard for him to prepare for the hearing, Vroman replied, "It makes it impossible." He added that the A.G.'s office has had the file since November 15, as the cover letter from Massini to the A.G. bore that date. "I don't have a very firm grasp of what's going to happen Friday," Vroman added. The A.G. has the power and duty under the California Constitution to supervise the actions of all D.A.s and sheriffs in the state, and to step in and prosecute any case where he feels the law is not being adequately or evenly enforced. When the A.G. does take over a prosecution, it has the same powers as a D.A., and the case would still be tried in the local court. California's new Attorney General is Bill Lockyer, a former Democrat member of the state legislature. Friday's hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. before Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Golden, who also presided over Lincoln's 1997 murder trial. Lincoln's supporters will hold a rally in front of the courthouse at noon. More information is available from the Mendocino Environmental Center in Ukiah at 707-468-1660.
Albion Monitor January 13, 1999 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)
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