Why Bruce Anderson is in Jail

Here in California's banana republic of Mendocino County, an independent and free press is afforded the same treatment by the local government. The forces of repression share a common cause: the concealment of their crimes.

Take the issue of how dark it was that night. Lincoln says, "no one could see 20 feet in front of their face." The surviving deputy, Dennis Miller, says it was "so light he could read his watch by the light of the moon." It was both. A storm was moving in that night, the full moon was hidden, then exposed, then hidden again. By three or four in the morning, it was snowing.

Lincoln's opinion is that there was more than one M-16 firing, though the evidence does not support his belief. Lincoln also says he thinks 200 to 250 shots were fired. What the evidence does show is that over 60 shots were fired at Lincoln from at least three different police weapons, including an M-16 on full automatic, and that Deputy Miller lied in a material way about the events of that evening.

With the kind of combat firepower that was directed at Lincoln, it's a wonder he didn't think he was being shot at with a cannon. Ear witnesses to the event describe the fusillade as "like a war" and "like being back in 'Nam" and thought more than one machine-gun was in play. Any one who has been on the receiving end of the fast-firing M-16 as I have, can testify that the sound is more like a giant zipper being pulled than individual shots. If they are truthful, they'll probably recall the warm, wet feeling running down their pants leg.

Paraphrasing Lincoln's letter: there was no warrant, no road block, no lights, and no warning. Only the last item is contested by the authorities. Besides Lincoln, Deputy Miller is the only witness to the events that night on that hill, and it has already been proved that he has lied. Are we supposed to believe that now that he has been caught in his fabrication he is now telling the truth? It is the calculated withholding of his mendaciousness by the D.A.'s office that resulted in the Grand Jury indictment against Lincoln being squashed last year.

The District Attorney's case against Lincoln is extremely weak; his prime witness is without credibility, so he is attempting to build his case retroactively. The AVA is the only news source, other than this publication (the Monitor went on-line five months after the shootings) that has consistently reported these facts. That is one of the reasons why the AVA is under attack with its editor jailed.

The D.A.'s and Judge Luther's persecution of the AVA is a frontal assault on a free press and the Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold. Luther's decision that it "was highly unlikely" that I provided the court with the original letter as received by the AVA puts us in an impossible situation.

I could "prove" the authenticity of the letter by providing the envelope, which would reveal the source. Luther himself ruled that the envelope is protected under the California Shield Law. D.A. Aaron Williams stipulated to this, yet his life of questioning at last Wednesday's hearing was nothing but a fishing expedition to get me to reveal information contained on the envelope. I have never betrayed a source, and I'm not going to start now. By putting the burden of proof on us, Luther is saying we have to snitch on a source to prove the letter is original, while at the same time saying the source is protected -- a Catch-22.

Luther's decision was also wrong in that the test is a preponderance of the evidence -- that is, 51 percent. Williams provided no evidence that the letter I gave him was not the original received by the AVA, only his theory that I had made it up. The D.A.'s own evidence that the letter was probably typed by someone with Lincoln's defense team tends to support us. Therefore Luther's ruling was legally as well as morally wrong. This comes as no surprise to observers of Luther's checkered career on the bench. There is nothing Mendocino authority could do that would really surprise us anymore.

To support free speech and free press, write your local newspaper, and write to Judge Luther (Superior Court, Courthouse, Ukiah, CA 95482). To support the AVA, subscribe (POB 459, Boonville, CA 95415).