The
Judi
Bari Web Site
(posted 9/17/01)
New DNA Evidence in
Bari Bombing Case
Mendocino Sheriffs Investigating
Civil Rights Trial Against FBI & OPD Postponed to April
8, 2002
Press Conference: Tuesday, 1pm, Sept. 18, Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street
Evidence withheld by the
FBI for years providing valuable clues as to who may have bombed Earth First!
activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in 1990
is being released at a Sept. 18 press conference following the testing
for genetic material found on envelopes of three key documents. The
Bari-Cherney legal team has also announced that their civil rights lawsuit
against the FBI and Oakland Police has been delayed until April 8, 2002 due to
the tragic attacks on New York and Washington.
Bari and Cherney's
attorneys, including William Simpich, retained Forensic Science Associates of
Richmond, CA to test "the big three" documents relating to the May
24, 1990 car-bombing of Bari and Cherney. The FBI and OPD had blamed the
victims of the bombing rather than search for the perpetrator(s).
Bari and Cherney were on their way to perform at UC Santa Cruz as part
of an ongoing Redwood Summer roadshow, designed to attract college students to
participate in summer-long protests calling for sustainable logging and a
timber worker-environmentalist alliance.
Bari and Cherney survived the bombing, though Bari was critically
injured and later died of cancer in 1997.
The documents submitted
to Forensic Sciences include the following:
-
The
envelope sent by "Argus,"
an informant to the Ukiah Police who falsely claimed Earth First! had
begun automatic weapons training and offered to set up Bari for a
marijuana arrest. Also included with the letter was a joke photograph of
Bari holding an uzi, which had been taken for a spoof music album cover
and never used. The letter
was sent 6 weeks after the photo was taken.
-
The
envelope which contained the first death threat that Bari received,
stating "judi bari get out and
go back where you come from/we know everything/you won't get a second
warning." The
envelope of this and the Argus letter matched precisely both in typeface,
typing style and postmark, which led the Bari/Cherney investigation to
conclude that whomever had access to the photograph and information
contained in the "Argus Letter" also sent this April 10, 1990 death threat.
-
The
Lord's Avenger Letter which took
credit for the Bari bombing and described both the bomb in Bari's car and
a second bomb which failed to ignite properly at a Louisiana Pacific
sawmill in Cloverdale, California. The
letter is a pseudo-Christian rant, blasting Bari for her alliance-building
with timber workers and her defense of a "baby-killing clinic."
-
Envelopes
believed to contain the DNA of someone who had access to the "Uzi
Photo" of Bari.
The results were
conclusive enough to convince the Mendocino County Sheriffs, who had
possession of the "Argus Letter" and served the area where Bari
lived and received the threats, to open a preliminary investigation.
The DNA results are as
follows:
-
The "Argus
Letter" and "You won't get a second warning" envelopes and
stamps were 100% licked by the same male individual.
-
That individual bore an highly unusual DNA
combination that offered the strong possibility that he is related to a
man that activists and news media had presented to the FBI as a suspect.
-
The
"Lord's Avenger" envelope was sealed by an unidentified woman,
even though the text of the letter indicates that the writer is male.
An FBI document shows
that San Francisco agents had recommended DNA testing by the crime lab in
Washington DC, and comparison of fingerprints found on key evidence as early
as May 31, 1990. The FBI pursued neither of these leads, which could have been
exonerating. They even claimed, astoundingly, that they did not have Bari and
Cherney's fingerprints, even though both had been arrested and fingerprinted. The Bari-Cherney legal team
contends that it has been advised that the technology at the time was
developed sufficiently to have ruled out the two as authors of any of the
letters and led authorities to another suspect.
The woman who sealed the letter could not have been Bari, because
information contained within the letter was only available after the bombing,
and Bari was under arrest, helpless, and under 24-hour surveillance during the
time in question.
Documents available online: ( Adobe Acrobat files,
about 330KB each)
DNA expert's report (PDF)
Letter and envelope facsimile images
(PDF)
To be placed on the U.S. Mail list for updates on Judi Bari's
lawsuit against the FBI, or to make a tax deductible contribution to help
fund the lawsuit, please contact:
REDWOOD SUMMER JUSTICE PROJECT
P.O. Box 14720, Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Phone (707) 887-0262 or FAX (707) 887-0865
Email RJF at judibari.org