[News] Two more Black activists resist and are jailed

[Anti-Imperialist News]

A San Francisco Judge had two Black activists jailed today for refusing to 
cooperate with a State Grand Jury investigating a 30-year old case. Ray 
Boudreaux and Richard Brown now join Hank Jones and Harold Taylor in SF 
County jails.

Their attorneys argued that the Grand Jury procedures were abusive because 
the original indictments for a police shooting in 1971 resulted in the 
dismissal of charges because the US government failed to disclose that 
their ‘evidence’ was obtained by torturing at least three Black activists 
in New Orleans. This ‘tainted evidence’ and ‘involuntary testimony’ was 
introduced to a grand jury at that time by the same government agents that 
are working with the current grand jury.

Judge Robert Dondero refused to allow the defense questioning of  Ed 
Erdelatz, one of the cops on hand in New Orleans, who was present in court 
today, and who has been roaming the country in an apparent attempt to 
interview numerous individuals alleged to be involved with or have 
knowledge of the 1970s incidents..

All other motions by defense attorneys Michael Burt and Richard Mazer were 
denied. An appeal to the State Supreme Court challenging procedural and 
other legal claims by the defense team are expected to be filed Thursday, 
October 6th.

Background on the Grand Jury targeting Black Activists in San Francisco

Shortly after the founding of the Black Panther Party, FBI Director J. 
Edgar Hoover described it in September 1968 as “the greatest threat to the 
internal security of the country.”

By July 1969, the Party had become the primary focus of COINTELPRO and was 
the target of 233 of the 295 authorized “Black Nationalist” COINTELPRO 
actions.  The FBI placed illegal wiretaps on Party headquarters in Oakland, 
San Francisco, and nationally, infiltrated the organization with numerous 
agents, used every possible means to provoke violence within the 
organization and engaged in a number of schemes to arrest, detain, falsely 
accuse, incarcerate and murder members of the Black Panther Party.

The San Francisco Police Department worked closely with the FBI during the 
sixties and seventies to promote the goals of “neutralizing” and destroying 
the Black Panther Party. Two of the San Francisco Police Department 
Inspectors who worked in tandem with the FBI to promote these goals were 
Frank McCoy and Ed Erdelatz.

In August 1973, several Black Panthers were arrested including John Bowman, 
Ruben Scott and Harold Taylor were arrested in New Orleans.

McCoy and Erdelatz were on hand in New Orleans immediately after their 
arrest (as were detectives from New York City) and participated in the 
interrogation that took place over the course of several days.  They were 
investigating the killings of two San Francisco policemen that took place 
in the early 1070s.

When Bowman, Scott and Taylor didn’t answer questions by McCoy and 
Erdelatz, the San Francisco policemen exited the room and members of the 
New Orleans Police Department proceeded to torture the detainees using 
various methods including the following:
·        Stripping them naked and beating them with blunt objects
·        Blindfolding them and throwing wool blankets soaked in boiling 
water over their bodies
·        Placing electric probes on their genitals and other parts of their 
bodies
·        Inserting an electric cattle prod in their anus
·        Punching and kicking
·        Slamming them into walls while blindfolded

Their screams were heard throughout the jail. After a period of torture, 
McCoy and Erdelatz would return to the room, and continue questioning 
them.  Each time the answers they sought were not forthcoming, the San 
Francisco police would leave the room and the torture would resume.  This 
process lasted several days. The three men were interrogated separately and 
were held in solitary confinement. Bowman, Scott and Taylor all suffered 
permanent physical and psychological damage.

These two Inspectors are not new to accusations of physical abuse as the 
San Francisco Examiner ran a series of stories in the 1970s suggesting 
McCoy and Erdelatz had coerced testimony from a witness connected to a 
Chinatown slaying.

In 2003, McCoy and Erdelatz began roaming the country in an apparent 
attempt to interview numerous individuals alleged to be involved with or 
have knowledge of the 1970s incidents.  At times they were joined by San 
Francisco Police Inspector and FBI Special Federal Officer Joseph Engler. 
They went to people’s homes and places of employment.  They visited 
prisoners in the New York State prisons where they were incarcerated. They 
attempted to interview spouses, former spouses and family members. At least 
one person in the Bay Area was commandeered off the street as he drove home 
from work and taken for interrogation.  They used thinly veiled threats, 
intimidation and harassment. They demanded that some individuals provide 
saliva samples. Some people were served with federal grand jury subpoenas 
to provide fingerprints.

The actions of McCoy, Engler and Erdelatz in 2003 and 2004 were connected 
to a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of California also 
investigating the incidents that are the focus of these grand juries.  In 
the summer of 2004, the federal grand jury expired.

In May 2005 a California State grand jury was convened and began taking 
testimony regarding these same incidents.  That grand jury was purportedly 
investigative in nature. It was expected that the government would next 
present evidence to an indicting grand jury.  However in August 2005 
another investigative grand jury was convened. This time a group of people 
identified by the government as targets were subpoenaed. Both of these 
grand juries were conducted by the California State Attorney General rather 
than the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.  Working in tandem with 
the state AG was an Assistant United States Attorney.

The full role of the federal government in this investigation is yet to be 
revealed. What is clear is that no federal, state or city agent or police 
officer nor government agency has ever been held culpable for the illegal 
acts, violence, imprisonment and murders conducted in the name of 
COINTELPRO nor has there been any admission that these activities are 
continuing under the Patriot Act or under any other name.

Claude Marks
October 5, 2005

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