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<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/23//cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/23/BAGCVESMK41.DTL">
SAN FRANCISCO <br>
<dd>Ex-Black Panther who wouldn't testify ordered freed by top court</a>
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<dd><font size=1>- <a href="mailto:begelko@sfchronicle.com">Bob Egelko,
Chronicle Staff Writer</a><br>
<dd>Friday, September 23, 2005 <br><br>
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<dd><font size=3>A former Black Panther who was jailed for contempt of
court after refusing to testify last month to a grand jury investigating
the killings of two police officers in San Francisco in the early 1970s
was ordered released Thursday, after the state Supreme Court ruled that
the judge who ordered him held failed to follow proper procedures.
<br><br>
<dd>But Superior Court Judge Robert Dondero told Ray Michael Boudreaux of
Pasadena to return to the grand jury next Tuesday for a new round of
questioning that could result in another jail sentence if Boudreaux again
remains silent. <br><br>
<dd>The grand jury was convened by local prosecutors this summer to
reopen an investigation that had been largely dormant for 30 years.
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<dd>Sgt. Brian McDonnell, 44, was killed and eight other officers were
injured by a bomb at Park Station on Waller Street on Feb. 16, 1971. On
Aug. 29, 1971, Sgt. John V. Young, 45, was killed, and a civilian clerk
was wounded, when two men burst into Ingleside station and fired a
shotgun through a hole in a bulletproof window. <br><br>
<dd>Two men were arrested in New Orleans in connection with the Ingleside
attack. But a court dismissed the charges in 1974, ruling that police in
San Francisco had engaged in what amounted to torture to extract a
confession from one of the men. <br><br>
<dd>Boudreaux joined the Black Panthers after returning from Vietnam War
service in 1968 and worked at a breakfast program in the Oakland schools,
his attorney said. He and at least a dozen other people, some of them
former members of black radical groups, have been subpoenaed by the grand
jury and offered limited immunity from prosecution. <br><br>
<dd>Appearing before the grand jury last month, Boudreaux was asked if he
knew any of a long list of people and if he had any connections with the
Black Panther Party or the Black Liberation Army, according to papers
filed by his attorney, Michael Burt. Burt said in the papers that state
prosecutors had previously told him that Boudreaux was suspected of
aiding in the 1971 killing. <br><br>
<dd>Burt said Thursday that Boudreaux declined to answer for two reasons:
The questions about his associations and political activities violated
his constitutional rights, and the immunity he was offered by prosecutors
was legally inadequate. <br><br>
<dd>That immunity would have protected Boudreaux from prosecution based
on his testimony, but it would have allowed him to be charged with the
crimes if prosecutors obtained independent evidence. Burt contended the
limited immunity, authorized by a 1996 state law, did not apply to crimes
committed before 1996, when the only grant of immunity recognized in the
law was complete protection from prosecution in exchange for testimony.
<br><br>
<dd>Dondero, presiding over the grand jury, ruled last month that the
immunity was legally adequate and jailed Boudreaux on Aug. 29 when he
refused to testify. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court, without
discussing other issues, said the contempt-of-court ruling was legally
defective because Dondero did not actually order Boudreaux to answer the
questions before holding him in contempt. <br><br>
<dd>Dondero, in response, ordered Boudreaux released Thursday but told
him he could be held in contempt again if he refused to answer questions
next Tuesday. <br><br>
<dd>E-mail Bob Egelko at
<a href="mailto:begelko@sfchronicle.com">begelko@sfchronicle.com</a>.</i>
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<dd>Page B - 3 <br>
<dd>URL:
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