[Ppnews] Omaha Two story: (Part 23) - Witnesses put killer at crime scene in Omaha Two case

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/witnesses-put-duane-peak-at-scene-of-1970-bombing-omaha-two-case>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/witnesses-put-duane-peak-at-scene-of-1970-bombing-omaha-two-case


Witnesses put Duane Peak at scene of 1970 bombing in Omaha Two case

    * By <http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
Richardson, COINTELPRO Examiner
    * April 7th, 2011 10:23 am ET
Omaha Two story: April 7, 1971

Confessed killer 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/confessed-omaha-bomber-changes-story-during-preliminary-hearing>Duane 
Peak, 16, returned to the witness stand Wednesday morning, April 7, 
1971, in the murder trial of the Omaha 
Two. 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police>Edward 
Poindexter and 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case>Mondo 
we Langa, then David Rice, were leaders of the Nebraska affiliate 
chapter of the Black Panthers and were charged with the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/cointelpro-plan-hatched-omaha-to-withhold-evidence-of-policeman-s-killer>August 
17, 1970 bomb murder of Patrolman 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/larry-minard-was-the-policeman-betrayed-by-j-edgar-hoover-to-frame-the-omaha-tw>Larry 
Minard, Sr.

Duane Peak testified he was trying to protect Ed Poindexter and Mondo 
we Lanaga when he told a story to police on August 28, 1970, 
implicating only himself in the Minard slaying."

Assistant Douglas County Attorney Arthur O'Leary guided Peak through 
a series of redirect-examination questions.  When young Peak left the 
courtroom that morning, after ten hours of testimony over three days, 
he effectively vanished from Omaha never to return.

A friend of Duane Peak, Anna Norris, testified that she heard Peak 
say, "The next time a dumb cop sees a suitcase in the middle of the 
door, he isn't going to go over and pick it up."

Norris testified that she saw Peak, the prosecution's key witness 
with a suitcase the evening of Aug. 16th.  Norris said Peak and his 
older brother, Donald, were at the Norris home the evening before the 
bombing with a suitcase.

The Peak brothers left with the suitcase, Miss Norris said, but Duane 
returned for about five minutes, without the suitcase, between 
midnight and 1 a.m. and then left again.  Norris was still awake an 
hour later when she heard an explosion as she was in the dining room 
of her home."

After the slaying, Norris said Duane came by again and made remarks 
about the "dumb cop."

Donald Peak, 20, Duane's older brother and the man many in North 
Omaha suspect was the 911 caller that lured police to a bomb-rigged 
vacant house testified as a prosecution witness.

Donald testified that he and Duane were "always laughing and joking" 
about something.
The elder Peak brother said he "may have smirked" when hearing of the 
explosion but he couldn't recall for sure.

Duane Peak's sister, Delia, testified that she saw Duane with a 
suitcase about 10 p.m about four hours before the fatal explosion at 
2867 Ohio Street.  Delia said that Duane, her boyfriend Willie 
Haynie, two of her children, and Donald went for a ride about that time.

Duane placed the suitcase in the trunk, Delia testified, and then 
took it with him when he got out of the car in an alley behind 2867 
Ohio Street.  Delia gave no explanation for the unusual drop-off of 
Duane in the middle of the night.

Willie Haynie testified the day after the bombing he and Duane and 
Donald drove to the area of the demolished house.  Haynie admitted 
that he once said in a sworn statement to authorities that Duane had 
commented, "It was funny a pig got killed."

Under questioning, Haynie also acknowledged a previous statement 
where he quoted Peak as saying, "It should have been more than one."

County Attorney Donald Knowles told reporters the prosecution hoped 
to rest its case sometime Friday morning.  Judge Hamilton said he 
planned to recess the trial Friday afternoon, Good Friday, and resume 
again Monday morning.

The prosecution began laying a foundation for the introduction of 
scientific evidence on Wednesday afternoon.

Special investigator Richard A. Kurd of the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha>Division 
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms testified about gathering evidence 
and sending it to Washington, D.C. for laboratory analysis.

Kurd was asked to examine prosecution exhibits, including three pairs 
of pliers taken in an August 22, 1970 raid at Mondo's home at 2816 
Parker Street

Kurd testified "scrapings" taken from under Mondo's fingernails and 
cotton swabs which were passed over his fingers were sent in for 
analysis.  The ATF tests would later come back negative for traces of 
explosives.

Prosecutor Sam Cooper handed Kurd a suitcase handle wrapped inside a 
plastic bag.  Kurd identified it as an item he found embedded in the 
earth at 2867 Ohio Street shortly after the explosion.

Although the jury heard about ATF lab tests on evidence, the jury was 
not told about FBI lab tests on evidence, specifically a recording of 
the 911 caller that lured Minard to his 
death. 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/fbi-s-director-hoover-let-killer-of-omaha-policeman-get-away-with-murder-40-years-ago>J. 
Edgar Hoover had ordered the withholding of a report on the identity 
of the 911 caller just two days after the bombing.

Hoover's order to withhold evidence in the case was part of the 
clandestine 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>COINTELPRO 
operation that conducted an illegal and secret war on domestic 
political activists that Hoover disliked.  The Black Panthers were 
the primary target of COINTELPRO and Hoover was determined to 
"destroy" the Black Panther leadership.

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-orders-omaha-fbi-to-be-imaginative-against-black-panther-leaders>Paul 
Young, Omaha FBI Special Agent-in-Charge, had been chastised by 
Hoover for inaction against the local National Committee to Combat 
Fascism.  On the day of the bombing, Young offered to help with the 
investigation and obtained the 911 recording from the Omaha Police Department.

The jury was never allowed to hear the taped voice of Larry Minard's killer.

To view all of the Omaha Two articles click 
<http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national?page=1>HERE

Permission granted to reprint

Michael Richardson
COINTELPRO Examiner
Examiner.com



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20110407/b9f64cd4/attachment.htm>