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</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Original Content at
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<b>February 8, 2008<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>Five Omaha policemen implicated in
deception and false testimony in COINTELPRO case against Black
Panthers<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2><i>By Michael Richardson<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Two leaders of the
Omaha chapter of the Black Panthers' National Committee to Combat
Fascism, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice), are
serving life sentences for the 1970 bombing murder of Omaha Police
officer Larry Minard. Officer Minard was killed at a booby-trapped
vacant house while answering a call about a woman screaming. Police
arrested 15 year-old Duane Peak for the murder who quickly implicated
Poindexter and Langa in exchange for a reduced sentence. Peak, the
confessed killer, walked free in 1974. Poindexter and Langa remain
behind bars and both deny any involvement in the crime.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Poindexter and Langa
had been targets of COINTELPRO, a secret and illegal operation of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation ordered by J. Edgar Hoover to disrupt
domestic political groups. Hoover had been personally kept updated
on developments in his war on the Black Panthers by field agents.
The Special Agent-in-Charge of the Omaha FBI office notified Hoover
directly about the case they were building against Poindexter and
Langa. <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Five Omaha police
detectives and command officials can now be directly tied to deception or
false testimony under oath about the case by examining court
records, judicial decisions, COINTELPRO memorandums, and Congressional
documents.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>A then-secret
COINTELPRO memo tells the story of withheld evidence--a recording of the
emergency call that lured Larry Minard to his death--and implicates
Assistant Chief of Police Glenn Gates in knowingly withholding evidence
that would destroy the credibility of Peak, the state's murderous star
witness. Assistant Chief Gates, according to the FBI, sought to
keep the recording away from the defense attorneys. The jury never
got to hear the tape with its lethal message.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>COINTELPRO memorandum,
Oct. 13, 1970, from the Omaha FBI office to J. Edgar Hoover:<br><br>
"Assistant COP GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any
use of tapes of this call might be prejudicial to the police murder trial
against two accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised that he
wishes no use of this tape until after the murder trials of PEAK and the
two accomplices has been completed."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>A trip to Washington,
D.C. and sworn testimony by Captain Murdock Platner to the U. S. House
Committee on Internal Security gave rise to false statements to a
Congressional committee about Langa, contradicted by the trial
record. At trial, and earlier at the preliminary hearing, Peak
testified that a Panther named Raleigh House had supplied him with the
dynamite. House was arrested but never prosecuted. Captain Platner
falsely testified to Congress that Langa supplied the dynamite, just
several weeks after the preliminary hearing and the day after the
COINTELPRO memo about Assistant Chief Gates.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Internal Security, Oct. 14, 1970, p.
4889:<br><br>
"Duane Peak, a 16-year-old boy who was arrested, testified in a
preliminary hearing. It is from this preliminary hearing you are
bound over to the district court to stand trial. In the preliminary
hearing he testified that David Rice [Langa] brought a suitcase filled
with dynamite to his house or to somebody's house, I'm not for sure just
which place,; that they removed all the dynamite from the suitcase except
three sticks; made the bomb, the triggering device, and so on, and put it
together; and then packed the sujitcase with newspapers and that he left
with this suitcase."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The questioning of the
killer's family and Delia Peak, simultaneous with the police search of
Langa's house, led to Lieutenant James Perry's false testimony in court
to justify the search. U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom best tells
the story of Lt. Perry's false sworn statements in the case.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><i>Rice v. Wolff</i>,
388 F. Supp. 185 (1974) U.S. District Court, pp. 198-199:<br><br>
"Lt. Perry's testimony that Delia Peak told him that Duane Peak,
Edward Poindexter and David Rice were constant companions is in no way
corroborated by the remainder of the record before me. The police
report of her interview reveals nothing about Duane Peak's being a
constant companion of David Rice's, and the rights advisory form she
signed indicates that only Sgt. R. Alsager and Richard Curd were present
for her interview. Moreover, her interview did not begin until the
very hour police first approached David Rice's house and was not
completed until after the decision has been made to enter his
house. The police report of her interview also reveals that she had
seen Duane Peak at about 5:00 p.m. the night before. Thus, it
simply is not so that Duane Peak's family had not seen him in the two
days before they had entered the petitioners house and is persuasive that
Delia Peak's family did not make a contrary statement. Finally,
there is no indication in the police reports of interviews with Duane
Peak's family prior to the entry of Rice's house that they were concerned
that he might have been eliminated. On the basis of the entire
record before this court and having heard and seen Lt. Perry testify, it
is impossible for me to credit his testimony in the respects
mentioned."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Sergeant Jack Swanson
testified at the murder trial that he went down to the basement and found
the dynamite. Sergeant Robert Pheffer backed up Swanson saying he
first saw the dynamite when Swanson carried it upstairs. Pheffer
testified he never went down in the basement.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>At an Omaha court
hearing in May 2007 in Poindexter's bid for a new trial, Pheffer
testified that his trial testimony was not correct and that he, not
Swanson found the dynamite. The dynamite was never seen in the
basement by anyone else and only first appears in an evidence photo
pictured in the trunk of a police squad car. Robert Bartle,
Poindexter's attorney describes the contradictory testimony in an appeal
brief to the Nebraska Supreme Court where the case is now pending.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><i>Nebraska v.
Poindexter</i>, S-07-001075, Nebraska Supreme Court, Appellant's Brief,
pp. 45-46:<br><br>
"At Poindexter's trial, Sgt. Swanson testified that he found
dynamite in Rice's basement at 2816 Parker and that Sgt. Pheffer was also
in the basement when Swanson found it. Contrary to Swanson's trial
testimony, Pfeffer testified at trial that he (Pheffer) never went down
into Rice's basement and that he (Pheffer) first saw the dynamite found
by Swanson when Swanson carried it up from Rice's basement. At
Poindexter's post-conviction hearing on May 30, 2007, Pheffer's testimony
about finding the dynamite in Rice's basement was significantly different
from his sworn trial testimony 36 years earlier. On May 30, 2007,
Pheffer testified that <u>he</u> was the one who found the dynamite in
Rice's basement at 2816 Parker on August 22 , 1970. Pheffer claimed
that Swanson was right behind him and that when Pheffer saw the dynamite,
he became scared and told Swanson that they needed to 'get the heck out
of here.' When confronted with the discrepancy between Pheffer's
sworn trial testimony in 1971 and his recent testimony of actually being
the officer who found the dynamite, Pheffer swore that this trial
testimony in 1971 was not correct, that 'the court reporter, somebody got
it wrong.'"<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The five Omaha
policemen, Glenn Gates, Murdock Platner, James Perry, Jack Swanson, and
Robert Pheffer are all retired or deceased. None were ever charged
with perjury for false testimony . No date is scheduled for a
decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court on Poindexter's request for a new
trial.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><i>Permission granted
to reprint<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Authors Bio: Michael Richardson is
a freelance writer based in Boston. Richardson writes about politics,
election law, human nutrition, ethics, and music. Richardson is also a
political consultant on ballot access. <br><br>
<br><br>
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