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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/confessed-omaha-bomber-changes-story-during-preliminary-hearing">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/confessed-omaha-bomber-changes-story-during-preliminary-hearing</a>
<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Confessed Omaha bomber changed story during preliminary
hearing </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>March 30th, 2011 3:14 pm ET
</ul><b>Omaha Two story: Sept. 28, 1970<br><br>
</b>Duane Peak, the 15 year-old confessed bomber in the ambush killing of
Omaha police officer
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call">
Larry Minard, Sr</a>. was transported from the Fremont, Nebraska jail
where he had been held since August 31, 1970.<br><br>
Peak had been moved to Fremont and given special privileges during the
weeks of his interrogation following his arrest for the
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/cointelpro-plan-hatched-omaha-to-withhold-evidence-of-policeman-s-killer">
August 17th</a> bombing. The young man was hard to pin down giving
multiple versions of his admission.<br><br>
The stories Peak told ranged from solo guilt to various accomplices,
including after prodding, the alleged commands of
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">
Ed Poindexter</a> and
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">
Mondo we Langa</a>, then David Rice. The official version of the
case became that Peak acted at the direction of the two Black Panther
leaders.<br><br>
The day after Peak was moved to Fremont, on September 1, 1970, the three
men arrested with stolen dynamite on
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-arrest-3-men-with-stolen-dynamite-and-impose-media-blackout">
July 28, 1970</a>, Luther Payne, Lamont Mitchell, and Conrad Gray, had
their preliminary hearing. Omaha detective Jack Swanson, head of
the OPD Intelligence Unit, testified about the facts of the men’s
arrests.<br><br>
At the Federal Building, U.S. Attorney Richard Dier announced the
resignation of his assistant J. William Gallup over a cancelled
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha">
Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Division</a> raid. Gallup was
working with the ATF agents on a tip from an adolescent and wanted to
search the headquarters of the National Committee to Combat Fascism in
July. The Federal Bureau of Investigation learned of the raid and
had it cancelled, presumably in a turf war between the two
agencies.<br><br>
Gallup was angered by the meddling of the FBI in his raid and after the
bombing decided to resign his federal position. Gallup told the
<i>Omaha World-Herald</i>, “I got sick of Washington trying to run our
legal business in Omaha.”<br><br>
On September 28, 1970, a preliminary hearing, required by law to
determine if there was sufficient grounds to continue to hold the two
black leaders on murder charges, was held at the Douglas County
Courthouse.<br><br>
Suddenly, Larry Minard’s confessed killer was star witness. Peak
would ultimately get a deal and walk free after 33 months in juvenile
detention for his testimony.<br><br>
The story of the preliminary hearing is told by Lincoln attorney Robert
Bartle, now president of the Nebraska Bar Association. Bartle’s
version of events is contained in an appeal brief for Ed Poindexter
whom Bartle represents and summarizes Peak’s conflicting
testimony.<br><br>
The brief states: “When Duane Peak testified in the morning at the
Preliminary Hearing on September 28, 1970, he did not implicate David
Rice or Ed Poindexter. In fact, he denied having seen Poindexter
the day the bomb was supposedly constructed.”<br><br>
“This dramatic turn-around in his testimony speaks loudly of the pressure
applied to Peak during the recess between his morning and his afternoon
testimony. In the afternoon, he told a very different story.
Duane acknowledge that he was “shaking and nervous” in the afternoon and
that he hadn’t been “shaking and nervous” in the morning,” stated the
brief.<br><br>
What happened next is revealing. Mondo’s attorney, David Herzog,
questioned Peak about his demeanor on the stand and had him remove
sunglasses he was wearing on his return trip to the courtroom. A
gasp went through the crowd in the courtroom as Peak removed his glasses
to reveal red, puffy eyes--he had obviously been crying.<br><br>
The court record speaks:<br><br>
<b>Herzog</b>: “What happened to make you shake and bring your nervous
condition about now?”<br><br>
<b>Peak</b>: “I don’t know.”<br><br>
<b>Herzog</b>: “You had a conversation between the time you were placed
on the witness stand this morning and the present time now, isn’t that
correct?”<br><br>
<b>Peak</b>: “Yes.”<br><br>
<b>Herzog</b>: “And there were the same things that the police
officers told you about that would happen to you, like sitting in the
electric chair, isn’t that correct?”<br><br>
<b>Peak</b>: “I didn’t have a chance.”<br><br>
<b>Herzog</b>: “You didn’t have a chance, did you?”<br><br>
<b>Peak</b>: “No.”<br><br>
<b>Herzog</b>: You are doing what they want you to do, aren’t
you?<br><br>
<b>Peak</b>: “Yes.”<br><br>
Former State Senator Ernie Chambers was in the courtroom when Peak
testified. Chambers describes the scene: “When he came back
in the afternoon, his face was swollen around his eyes, he had glass
on…When Duane took his glasses off his eyes were red, you could see he
had been crying, and there was an audible gasp in the
courtroom.”<br><br>
Chambers continues: “His answers were scarcely audible. A young man
who knew nothing about anything in the morning and suddenly gave the
answers that the police, the prosecutors needed to implicate David and
Ed.”<br><br>
The appeal brief: “All indications are that the prosecutors made a
deal with Duane Peak, that in consideration for his testimony against
Rice and Poindexter, they would treat him with leniency, and as a
juvenile….The prosecutors never disclosed to the defense that such an
arrangement had been made.”<br><br>
Bartle concludes, “Notwithstanding the clear law requiring the
disclosure, the prosecutors in this case were silent about the deal that
was made with Duane Peak.”<br><br>
<b>To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">HE</a>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">RE</a>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/void%280%29/*276*/">
<br><br>
</a></b><i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i>Michael Richardson<br>
COINTELPRO Examiner<br>
Examiner.com<br><br>
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