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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/10/19/douglas-county-prosecutor-can-look-for-new-evidence-in-his-office-files-in-edward-poindexter-case/">https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/10/19/douglas-county-prosecutor-can-look-for-new-evidence-in-his-office-files-in-edward-poindexter-case/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Douglas County prosecutor can look for
new evidence in his office files in Edward Poindexter case</h1>
Michael Richardson - October 19, 2019</div>
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<p data-adtags-visited="true"><a
href="https://www.omaha.com/news/metro/author-asks-don-kleine-gov-ricketts-to-reopen-probe-of/article_59ca1b74-de3d-5396-a6cf-3a21c5b92f88.html">Don
Kleine</a>, the Douglas County Attorney in Omaha,
Nebraska, has said he would reopen the <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/nebraskas-most-controversial-prisoner-ed-poindexter-marks-forty-eight-birthdays-behind-bars/">Edward
Poindexter</a> case if presented new evidence.
Poindexter, chairman of the National Committee to
Combat Fascism, a Black Panther affiliate group, was
convicted in 1971 for the bomb murder of Patrolman <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/08/17/policemans-murder-on-august-17-1970-triggered-clandestine-cointelpro-operation-against-the-omaha-two/">Larry
Minard</a> on August 17, 1970. One reason Kleine
should review the files of his predecessor <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/09/20/omaha-two-alibi-not-disclosed-by-prosecutor-is-new-evidence-to-reopen-1971-black-panther-case/">Donald
Knowles</a>, who prosecuted Poindexter and
co-defendant <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/growing-up-black-in-omaha-included-loitering-arrest-for-poet-activist-david-rice/">David
Rice</a>, for new evidence in the case is because
both men were targets of a clandestine
counterintelligence operation of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation code-named <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/fbi-leaders-led-conspiracy-to-frame-black-panthers-in-omaha-for-policemans-murder/">COINTELPRO</a>.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Kleine was hired by
Knowles but did not work as a prosecutor at the time
of the Minard murder trial. <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/the-day-the-story-changed-about-the-black-panthers-and-an-omaha-policemans-murder/">Duane
Peak</a>, the confessed teen bomber, was Knowles’
star witness and made a deal that kept him out of
prison. Although Knowles trusted Peak enough to seek
the electric chair for Poindexter and Rice, who Peak
said put him up to the crime, he did not follow Peak’s
testimony about the supplier of the suitcase and
stolen dynamite. Peak claimed that Raleigh House, an
officer in the NCCF, provided both the suitcase and
explosives used to kill Minard.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">During a week-long police
dragnet in Omaha after the bombing, sixty black
residents were arrested on a variety of suspicion
charges and minor infractions and most spent several
days in jail. Raleigh House was only held overnight
and then released by Deputy County Attorney Arthur
O’Leary on a signature bond, suggesting that House was
somebody’s informant. The Near-Northside was laced
with informers for the Omaha Police Department
intelligence unit, paid informants of the FBI, and
informants for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms Division.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">House testified for the
defense at the April 1971 murder trial and was given
hands-off treatment during cross-examination by
Knowles. If House was a FBI informant he may have also
been a provocateur saboteur under COINTELPRO direction
putting in motion the deadly ambush bombing.
Informants were known to commit crimes with FBI
knowledge. It was no holds barred against the Black
Panthers under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Arthur O’Leary, who
infamously told Duane Peak the truth did not matter
during a recorded interrogation, let House enjoy a
get-out-of-jail card while Knowles soft-balled House
on the witness stand. Both men would have known who
House was working for if he was indeed an informant
and there may be existing files that document the
matter Arthur O’Leary testified in post-trial
proceedings that his personal files on the case filled
a four-drawer filing cabinet. Knowles admitted to
holding a large box of files in his office closet.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">At the time of the trial
Knowles did not know about COINTELPRO manipulation in
the case and did not entertain the idea of intentional
wrongful conviction, one of the FBI modus operandi of
COINTELPRO operations. If House had instigated the
crime while prosecutors looked the other way with FBI
encouragement, the possibility of wrongful conviction
needs to be considered by Kleine.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Only Kleine has access to
the old files of his boss and thus if any new evidence
is to be found out about Raleigh House and the murder
of Larry Minard it must be Kleine who makes the
discovery. House’s name wanders in and out of the
story beginning in October 1969 when he authored the
feature article of the <i>By Any Means</i> newsletter
and promised to “serve the people of this community in
every manner to bring about the self-determination and
liberation of black people.”</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">House showed up again in
December 1969 when he was hauled in with both
Poindexter and Rice and three others to testify to a
federal grand jury about the Vivian Strong Liberation
School. The <i>Omaha World-Herald </i>called House a
“onetime Panther lieutenant in Omaha.”</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">After the bombing, Raleigh
House made it on the police intelligence unit’s list
of thirty-eight suspects wanted for questioning. House
was arrested and held one night before being released
by prosecutor Arthur O’Leary. Jailers listened in on
House’s one phone call from jail.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“<span>HOUSE asked the
female party if she would call Oakland and get some
of the RANGERS out here, and she replied, yes she
would. HOUSE then said, “you can call You Know Who,
in Chicago, and get some of them too. The female
voice then replied O.K. HOUSE then told the female
voice to get in touch with Huey Newton, and she
replied, well he is in New Hampton now and I don’t
think it would do any good. HOUSE then told the
female voice to call a party by the name of
HILLIARD, in Kansas City, and get him up here, and
the female voice replied O.K.”</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“<span>HOUSE then told the
female voice that she should contact the Black
Panther Mamma, who would carry on while he was in
jail.”</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>Raleigh House
surfaced again in Omaha police testimony to a U.S.
House Committee on Internal Affairs subcommittee in
October 1970. Captain Murdock Platner was asked if
he knew of House by Representative William Scherle
of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Platner replied
affirmatively.</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“<span>Yes, sir; he is the
treasurer, the original treasurer of the Black
Panther Party, and he is the minister of finance in
this National Committee to Combat Fascism at this
time.” Platner failed to mention that Duane Peak had
identified House as the supplier of the dynamite and
suitcase for the bomb that killed a policeman. </span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>Raleigh House also
showed up on a twenty-two member list of bombing
suspects compiled by the Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms Division. Although the Omaha ATF office
wanted federal prosecution the United States
Attorney, Richard Dier, declined to prosecute
anyone.</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>Finally, House
testified at the trial that sent Ed Poindexter and
David Rice to prison for life. Curiously, House
escaped serious questioning by the prosecution
during cross-examination. The only question House
was asked about the bomb was from defense lawyer
Thomas Kenney, who merely asked if House remembered
giving a suitcase to Duane Peak, to which House
said, “No.”</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>House said after his
arrest his hands were not tested for traces of
dynamite. The decision to not test House’s hands, a
critical decision, may be recorded in files hidden
in the depths of Knowles files on the case.</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>If Don Kleine cannot
explain why Raleigh House was not charged for
supplying the bomb-making supplies that killed
Minard then he should do a little snooping for new
evidence in the old files. The FBI was actively
engaged in COINTELPRO actions against both
Poindexter and Rice at the time of the murder
investigation, Kleine should not ignore that
reality.</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><span>Ed Poindexter and
David Rice were convicted and sentenced to life
without parole. Rice changed his name in prison to <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/prison-wisdom-of-wopashitwe-mondo-eyen-we-langa/">Wopashitwe
Mondo Eyen we Langa</a> and died March 2016 at the
Nebraska State Penitentiary. Poindexter, in poor
health, remains imprisoned at the maximum-security
prison where he continues to proclaim his innocence.</span></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><i>This article contains
excerpts from </i><a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/new-book-on-fbis-war-against-the-black-panthers-gets-five-star-review/">FRAMED:
J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two
story</a>,<i> in print edition at </i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/FRAMED-Edgar-Hoover-COINTELPRO-Omaha/dp/1985021994/ref=sr_1_43?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530637788&sr=1-43&keywords=framed">Amazon</a><i>
and in </i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=FRAMED%3A+J.+Edgar+Hoover%2C+COINTELPRO+%26+the+Omaha+Two+story">ebook</a><i>.
Portions of the book may be read free online at </i><a
href="https://northomahahistory.com/2017/07/07/framed-series-summary-by-michael-richardson/">NorthOmahaHistory.com</a>.
<i>The book is also available to patrons of the Omaha
Public Library.</i></p>
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