Jun 8, 2009 9:15 pm US/Pacific
Hearing Delayed For 7 Charged In 1971 SFPD Murder
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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Sgt. John V. Young was murdered inside a San Francisco Police station in 1971.
SFPD
The preliminary hearing has been postponed for seven alleged ex-members of the Black Liberation Army accused of killing a San Francisco police sergeant in 1971.
The hearing was scheduled to begin this week, but a judge rescheduled it for July 6 because one of the attorneys, John Philipsborn, is in the middle of another case.
Philipsborn represents 73-year-old Henry Jones, one of the defendants that prosecutors said were in the BLA, a militant and violent offshoot of the Black Panthers.
The other defendants in the case are Herman Bell, 61; Anthony Bottom (now Jalil Muntaqim), 57; Francisco Torres, 60; Richard Brown, 68; Ray Boudreaux, 66; and Harold Taylor, 60.
The seven men were charged with murder in 2007 by the state Attorney General's office for the killing of SFPD Sgt. John V. Young at the Ingleside police station on Aug. 29, 1971.
According to prosecutors, armed men attacked the police station late that evening. Young was hit from close range by shotgun blasts fired through the public counter window of the station's business office. A female clerk was hit in the arm and survived.
Prosecutors said Bell fired the shotgun that killed Young and injured the clerk. Following the shootings, the suspects tried to ignite a bomb and blow up the station but failed, prosecutors said.
Bell, Muntaqim and Torres are also charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Authorities said the conspiracy charges relate to a series of crimes between 1968 and 1973, during which time the men allegedly robbed banks, bombed a police funeral and killed officers during a five-year campaign against law enforcement on both the coasts.
Supporters of seven men rallied outside the San Francisco Hall of Justice Monday morning in advance of the scheduled preliminary hearing.
About 100 people rallied outside the court building, chanting and carrying signs reading "Free the SF 8." Charges against an eighth man, Richard O'Neal, were dismissed last year.
The protesters claimed some of the men, including a possible prosecution witness, signed confessions under police torture in New Orleans in 1973, and that no new evidence has been brought forward since then to justify the charges.
"They're innocent," said attorney Stuart Hanlon, who represents Bell. "You never get a fair trial if you wait 35 years to prosecute, with no new evidence."
San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar also attended the rally. He said he planned to introduce a resolution at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday condemning the use of torture and asking Attorney General Jerry Brown to drop the charges.
"This is COINTELPRO 2009," said Mar, referring to FBI covert counter-intelligence programs conducted between the 1950s and early 1970s against dissident political groups, including the Black Panther Party.
Mar accused authorities of using similar tactics now, "under the guise of homeland security."
"This is a human rights violation...that people are being tortured," said rally organizer Javad Jahi.
"They're spending millions...of our tax dollars on a crime they didn't commit," he said.
When the preliminary hearing begins on July 6 it is expected to last several weeks, after which a judge will determine if the men should stand trial on the charges.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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