Judge Susan Illston set the retrial date in the infamous "Pepper Spray by Q-Tip" civil rights case for September 7, 2004, in Federal District Court in San Francisco. The lawsuit, first filed in 1997, stems from two sit-in actions when nonviolent forest defense activists in Humboldt County had pepper spray applied directly into their eyes via
Q-Tips by county sheriff's deputies. They sued the county, the sheriff, his chief deputy, and the City of Eureka for using excessive force. In March, the Supreme Court turned down the last appeal by law enforcement, clearing the way for a new trial.
Defendants had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling removing SF Judge Vaughn Walker for bias and canceling his attempt to move the trial from San Francisco to Eureka. Eureka has long been the scene of political controversy over Maxxam/Pacific Lumber logging, and the pepper spray torture incidents that gave rise to the case happened during protests against old growth logging. The first trial in 1998 in San Francisco ended with a hung jury and was then dismissed by the judge. After five years of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the judge and ordered a new trial. The 9th Circuit granted the activists' emergency writ to remove the judge for apparent bias and canceled his relocation of the trial to Eureka.
Plaintiff's attorney J. Tony Serra told the SF Examiner in January 2003 when he joined the case with civil rights attorney Dennis Cunningham:
"I'm joining this case in smoldering anger because applying the noxious...pepper spray was torture. This case will be vigorously prosecuted and it will be a political trial, and I'm proud of it."
Background info can be found at www.nopepperspray.org where you can also find ways to support the upcoming trial.
