TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
political prisoners
Leonard Peltier
The .223 casing claimed to have been found in Agent Coler's trunk was not
listed in the evidence collected from the vehicle by Agent Cunningham. (per
previous transcript release sent via Native News). Agent Cunningham
received a pre-prepared affidavit from the Rapid City Bureau to sign which
said the .223 had been found by him in the trunk of Agent Coler's vehicle.
He stated that he did not have his "302" which catalogued his findings as it
was in Rapid City and simply signed the affidavit. After spending over 12
hours collecting and cataloguing casings, fragments and cartridges in this
vehicle where it had been towed to in Fall River County garage in Hot
Springs, SD...THERE WAS NO .223 CASING RECOVERED. After all evidence was
collected, bagged and labelled, finger print expert, Agent Lodge then went
through the vehicle and located it?
Agent Williams vehicle and the red and white van had been towed to BIA
compound in Pine Ridge where they were kept in a fenced lot.
Next..the AR-15
Excerpted from Leonard Peltier trial transcripts, Vol 11. the following
witness, Michael Gammage is an agent with the ATF who examined and
delivered the weapons found in the station wagon which burst into flames and
exploded off I 35 in Wichita Kansas on September 10, 1975. One of the
weapons, an AR-15 is discussed below. Leonard Peltier was never in Wichita,
KS with this vehicle. Occupants included Dino Butler, Rob Robideau, Michael
Anderson, Norman Charles, Jane Bordeau, Dennis Banks, Bernie Nichols, and a
1-1/2 year old infant Kashima Banks
GOV ATTORNEY: MR. SIKMA
PELTIER'S ATTORNEY: MR. LOEWE
WITNESS: MICHAEL GAMMAGE, ATF
"COURT": THE JUDGE
MICHAEL GAMMAGE,
having been previously duly sworn, resumed the stand and testified further
as follows:
**MR. LOWE: May I continue my voir dire, your Honor?
THE COURT: You may,
MR. LOWE: I believe at the close of the day yesterday I may have started to
discuss an exhibit. I am going to start at this point rather than take a
chance that {2192} something might not have been said, and I will show you
what has been marked as Defendant's Exhibit 135, Mr. Gammage, and ask you
if you have seen that document before and are familiar with it?
THE WITNESS: (Examining) Yes, I have.
MR. LOWE: And will you tell the jury just generally what the nature of the
document is?
THE WITNESS: This is a laboratory report from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to our office in Wichita, Kansas. It specifically mentions
four items of evidence that were submitted to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation Laboratory for their examination.
MR LOWE: All right. Now, there are four weapons there which are designated
K-39, K-40, K-41 and K-42, and they are listed and described in the
document, are they not?
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir, they are.
MR. LOWE: And are those four items which you either personally found or had
delivered to you by somebody else at the scene of this explosion on the
Kansas turnpike?
THE WITNESS: (Examining) Without referring to my notes, regarding K-41 and
K-42, I would say, yes, they are
MR. LOWE: I am not trying to trick you.
Did you personally deliver those four weapons to the {2193} FBI laboratory
in Washington, D. C.?
THE WITNESS: I personally delivered the four weapons to our laboratory in
Washington, D.C.
MR. LOWE: All right, and did you receive any of those weapons back again
from your laboratory or from someone else at a later time?
THE WITNESS: I personally did not.
MR. LOWE: Did your office in Wichita?
THE WITNESS: I believe that -- without referring to my notes, Mr Lowe, I
believe only -- we only received K-41 and K-42 back; and according to this
it says, the report, K-40 was received in our office. I am sure we got it
back. I just don't remember right now.
MR. LOWE: The point I am making though is these weapons that you found at
the scene of the explosion are the ones that are referred to in this
report, certainly that is true of K-41 and K-42, and you believe it is also
true as to K-39 and K-40, is that correct?
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
MR. LOWE: I ask you to read down to the result of the examination, and the
second full paragraph under that; and ask you if that does not state that
none of the ammunition components recovered at the RESMURS scene -- and I
don't think it has been brought out what the RESMURS means. Do you know?
{2194}
THE WITNESS: Only by what I have been told.
MR. LOWE: Can we stipulate that RESMURS is an abbreviation used by the FBI
to mean Reservation Murder Scene, or some similar description of the area
on Exhibit 71?
MR. SIKMA: Yes.
MR. LOWE: This letter states: None of the other ammunition components
recovered from the crime scene could be associated with specimens K-40
through K-42 -- that says that in that report, does it not?
THE WITNESS: Words to that effect, yes, sir, it does.
MR. LOWE: All right.
{2195}
MR. LOWE: All right. On the basis of this information, Your Honor, we would
renew, or I would state that my objection, which I made yesterday to any
questions being asked about K-40, K-41 or K-42 be sustained since this
report shows on its face that no ammunition components recovered at the
crime scene could be associated with those weapons.
Now, at this point the Government has not laid a foundation for asking any
questions about those three weapons beyond what they've already elicited,
and that is just a general description of all of the items that were
observed at the scene of the explosion. And at this point we believe that
there is no proper foundation for having any questions asked or any
introduction of K-40. And even if the Government does not offer K-40 or 41
or 42 at this time into evidence, we believe that even asking questions
about it would not even be proper.
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