By Lynne Dahl – Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990
James Tuso: Candidate for Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner
Tuso: At first I was shocked when I heard about it, about an hour after it occurred. All we knew up here, of course, was that a bomb had exploded in a car on an open street. Everything that I’ve heard has been from the newspapers, the radio and television. It appears there’s evidence to support that the bomb was being transported by both Judi and Darryl.
Lynne Dahl: What is that evidence?
Tuso: I don’t know. I haven’t seen or heard exactly what that evidence is. I am dismayed though, that
this could have an effect on the overall Redwood Summer.
LD: What do you think of the Oakland PD’s investigation? Is it routine to immediately arrest the victims of a murder attempt and accuse them of blowing themselves up without supporting evidence? Judi and Darryl have no history whatsoever of violence, certainly not bombs.
Tuso: Unfortunately, none of us know what the evidence is. It does not appear the Oakland PD’s investigation is going in another direction, they’ve pretty much concluded that they (Judi and Darryl) are responsible. At least that’s what they’re saying. Unless they are conducting an investigation in another direction and they don’t want anyone to know about it. Not knowing what their investigation is all about it’s very hard to say. You could sit here all day and speculate.
LD: The media’s made it seem as if Darryl and Judi are guilty. No one’s allowed to see Judi in (Highland Hospital, Oakland).
Tuso: That’s their policy down there when someone’s under arrest. It’s for security reasons. But you can’t deny a person access to legal counsel.
LD: It took Susan Jordan, Judi’s lawyer, almost 12 hours to get in to see Judi.
Tuso: I can’t understand why the Oakland Police Department acted that way. I wasn’t there nor were you. It would be unfair for either of us to comment on it. Playing the devil’s advocate, if they were transporting a bomb, it would discredit all they’ve been working for in terms of non-violent demonstrations.
LD: Exactly.
Tuso: Without cold, hard facts, it’s hard to make a determination about what really happened. Sometimes what you read isn’t true, it’s distorted or whatever. I would just like to believe that the reason they were arrested was because there was physical evidence not based on anything that was trumped up. We don’t live in a society today where we give people bum raps. We just can’t tolerate that sort of thing.
LD: What If the FBI or the police did want to set up Judi and Darryl? How could we trust that the evidence was authentic?
Tuso: God, I don’t want to believe that at all. That’s not what this country is built on. Anything is possible but I don’t think that would ever occur; I don’t think anyone should make a judgment until Susan Jordan, Judi’s attorney, comes out and says what the evidence is. She’ll reveal what kind of evidence the government has against her client. The people I’ve talked to are split. It depends on what they feel about Earth First!. I respected Judi and Darryl’s approach before this because they were advocating non-violence. I’ve said that the law enforcement people have to be the peace keepers in this summer’s activities, and everybody has to be treated- fairly and equally under the law. We all know what civil it’s basically defined as nonviolent passive resistance. That doesn’t mean law enforcement goes in there and manhandles people. If there is resistance then we meet that resistance. We stop it as quickly as possible and remove the parties from the area and take care of business. We try not to get into violent confrontations with anybody. We can’t have people on either side getting hurt. We’re all environmentalists, even the most conservative people. No one wants to see our forests destroyed or our oceans and seashores covered with oil. As far as this case is concerned, my feeling is that the kind of law enforcement I want to see is that if a person goes to jail they are there for a particular reason, that the evidence warrants their incarceration. That’s what I want to instill in my staff when I become Sheriff.
LD: My children, have been counting your signs, Why have you so few up in comparison to Wiseman?
Tuso: I got a report from some of my friends on the south coast that all my signs from Albion to Point Arena through Gualala have been torn down and destroyed.
Rich Wiseman, Mendocino: County candidate for Sheriff-Coroner.
Rich Wiseman: It looks to me like the Oakland PD has very clear evidence on this case. It’s very difficult for me to comment on this without really knowing what’s going on.
LD: Was the speed at which the Oakland PD put Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney under arrest surprising to you as a police officer?
RW: I think they are looking into all avenues and checking all possibilities. However, according to what I’ve read in the newspapers, the authorities feel that they clearly have the evidence they (Judi and Darryl) were transporting the bomb otherwise they wouldn’t have made the arrest. Keep in mind that this is Oakland; I know that the FBI’s also involved in the investigation. I don’t think they just go out and arrest people unless they have clear evidence. With my many years of law enforcement experience, we’re not usually able to get a warrant for someone’s arrest unless we have clear evidence to make an arrest.
LD: What disturbs me is that these two people were immediately assumed to be transporting a bomb even though they have no history of ever having done anything like this.
RW: Well, keep in mind that pipe bombs have gone off before when people were manufacturing or transporting them. Whether this was the case here, I don’t know, because I don’t know the evidence, except what I’ve read in the paper. What I’m concerned about is that, if it’s clear…if it does turn out they are convicted then I think it’s a very unfortunate situation because it is going to mar any good things that would have come out of any civil disobedience this summer.
LD: What if there is no evidence against them?
RW: Then I think the Oakland Police Department will investigate as hard as they can to find out who is responsible for planting the bomb. I don’t think there would have been an arrest made if there was any feeling that this was the case.
LD: There have been many death threats directed at both Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney over the last few months. Doesn’t that point to at least the possibility someone has now tried to kill them?
RW: We can never rule out the possibility of other things occurring. All I’m saying is that because of the situation, I really don’t think that the Oakland PD and the FBI would have made an arrest without really good evidence, and from what I’m reading in the paper, they are saying that they do. They’re not going to necessarily divulge that evidence because it might create a problem in the case before it went to prosecution.
LD: If there is no evidence Judi and Darryl blew themselves up, can they sue for false arrest?
RW: Everyone has the opportunity to sue authorities. Organizations and police officers are sued all the time. Whether or not there would be a finding or verdict in their favor would be determined by a civil jury.
LD: I know Judi and Darryl. l know these are false charges.
RW: Well, I really feel bad this has happened. I think that It could really create a problem. We never like to see anything like this happen, but it’s happened before with other people who were either transporting or manufacturing bombs.
Jerry Philbrick: Comptche Logger
Jerry Philbrick: I’m waiting to see what the outcome of all this is; all I know is what the media says, and you can hardly believe them. Excuse me for saying that. A lot of pople from Earth First! and other local people have talked to me and swear they’ve (Judi and Darryl) been framed. I know there are some sincere people here who are either followers of Earth First! or some of the lesser militant groups that really sincerely believe that this Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are not capable of carrying a bomb. I hope they are not believing something that’s not true.
LD: You said “less militant group”. Earth First!? What other groups?
JP: Well, perhaps not militant, but outrageous in some of the things they’ve done. Since we’ve been talking to them over the last 3 or 4 weeks in public and secret meetings (secret to keep the press out) they’ve been preaching to us non-violence and they want to be peaceful and we were just starting to believe them a little bit. In fact, you know I sat next to Judi Bari for two-and-a-half hours a week ago at a meeting where she was trying to convince us that there’s absolutely no violence included in these symbolic demonstrations that they want to have.
LD: You think she was lying to you?
JP: Well, I don’t know. If this was a bomb that they were transporting in their car, then they were. I won’t know until the police announce what evidence they’ve found.
LD: The police are saying they’ve found duct tape, finishing nails—Judi’s working on a house—and all this stuff was part of the bomb under her seat covered by her fiddle case.
JP: How could all that stuff fit under her seat?
LD: I’m just telling you what the police have said. If you were transporting a bomb, would you carry it under your seat?
JP: I don’t think so. I’d put it somewhere like the trunk, but I’d make damn sure the thing wouldn’t go off. Look, at this point I don’t have any reason to believe that Judi Bari was lying to the group of us at those meetings. I was trying to tell them to take these summer demonstrations out of the woods and onto the public thoroughfare like in Fort Bragg or Ukiah where you could get at the corporations who are the people they should be working on.”
LD: Last night at a meeting of local people and Redwood Summer organizers, it was said that the demonstrations this summer have shifted from the woods to CDF, L-P, G-P, and the log export docks in Humboldt County.
JP: That’s great, that’s exactly where they should be. That’s what I tried to tell them at that little vigil we stopped at the other night—that they’re barking around the ankles and knees of the situation instead of the head and heart and that’s the corporation. I’ve been in favor of sustained yield. I’m considering my future and my son’s future and I want there to be some logging jobs here in 15 or 20 years. I think GP is doing a much better job than some of the other corporations around here. Despite what people say, let me tell you something, GP does not export logs. As far as Judi and Darryl go, if they were transporting a bomb…
LD: After many death threats aimed at them, and the fact that their life’s work at this point is promoting non-violent demonstrations to save our redwoods, wouldn’t it be more logical to believe that someone was trying to kill them?
JP: In the first place it was a damn poor bomb because it was hardly bad enough to rip apart a bird’s nest. If someone really wanted to get rid of them…
LD: It was powerful enough to have nearly killed Judi. You were said to have made some pretty heavy threats at the vigil for Judi and Darryl the other night in Fort Bragg. True?
JP: I just stopped by to see what was going on and Beth Bosk came over to me and said I should say something because I used to coach her son and she’s a nice lady and she’d heard I’d said some nice things. Well, I was mad because I thought the basic thing we had been talking about, the trust at these meetings had been violated by packing around a bomb. And I said, not just coming from me, I was speaking for a lot of people who have been calling me and saying, “You’ve been telling us that we can trust these guys to be nonviolent. What’s going on with this bomb?” And I’m going, “Hey, I’m as pissed off as you are about it.” What I told these people at that vigil was, “What you’ve done is lost the trust we’ve had. But I want to tell you if somebody gets bombed up here or hurt by something, then about 150 people in your organization are going to eat it. And it’s going to be the whole community, because they are going to jump them. They are not going to wait around anymore, they are not going to give you any more chances, because now you’ve got the normal person mad besides the logger. I’m not in fear for myself—it’s my equipment I don’t want to get damaged, and I don’t want any of my employees getting hurt driving down the roads in their logging drugs either. But if any bombs go off up here, all hell’s going to break loose.”
LD: Wait a minute, What if someone plants a bomb to discredit Redwood Summer?
JP: You and I have to open our minds to the whole beginning of this. The loggers are up here working away and we admit that we think there’s overcutting going on, but that’s not our fault. We’ve been accused of being the arm for the corporations…we haven’t openly defied them yet but we’re almost at the point where we’re going to start suggesting that they do cut back a little bit. Strongly. But all of sudden, here comes along a movement, headlines in the piper, “Earth First! is going to plan a Mississippi Summer against loggers.” Little by little it starts building. There have already been some incidents, some sabotage, not necessarily by Earth First!, but there has been some sabotage. I’ve had it done to me. Every logger friend I’ve got has had it done to him in some form or another. I’ll tell you what kind of a person I am. If I know someone is going to come out to tamper with me then I will have a defense, but I will go on the offense immediately. I will not stand around and wait for someone to come after me. There’s a lot of guys who feel the same way.
This scenario has been building and building and then we started talking, first in the Supervisor’s meetings, then on the radio, and then in these meetings with the head coons. I consider Judi Bari one of the head coons for Earth First! “Coon” doesn’t mean Negro or slang word, but coon is leader, head person. So what you have is a logging industry on the defense and very willing to go on the offense to protect their livelihood. You’ve got a scenario built up that makes. Earth First! look like the villains because of some of the, things they’ve done in the past…
LD: Judi Bari has stressed over and over again there will be no monkey wrenching this summer. She’s demanding all demonstrators be trained in non-violence. Bari has said repeatedly she is on the side of the loggers. What else can she do?
JP: You can’t disassociate a leader of Earth First! from some of the things Earth First! has already done. We were working on a trust factor and now they’re saying Judi had a bomb!
LD: You yourself have said there are many people who hate Earth First! Doesn’t it make more sense that someone else set the bomb in their car?
JP: Oh, it makes sense that someone tried to whack her. I don’t disregard that at all. I’m only going by what is on the radio. I’m getting all these phone calls…
LD: You’re a leader. It’s up to you not to jump to conclusions and mislead the people who look up to you.
JP: I’ve told a lot of them, “Hey, wait, let’s see what happens.” If Earth First! makes a statement saying, “We are definitely worried about the, bomb incident, we don’t want to be related to that at all, we’re going to move the demonstrations out of the woods, away from the equipment, away from the loggers, and do it publicly where we’re going to get even more harassment or maybe more respect.” If they do that then we’d say. “My god, they mean it”. I’m sure not going to sit up here and make a judgment that they had a bomb. All I’m drawing is conclusions from what I’ve heard. I’ve no reason to say. “Judi Bari lied to me and now she’s down there packing bombs around.” I have no reason to say that; It’s the media. They could try to crucify me for the statement I made at that vigil the other night, but I’d come back and get air time and prove that…there were cops down there, they heard what I said. I was trying to say what people would do if a bomb went off up here. Not that I personally was going to go out whacking people, but if anybody from my company gets hurt bad or mutilated from a bomb, I’m going to catch that person and see that they pay.
LD: You’re still assuming, Earth First! uses bombs…
JP: No, no. The first thing is to catch the guilty person and make that person admit who they are. Then there wouldn’t be any misplaced blame. There needs to be a balance. We need to have a balance of logging and fishing and building and hunting and cars and travelling and sex—everything you can think of. If you can reach that balance then things will work out. When it gets too lopsided too much environmentalism is worse, than not enough; too much logging is worse than not enough and so on.
You’ve got to strike that middle part, the gray area. I think you’ll be surprised to see, that there’s another organization forming that’s not been made public yet, but it’s going to be coming out real soon. It’s about the gray area. It’s not Earth First! It’s not corporations. It’s not environmentalists. It’s the people who are in the gray area who have everything to lose and everything to gain in this timber battle. We’re going to get supported by Earth First! and supported by the environmentalist people. What we’re saying is that the gray area needs to be exploited. When we’re ready for the media’s attention I think they’re going to be refreshed to grab hold of it and help us get the attention we need to get to the top level. something should be done about our future here. We might all write a letter, that letter might be six feet long, saying that something has to be done or possibly we’ll stop logging altogether. And we’ll not permit any logging, because we could close the doors as far as that goes if we wanted to get rash about it.
Mitch Clogg, Environmentalist
MC: Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are seen by industry and the police as public enemies and trouble makers. At the same time, they are perceived by radicals and environmentalists as their front line heroes. So when the police and the establishment get their hands on people like that, they’ll use whatever means they can to punish them. Extra-legal means when you use a flimsy pretext for charging somebody. When you put a $100,000 bail on someone, it winds up costing those arrested a lot of money. Judi and Darryl are being punished by an officialdom that finds them threatening. It’s an old, old story. Anyone familiar with American labor history can cite chapter and verse that it was much like this.
LD: Both candidates for Sheriff find the idea of the government setting Judi and Darryl up preposterous.
MC: Then they are either liars or naïve. Police tend to stick together.