Vol. 71/No. 10      March 12, 2007

Charges of murder to kill police are faced by Boudreaux, who is an electrician for Los Angeles County; Brown, a community activist and for 20 years a job counselor in San Francisco; and Jones, who lives in Altadena, California. O’Neal, a San Francisco city custodian, is charged with conspiracy to kill police.

Five other men face murder and conspiracy charges in this case, which stems from the killing of John Young at the Ingleside police station here on Aug. 29, 1971. These defendants include Francisco Torres of Queens, New York, and Harold Taylor of Panama City, Florida.

Two others also charged, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom), are serving time in a New York prison on frame-up charges of killing two New York City policemen in 1971.

The cops have not been able to locate another man, Ronald Bridgeforth.

When the four men entered the San Francisco Superior courtroom here, shackled and in orange prison garb, many of those in attendance applauded. Judge Donna Little stopped the proceedings and police cleared the court. After objections from the defendants’ lawyers, people were let back into the court on the condition that they remain silent.

Defense attorneys have filed challenges to the case, asking that the charges be thrown out due to the “illegal” delay of 35 years in bringing the indictments.

The hearing began with objections by defense attorneys to their clients being shackled. They also challenged the high bail. All four men remain locked up, each facing bail of $3 million.

An earlier attempt in 1975 to prosecute three of the men for the l971 killing in Ingleside failed. A federal court in San Francisco threw out the case after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions. Over the course of several days in 1973, New Orleans police subjected Harold Taylor, John Bowman (who died recently), and Ruben Scott to electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, and put plastic bags put over their heads.

In l999, the San Francisco cops reopened the case, saying that forensic science had led to alleged new evidence. In 2005, four of the men currently under arrest refused to testify before the grand jury investigating the case and were briefly jailed.

On January 28, several hundred people turned out for a San Francisco showing of the film Legacy of Torture, The War Against The Black Liberation Movement, which features interviews with those tortured in l973.

Prosecutors claim that the accused men were members of the Black Liberation Army, a group they say was waging a battle against the police between l968 and l973.

The defendants are scheduled to return to court on March 13.  
 
 
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