FBI frame-up continues: 3rd man charged in slaying of Mi’kmaq warrior August 27, 2008

3rd man charged in 1975 slaying of Canadian Mi’kmaq activist

The Canadian Press
August 26, 2008

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Federal grand jurors in Rapid City have indicted a third man in connection with the 1975 slaying of a Canadian woman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Vine Richard Marshall, better known as Dick Marshall, of Rapid City, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to aiding and abetting the first-degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley, who refused to comment further.

Prosecution witnesses have testified that the 30-year-old Aquash, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, was killed because leaders of the American Indian Movement thought she was a government spy. AIM leaders have denied any involvement in her death.

Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted in 2004 and is serving life in federal prison for his part. John Graham, a Canadian, is scheduled to stand trial starting Oct. 6 in Rapid City.

Marshall, 57, was an AIM leader and served 24 years in prison for the 1975 shooting death of Martin Montileaux before being paroled in 2000.

AIM members alleged Marshall was framed for the murder of Montileaux, who was shot in the neck at a Scenic bar. An FBI report quoted Montileaux as alleging that “Russell Means’ friend” shot him before he died.

Charges were filed in state court against Marshall and Means, another AIM leader who went on to become an actor and activist. Marshall was convicted but Means was acquitted.

At Looking Cloud’s trial, witnesses said Looking Cloud, Graham and another AIM member, Theda Clark, drove Aquash from Denver to Rapid City and eventually to Marshall’s house at Allen.

Marshall’s wife, Cleo Gates, testified that Looking Cloud, Graham and Clark stopped by with Aquash the night she was killed. Gates said Aquash stayed with her in the kitchen while the others went into a back bedroom with her husband.

When a prosecutor asked whether Richard Marshall kept a gun back there, Gates said he did not.

Witnesses said Aquash was eventually taken to the Badlands and that Graham shot her as she begged for her life.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors responded to a motion from Graham’s lawyer to compel the government to turn over more evidence.

Jackley and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Mandel wrote that two people involved in the investigation were not paid informants but co-operating witnesses who were reimbursed for expenses.

Graham’s lawyer John Murphy, in his motion, asked for details of “expense reimbursements” of $69,066 to Serle Chapman and $49,083 to Darlene (Kamook) Nichols. She testified at Looking Cloud’s trial.

The prosecutors said they didn’t include the names to protect their safety.

“These individuals were not paid informants and no payments were made to them to work for the United States. The co-operation provided by them was not contingent upon receiving payment from the United States,” Jackley and Mandel wrote.

“The only monies paid to them were reimbursements of travel expenses they incurred in seeking information in this case and payment toward expenses that they incurred when relocating due to harassment, retribution and retaliation based upon the assistance they had provided.”

The government is not obligated to turn over anything further, the prosecutors wrote.

Murphy also asked for an unredacted copy of a Feb. 18, 1976, report by FBI Special Agent David Price that states an unnamed informant saw Aquash alive Feb. 12, 1976, in Allen and described what she was wearing and driving.

A rancher found her unidentified body Feb. 24, 1976, north of Wanblee. Prosecutors have said they believe she was killed there two months earlier, around Dec. 12, 1975.

In their response, Jackley and Mandel wrote that an unredacted version would only reveal the informant’s source number, and that the government is entitled to protect the identity of such informants.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol, who will oversee Graham’s trial, issued an order that federal Magistrate Veronica Duffy will rule on Graham’s motion to compel.

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Our Freedom note: The media continues to take FBI and government lawyer’s accusations as truth, as seen by the headline of this article claiming Pictou Aquash was killed in 1975 despite an FBI report that one of their informant’s saw her alive in February of 1976. Also, Johanna Brand wrote in her 1978 book, “The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash”, that Anna Mae made a phone call to Paula Giese in Minneapolis on December 20, 1975. Giese worked with the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC). The FBI and government lawyers claim that Pictou Aquash was killed on December 12, 1975.

It’s highly questionable that John Graham will have a fair trial August 27, 2008

“There have been several agents of the FBI who have said that it doesn’t matter if Peltier is guilty or not. He will never be freed. The FBI will make sure of that and to me that sounds like a threat. It was the FBI who threatened the life of Anna Mae Aquash if she didn’t cooperate in their investigations of who killed the agents. Standing Deer was also threatened with the loss of his life if he revealed the assassination plot in 1978. When Standing Deer was released and became involved with working for Peltier’s’ freedom, he was murdered in his Houston home in 2003.

In Aquash’s case, it seems strange that all of a sudden the Justice Department and FBI are being cast as hero’s in solving the case. But from so many of the sources, it is highly questionable that Looking Cloud got a fair trial and that Graham will probably be expected to see anything better. So if Graham is convicted, then will the case be over for Indians? Will ‘justice’ be served on a plate of BS greedily devoured by anti-AIM rhetoric’s and the media?”

- Ben Carnes, Choctaw, Peltier, justice and fearlessness (August 21, 2008)

FBI witness said s/he saw Aquash alive months after she was allegedly killed August 27, 2008

February 18, 1976 FBI report:

On February 18, 1976, FBI Agent David Price prepared a memorandum in which he reported that Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was seen in Allen, South Dakota on February 12, 1976. This is two months after the government now alleges she was killed. The witness providing information to Price gave specific information as to the car Aquash was in and the clothes she was wearing. Graham Doc. 04092.

On July 7, 2008 and July 18, 2008, Mr. Graham requested in writing a non-redacted versions of this report so that he could locate, interview, and subpoena the witness. On July 28, 2008, the government responded that the redacted area of the report contained the number of an FBI informant, and that it would not provide the informant’s identity to Mr. Graham.

The name of a witness who saw Aquash alive after the government asserts she was dead is material, exculpatory, and subject to disclosure. The government can not refuse to provide the name based on privilege: An informant’s privilege to remain confidential is not absolute. Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 60-61(1957). If the informant’s testimony will be material to the determination of the case, the informant’s identity should be disclosed. United States v. Lindsey, 284 F.3d 874, 877 (8th Cir. 2002) (citations omitted).

The government and FBI should not be able to hide the name of a witness who says s/he saw Aquash alive months after she was allegedly killed. The name of that witness, even if that witness is a government informant, should be disclosed so that Mr. Graham can fully investigate his defense. Without such disclosure, Mr. Graham is prevented from fully investigating and defending his case, and he will be denied due process.

Dated August 12, 2008.
John R. Murphy

MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT GRAHAM’S MOTION TO COMPEL DISCOVERY (PDF)

John Graham defense wants FBI informant details August 19, 2008

Defence wants informant details in slaying of Canadian in South Dakota

Canadian Press, Aug 16, 2008

RAPID CITY, S.D. — A Canadian man charged with a decades-old murder wants the U.S. government to disclose details of payments to informants and the name of one who said the victim was alive days before she died.

John Graham’s first-degree murder trial starts Oct. 6 in Rapid City, S.D., federal court for the slaying of fellow Canadian Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Both were members of the American Indian Movement, as was Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term for his role.

Witnesses at his trial said he, Graham and another AIM member, Theda Clark, drove Aquash from Denver and that Graham shot Aquash in the Badlands as she begged for her life. [*]

Aquash was a Mi’kmaq born in Nova Scotia, Graham is a Yukon native.

Graham’s lawyer, John Murphy, has filed a motion to make prosecutors provide the following:

-Details of FBI payments to informants Serle Chapman and Darlene “Kamook” Nichols;

-The dates of two letters Chapman wrote to prosecutors in which he requests payment for his service as an informant;

-An unredacted copy of a Feb. 18, 1976, report by FBI Special Agent David Price that states an unnamed informant saw Aquash alive Feb. 12, 1976, in Allen and described what she was wearing and driving.

A rancher found her unidentified body Feb. 24, 1976, north of Wanblee. Prosecutors have said they believe she was killed there two months earlier – around Dec. 12, 1975.

Murphy wrote in his memorandum that the information is needed in order to properly defend Graham and determine if it would clear him of wrongdoing.

Graham has several times been refused details on payments to Chapman and Nichols, who have likely been government informants since at least 2000, the lawyer wrote. Nichols testified at Looking Cloud’s trial.

On July 28, the government told Murphy the FBI made “expense reimbursements” of $69,066 to Chapman and $49,083 to Nichols but did not include other details, Murphy wrote.

“Thus, Mr. Graham has no information setting forth what alleged expenses were reimbursed, whether those alleged expenses were legitimate, or the dates that payments were made to the informants,” he wrote.

Murphy wrote the government also gave Graham a copy of a letter from Chapman’s wife asking for $70,000 for his services and help in getting work visas and a follow-up letter from Chapman reiterating his wife’s note, but the dates are redacted.

“The documents are not complete without a date,” Murphy wrote. “The dates are likely to correspond with payments made to the informant and the release of information from Chapman to the FBI.”

Finally, Murphy wrote the government did turn over Price’s report indicating an informant saw Aquash alive less than two weeks before her body was found, but the informant’s identity was omitted.

“The government and FBI should not be able to hide the name of a witness who says (he or she) saw Aquash alive months after she was allegedly killed,” he wrote.

Prosecutors now will respond to the motion and the judge will rule if the government must disclose the information.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol has ruled on another matter.

In response to a prosecution motion to require Graham to give an alibi before the trial, Piersol wrote that if the defence plans to call witnesses, those names must be given to government lawyers.

But if Graham has documents or plans to testify about his whereabouts at the trial, he does not have to disclose that, the judge wrote.

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* Our Freedom note: The corporate media continues to wrongly claim that “witnesses” at Arlo Looking Cloud’s 2004 trial said that he, John Graham and another American Indian Movement member drove Anna Mae Aquash to the location where her body was later found and that John Graham shot her. It should be made clear that no person testified at Looking Cloud’s trial to witnessing Graham kill Aquash. There was also no physical evidence presented that linked either Looking Cloud or Graham to the murder. The only testimony given was regarding what persons claimed Looking Cloud had told them or was regarding supposed sightings of him and Graham together with Aquash at various homes. One person who testified, former AIM member Darlene Ecoffey (then Nichols), admitted during the trial to being a paid police informant and later married one of the main police investigators of the case, self-proclaimed FBI academy graduate Robert Ecoffey (who also took part in the “Incident at Oglala” FBI-led assault on an AIM camp on June 26, 1975, at Pine Ridge).

Arlo Looking Cloud’s trial, February 2004 (grahamdefense.org)