Attorney seeks information on witnesses ‘improper relationship’ in AIM shooting case
Lawyer says investigator, informant were romantically involved
By Heidi Bell Gease, Rapid City Journal staff | Wednesday, April 01, 2009
The attorney for a man charged in the 1975 slaying of Annie Mae Aquash wants to know whether the federal government investigated what he says was an improper and unethical relationship between the supervising investigator and a government informant in the case.
Richard “Dickie” Marshall, 57, and John Graham, 52, are to stand trial beginning May 12 in U.S. District Court on charges they killed Aquash, a fellow American Indian Movement activist. Her body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February 1976.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Marshall’s attorney, Dana Hanna, asked prosecutors to provide him with information about any investigation or sanctions against investigator Robert Ecoffey related to an alleged “improper relationship” with an unidentified female informant code-named “Maverick.” Hanna claimed the woman had a felony record and “deep involvement in the events leading to the murder of Anna Mae Aquash.”
Hanna’s motion said such a relationship is “universally considered unprofessional and unethical conduct by federal law enforcement officials and … likely to undermine the objectivity of the investigator and the integrity of the investigation.”
Hanna also is requesting federal Bureau of Prisons information about Arlo Looking Cloud’s criminal history, mental disorders, chronic drug abuse and alcohol addiction that might make him a less credible witness. Looking Cloud was convicted of Aquash’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In the motion, Hanna speculates that “Looking Cloud enjoys a reasonable hope or expectation of having his conviction set aside as a result of his cooperation and testimony with the government.”
