[Ppnews] 5 Omaha policemen implicated in deception and false testimony in COINTELPRO case against Black Panthers

Fri Feb 8 16:05:51 EST 2008

Original Content at 
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_michael__080208_five_omaha_policemen.htm

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February 8, 2008

Five Omaha policemen implicated in deception and false testimony in 
COINTELPRO case against Black Panthers

By Michael Richardson

Two leaders of the Omaha chapter of the Black Panthers' National 
Committee to Combat Fascism, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa 
(formerly David Rice), are serving life sentences for the 1970 
bombing murder of Omaha Police officer Larry Minard.  Officer Minard 
was killed at a booby-trapped vacant house while answering a call 
about a woman screaming.  Police arrested 15 year-old Duane Peak for 
the murder who quickly implicated Poindexter and Langa in exchange 
for a reduced sentence. Peak, the confessed killer, walked free in 
1974.  Poindexter and Langa remain behind bars and both deny any 
involvement in the crime.

Poindexter and Langa had been targets of COINTELPRO, a secret and 
illegal operation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ordered by 
J. Edgar Hoover to disrupt domestic political groups.  Hoover had 
been personally kept updated on developments in his war on the Black 
Panthers by field agents.  The Special Agent-in-Charge of the Omaha 
FBI office notified Hoover directly about the case they were building 
against Poindexter and Langa.

Five Omaha police detectives and command officials can now be 
directly tied to deception or false testimony  under oath about the 
case by examining court records, judicial decisions, COINTELPRO 
memorandums, and Congressional documents.

A then-secret COINTELPRO memo tells the story of withheld evidence--a 
recording of the emergency call that lured Larry Minard to his 
death--and implicates Assistant Chief of Police Glenn Gates in 
knowingly withholding evidence that would destroy the credibility of 
Peak, the state's murderous star witness.  Assistant Chief Gates, 
according to the FBI, sought to keep the recording away from the 
defense attorneys.  The jury never got to hear the tape with its 
lethal message.

COINTELPRO memorandum, Oct. 13, 1970, from the Omaha FBI office to J. 
Edgar Hoover:

"Assistant COP GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any 
use of tapes of this call might be prejudicial to the police murder 
trial against two accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised 
that he wishes no use of this tape until after the murder trials of 
PEAK and the two accomplices has been completed."

A trip to Washington, D.C. and sworn testimony by Captain Murdock 
Platner to the U. S. House Committee on Internal Security gave rise 
to false statements to a Congressional committee about Langa, 
contradicted by the trial record.  At trial, and earlier at the 
preliminary hearing, Peak testified that a Panther named Raleigh 
House had supplied him with the dynamite. House was arrested but 
never prosecuted.  Captain Platner falsely testified to Congress that 
Langa supplied the dynamite, just several weeks after the preliminary 
hearing and the day after the COINTELPRO memo about Assistant Chief Gates.

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Internal Security, Oct. 
14, 1970, p. 4889:

"Duane Peak, a 16-year-old boy who was arrested, testified in a 
preliminary hearing.  It is from this preliminary hearing you are 
bound over to the district court to stand trial. In the preliminary 
hearing he testified that David Rice [Langa] brought a suitcase 
filled with dynamite to his house or to somebody's house, I'm not for 
sure just which place,; that they removed all the dynamite from the 
suitcase except three sticks; made the bomb, the triggering device, 
and so on, and put it together; and then packed the sujitcase with 
newspapers and that he left with this suitcase."

The questioning of the killer's family and Delia Peak, simultaneous 
with the police search of Langa's house, led to Lieutenant James 
Perry's false testimony in court to justify the search.  U.S. 
District Judge Warren Urbom best tells the story of Lt. Perry's false 
sworn statements in the case.

Rice v. Wolff, 388 F. Supp. 185 (1974) U.S. District Court, pp. 198-199:

"Lt. Perry's testimony that Delia Peak told him that Duane Peak, 
Edward Poindexter and David Rice were constant companions is in no 
way corroborated by the remainder of the record before me.  The 
police report of her interview reveals nothing about Duane Peak's 
being a constant companion of David Rice's, and the rights advisory 
form she signed indicates that only Sgt. R. Alsager and Richard Curd 
were present for her interview.  Moreover, her interview did not 
begin until the very hour police first approached David Rice's house 
and was not completed until after the decision has been made to enter 
his house.  The police report of her interview also reveals that she 
had seen Duane Peak at about 5:00 p.m. the night before.  Thus, it 
simply is not so that Duane Peak's family had not seen him in the two 
days before they had entered the petitioners house and is persuasive 
that Delia Peak's family did not make a contrary statement.  Finally, 
there is no indication in the police reports of interviews with Duane 
Peak's family prior to the entry of Rice's house that they were 
concerned that he might have been eliminated.  On the basis of the 
entire record before this court and having heard and seen Lt. Perry 
testify, it is impossible for me to credit his testimony in the 
respects mentioned."

Sergeant Jack Swanson testified at the murder trial that he went down 
to the basement and found the dynamite.  Sergeant Robert Pheffer 
backed up Swanson saying he first saw the dynamite when Swanson 
carried it upstairs.  Pheffer testified he never went down in the basement.

At an Omaha court hearing in May 2007 in Poindexter's bid for a new 
trial, Pheffer testified that his trial testimony was not correct and 
that he, not Swanson found the dynamite.  The dynamite was never seen 
in the basement by anyone else and only first appears in an evidence 
photo pictured in the trunk of a police squad car.  Robert Bartle, 
Poindexter's attorney describes the contradictory testimony in an 
appeal brief to the Nebraska Supreme Court where the case is now pending.

Nebraska v. Poindexter, S-07-001075, Nebraska Supreme Court, 
Appellant's Brief, pp. 45-46:

"At Poindexter's trial, Sgt. Swanson testified that he found dynamite 
in Rice's basement at 2816 Parker and that Sgt. Pheffer was also in 
the basement when Swanson found it.  Contrary to Swanson's trial 
testimony, Pfeffer testified at trial that he (Pheffer) never went 
down into Rice's basement and that he (Pheffer) first saw the 
dynamite found by Swanson when Swanson carried it up from Rice's 
basement.  At Poindexter's post-conviction hearing on May 30, 2007, 
Pheffer's testimony about finding the dynamite in Rice's basement was 
significantly different from his sworn trial testimony 36 years 
earlier.  On May 30, 2007, Pheffer testified that he was the one who 
found the dynamite in Rice's basement at 2816 Parker on August 22 , 
1970.  Pheffer claimed that Swanson was right behind him and that 
when Pheffer saw the dynamite, he became scared and told Swanson that 
they needed to 'get the heck out of here.'  When confronted with the 
discrepancy between Pheffer's sworn trial testimony in 1971 and his 
recent testimony of actually being the officer who found the 
dynamite, Pheffer swore that this trial testimony in 1971 was not 
correct, that 'the court reporter, somebody got it wrong.'"

The five Omaha policemen, Glenn Gates, Murdock Platner, James Perry, 
Jack Swanson, and Robert Pheffer are all retired or deceased.  None 
were ever charged with perjury for false testimony .  No date is 
scheduled for a decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court on 
Poindexter's request for a new trial.

Permission granted to reprint

Authors Bio: Michael Richardson is a freelance writer based in 
Boston. Richardson writes about politics, election law, human 
nutrition, ethics, and music. Richardson is also a political 
consultant on ballot access.

Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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