Pepper Spray Q-Tip Case Enters 2ND Week

San Francisco, Calif. -A jury has been listening to testimony about an unprecedented use of liquid pepper spray on protesters engaged in sit-ins for Headwaters Forest in 1997. The jury will decide whether that use of the caustic chemical was "excessive force" when used against non-violent protesters. Following court on Monday a Solidarity Rally will be held at 2:30 pm at Civil Center Plaza featuring speakers from CopWatch and Global Exchange, music by Joanne Rand, Mokai, and Spring Lundberg, and statements from the legal team and the Pepper Spray Eight. Court sessions continue through Thursday next week at the S.F. Federal Building (450 Golden Gate Ave., room 10, 19th floor) before the Hon. Susan Illston. Court schedule is 8:30 am -1:30 pm excepting Monday April 18, when the schedule is 9:30 am-2:30 pm. Opening arguments were presented on Wednesday, April 13 followed by testimony from three of the eight plaintiffs who are suing Humboldt County Sherriff's Dept. and Eureka Police for violation of their 4th Amendment Constitutional rights. As each of the plaintiffs who were subjected to liquid pepper spray applications directly onto their eyes testified, police video footage documenting the incidents was aired in the hushed courtroom. Lawyers also demonstrated the metal "lock-boxes" protesters used to secure their sit-in, and showed the Mikita grinder tool used in scores of previous Humboldt county protests to effect arrests of locked-in demonstrators, but which police eschewed in favor of a new "get tough" policy that included Q-tips swabbing of pepper spray. Sheriffs' Deputy Marvin Kirkpatrick testified on Thursday 4/14 that he advocated increasing the dose of pepper spray and waiting longer to provide first aid for coercive purposes. He said direct application of pepper spray results in what "some people refer to as pain". Expected on the stand Monday are: --Deputy Sheriff Marvin Kirkpatrick, part of the "Earth First! Special Response Team" who applied pepper spray by Q-tip and spray in all three incidents. --Humboldt Sheriff Gary Philp (named defendant) who researched and approved the use of pepper spray against forest protesters --former Humboldt Sheriff Dennis Lewis, who institued the "get tough" policy with demonstrators in Humboldt county --Lisa Sanderson-Fox, plaintiff who was swabbed with pepper spray at the sit in at then-Congressman Frank Riggs' office in Eureka. ###