FBI Destroyed Evidence -- Sophia's Arm Blown Apart at Backwater Bridge -- Court Document

Sophia Wilansky after being struck by police projectile
Graphic image of shattered arm here.

(Above and below) Water Protectors at Backwater Bridge

FBI Destroyed Evidence after Sophia Wilansky's Arm was Blown Apart at Backwater Bridge -- Federal Lawsuit Filed in Minneapolis

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

MINNEAPOLIS -- The FBI has destroyed vital evidence which would have revealed what munition blew apart the arm of Sophia Wilansky, 21, when she stood at Standing Rock in North Dakota, and peacefully defended the Missouri River from Dakota Access Pipeline.
It was just before dawn on November, 21, 2016 when Sophia's arm was blown to pieces.
More than a year has passed since Sophia began a series of traumatic surgeries to save her arm. A piece of shrapnel was found in her shattered arm.
The FBI has refused to return the evidence it took from her hospital room in Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where she was transferred from Bismarck, for its trauma center.
In Minneapolis, the FBI took clothing that Sophia was wearing when she was struck, and the shrapnel found in her arm that was blown to pieces.
According to the government's own documents, these items of evidence were destroyed during the FBI's testing.
The FBI has refused to return the evidence to Sophia, allow a chemical analysis of it, or respond to the family's requests for the evidence.
A federal lawsuit has been filed in Minneapolis for the return of Sophia's property.
The federal lawsuit, filed in federal court in Minnesota on February 2, 2018, also states that a grand jury was convened in the investigation, and the person who transported Sophia to the hospital was subpoenaed.
However, the government then halted the grand jury. No one has been charged, despite a year long investigation.
The complaint states:

The FBI analyzed these items more than a year ago, and it took only two weeks for the analysis. The testing "degraded and permanently altered" the evidence:

When the FBI showed up at Sophia's hospital room, without a warrant, Sophia's father Wayne Wilansky acted in good faith. Wayne agreed to voluntarily allow the FBI to take the items. The FBI agreed in writing to return those items in a timely manner:

The court document also describes the array of so-called no-lethal weapons fired into the bodies of water protectors, as they stood to protect the drinking water of millions from the oil pipeline.
Pepper spray, sponge bullets, CS (tear gas) grenades, bean bags, stinger ball grenades and flash sound devices (concussion grenades) were fired into water protectors.
Numerous unarmed water protectors were seriously injured when they were hit by these projectiles fired by militarized police.
The court document states:

The court complaint also names those who are responsible, including the federal agencies involved, which includes Homeland Security, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Since the FBI has failed to respond and return the evidence, the family is asking the court to order that the evidence be returned, or make the items available to Sophia's chemist for analysis.

Both the U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI are named in the complaint. The case number is posted below:

Also see:
Dineh Marcus Mitchell 'Morton County shot out my eye at Standing Rock'
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/01/dineh-marcus-mitchell-morton-county.html


Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Behind the Story: FBI repression of anti-fossil fuel activists

Letter to Censored News

Hi Brenda,

"My name is Sasha, and I am a co-founding moderator of the EF! Newswire.
Last month I published a story through the Defending Dissent Foundation about state repression of anti-fossil fuel activists in Cascadia:

http://www.defendingdissent.org/now/news/why-is-the-fbi-harassing-activists-in-cascadia/

The story was immediately posted in The Ecologist, CounterPunch, the

Global Justice Ecology Project, Green Is the New Red, and Earth Island

Journal, among other publications.

Then it was picked up on by Becky Kramer, writing for the Idaho

Spokesman-Review:

http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jan/23/fbi-contact-unwarranted-environmental-activists/

Then it made its way to AP, through which it was disseminated to Oregon

Public Broadcasting, Washington Times, Houston Chronicle, and other

national newspapers:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/23/some-megaload-protesters-report-contact-from-fbi/?page=all

And just today the story was recast by the Canadian Press, where it made

its way to the Globe and Mail, and other international sites:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/anti-oil-sands-activists-in-the-us-are-getting-visits-from-the-fbi/article22851903/

The story behind the story is actually quite interesting. The

Idaho-based anti-megaloads group Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) has 

been fighting megaloads since 2011, and I got the scoop about megaloads

coming through Oregon from a WIRT activist, Helen Yost. I put up an

article about the megaloads in Oregon, headlined "Be the First Line of

Defense Against Megaloads," and a meeting was organized among

environmentalists around the area here in Portland. I had varying

degrees of involvement with the campaign as both a journalist and

activist, and have also been marginally involved in the same capacity

with Portland Rising Tide. I submitted a story idea about state

repression of anti-fossil fuel movements here to Brenda last year after

my pal Arun Gupta gave me the reference, and we were working on the

story for about a month when it seemed as though it had gone cold. There

just wasn't enough about FBI visits, and I frustratedly put down my pen

for a day or two when suddenly my friend Helen received the pomo

equivalent of a knock on the door — three texts from the FBI. I quickly

interviewed her about it, banged the article into shape, Udry and

Wishnia at Defending Dissent made a few editorial suggestions, and it

went live. Within a few days, the story was all over the place, and a

month later it is everywhere!"

Thanks very much,

Sasha

Why Is The FBI Harassing Activists in Cascadia?

Why Is The FBI Harassing Activists In Cascadia?

Thanks to Defending Dissent Foundation and Earth First! Journal for permission for Censored News to publish this original work!

Dissent News Wire

Censored News

Alexander Reid Ross , January 5, 2015, In : Analysis & Opinion

Editor’s note: this story has recently been picked up by The Statesman and AP… but you heard about it here first! Sign up for our weekly digest here, to get the latest on dissent & repression delivered to your inbox each Friday.

In August 2014, two activists with the environmentalist group Rising Tide spent a week riding the backwoods highways of Idaho monitoring a megaload—a big rig hauling equipment for processing tar-sands oil that’s wide enough to take up two lanes of road, too high to fit under a freeway overpass, can be longer than a football field, and can weigh up to 1,000,000 pounds.

They had no idea that they would soon be wrapped up in a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe that encompassed three states and several environmentalist groups.

Helen Yost of Moscow, Idaho, and Herb Goodwin of Bellingham, Washington, have spent years travelling through area the bioregion of Cascadia to halt megaloads, from Washington and Oregon to Idaho and up through Montana. They are used to harassment from law enforcement. That week, Goodwin said, the two were stopped on average twice a night, by law-enforcement agencies ranging from state troopers to local police in Sandpoint and Moscow.