Attorneys: Government Withholding Key Evidence in Red Fawn Case -- Revolver Belonged to Paid Government Informant

Government Withholding Key Evidence in Standing Rock Federal Prosecution

Revolver Belonged to a Paid Government Informant

By Water Protector Legal Collective

Censored News
Posted on December 14, 2017

BISMARCK, North Dakota -- Federal defense attorneys for Red Fawn Fallis filed a Motion to Compel Discovery yesterday in the District of North Dakota. The motion outlines numerous videos and other crucial documentary evidence that have been requested by defense but not provided by the government.

Among the documents that the government has not produced are details related to the role of the paid FBI informant who owned the gun that was allegedly recovered at the scene of Ms. Fallis’s arrest. The existence of this informant was first addressed publicly at the end of a Motions hearing on Monday December 11, and is also described in a recent article by The Intercept. According to the motion, the requests left unanswered by the government include:

A detailed request for documents and other information relevant to the government’s use of a paid FBI informant who infiltrated the Water Protector camps, established an intimate relationship with the defendant herein, and provided contemporaneous information to the government. This informant was an eyewitness to Ms. Fallis’ arrest and the discharge of a firearm. . . . [and] the revolver that was allegedly seized from Ms. Fallis at the time of her arrest, belonged to the government’s informant.

Defense has also sought:

A detailed request for documents and other information relevant to additional informants utilized by the government, the State of North Dakota, police agencies involved and/or DAPL and/or its agents.

This motion comes only days after the conclusion of a hearing on defense Motions to Suppress, where attorneys presented evidence demonstrating that law enforcement had no probable cause to arrest Ms. Fallis. Law enforcement testimony during that hearing confirmed the existence of at least one additional informant, undercover officer or security contractor who was providing information to law enforcement. The hearing also produced evidence confirming the existence of numerous cameras mounted on law enforcement vehicles or operated by officers, for which audio or video have not been produced by the government as required by law.

Ms. Fallis was arrested on October 27, 2016 and is charged with Civil Disorder, Discharge of a Firearm in Relation to a Felony Crime of Violence, and Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition by a Convicted Felon. “Civil Disorder” is a rarely used statute that criminalizes participation in a public disturbance and has historically been used primarily against political activists and communities of color. The Motion to Compel demands that the government disclose if any of the “violent acts” that form the basis of the Civil Disorder charge were instigated by paid informants, undercover officers or private security.

Ms. Fallis is represented by attorneys Molly Armour, Jessie Cook and Bruce Ellison and is scheduled for trial on January 29, 2018 in United States District Court for the District of North Dakota in Fargo. She was incarcerated without bond for one year and is currently confined to a halfway house as she prepares for trial.

Red Fawn Fallis, a Lakota Sioux woman, is one of seven federal defendants with cases arising from the events of October 27, 2016 at Standing Rock, and she will be the first to trial. Over 300 Water Protectors are still awaiting trial in their state criminal cases.

Links:

Defense Motion to Compel Discovery (December 13, 2017)

The Intercept article: An Activist Stands Accused of Firing a Gun at Standing Rock. It Belonged to her Lover – An FBI Informant. (December 11, 2017)

Red Fawn’s Support Committee

*This statement or portions thereof not quoted from court documents may be attributed to: Water Protector Legal Collective.

Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) provides on-the-ground legal representation and coordination for Water Protectors engaged in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, ND.

'Cancel NAFTA, No Wall!' Farmworkers, Students, Maquiladora Workers Speak Out, Binational Conference In Depth Report

 

https://tinyurl.com/ybnymgcz

PRESENTATION

On December 2-3, 2017, the Binational Conference to Cancel NAFTA, Tear Down the Wall of Shame / End All Deportations, Stop Privatizations, and Promote Labor Rights on Both Sides of the Border was held in Carson, Calif., with the participation of more than 200 unionists and activists from the United States and Mexico. The first all-day session was held at California State University-Dominguez Hills and was hosted by the university's Modern Language Department and the CSUDH chapter of the California Faculty Association; the second half-day session was held at the hall of the United Steelworkers Local 675.

LISTEN Dine' CARE on KTNN Forestry, Fracking and the Water

https://nmtribune.com/news/radio-forum-focuses-on-environmental-issues/

Wednesday December 13, 2017

Censored News targeted in law enforcement dragnet of Standing Rock water protectors

Censored News coverage of Standing Rock water protectors, police excessive force and DAPL security brutality.

Collusion of big oil, big money and law enforcement results in targeting of Censored News for coverage of Standing Rock Water Protectors

By Brenda Norrell, publisher
Censored News

The Intercept exposed a blueprint of the intelligence operation at the North Dakota fusion center targeting Standing Rock water protectors, which includes Brenda Norrell, Censored News.
In regard to leaders of the movement at Standing Rock, it is obvious that the intelligence operation did not have a clue as to how the movement began or grew as a global force.
While I am honored to be on the same page with these global heroes, the water protectors of Standing Rock camps, it is disturbing to view how this reporter and Censored News were targeted in this diagram by the fusion center, comprised of multiple law enforcement agencies.
Equally disturbing is the fact that most of those identified were arrested.
Censored News was created in 2006, after I was censored and terminated, without any cause stated, as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today. I had served as a staff reporter for most of the years after it was created in 1995.
Today, Censored News is a service to Indigenous Peoples and others engaged in the struggle for human rights. There are no ads, revenues or salaries. Now in our 12th year, we have 17 million page views.
As a news reporter, I began as a staff reporter at the Navajo Times in 1982. During the 18 years that I lived on the Navajo Nation, I worked as a stringer for The Associated Press for five years, and USA Today for seven years, primarily covering the Navajo Nation government and federal courts.
My work as a news reporter has appeared in Outside magazine and newspapers throughout Indian country and the west. 
The intelligence operations targeting Standing Rock water protectors were an attack on peaceful defenders of the land, water and air, and sacred burial places.
Standing Rock water protectors sacrificed personally to protect their drinking water and the Missouri River from the Dakota Access pipeline.
The intelligence operation diagram exposed by The Intercept, and the arrests of journalists, reveal that this United States intelligence operation is part of the ongoing collusion of big oil, big money and law enforcement. 
The facts exposed by The Intercept reveal that now, more than ever, is a time for journalists and land defenders to bolt into the global arena and halt the ongoing destruction of the Earth for corporate gain and political expediency. 
It is with gratitude to the courage of the water protectors that I write this. I am especially thankful to the photographers, videographers and Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio for making possible our coverage at Censored News.
I look forward to the global work ahead.
Brenda Norrell, publisher, Censored News

Excerpt from the article An activist is accused of firing a gun at Standing Rock. It belonged to her love, an FBI Informant, by Will Parrish, The Intercept.

Sara Jumping Eagle, a physician on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation who was among the first DAPL opponents arrested in August, said the heavy-handed law enforcement response at Standing Rock was not altogether surprising. “There’s a long history of the U.S. labeling people who stand up as terrorists, so some of us figured they were gonna use those same tactics against this movement as well,” she said.
Jumping Eagle was among some two dozen activists featured on an early blueprint for the intelligence operation at the North Dakota fusion center, a “links chart on leaders of the movement,” obtained by The Intercept via public records request. The document mapped out connections between DAPL opponents purportedly affiliated with the Red Warrior and Sacred Stone camps, two of the main nerve centers of pipeline resistance on the Northern Great plains. Nearly everyone on the chart is an indigenous person.
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