Scapegoat 6

SCAPEGOAT 6

Detroit's Federal Grand Jury has recessed until at least July after an unsuccessful attempt to hogtie the Psychedelic Scapegoat 6, who were subpoenaed to appear before the 19 member panel. Most of the 6, including Ken Kelley and Terry Taube, of Detroit, were involved in the Mayday anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C.

All six witnesses refused to answer any of the questions asked by special federal prosecutor Guy Goodwin, but were not cited for contempt of court, as was expected. Attorney Buck Davis of the National. Lawyers Guild suggested that the reason for not issuing any contempt sentences was that the government fears that such tactics would only lead to the disclosure of their illegal wiretaps. Davis said: "As long as no one is jailed for contempt, there's no way we can force the government to reveal in court whether it used illegal wiretapping to obtain any evidence. "

The issue of illegal wiretapping by the government will go before the U.S. Supreme Court sometime next winter. Judge Damon Keith of Detroit ruled that all wiretaps made without a court order infringe on our 4th amendment rights. The government took the case to the Appellate Courts, which upheld Keith's decision. The government has said that they will not disclose any of their wiretaps. They apparently don't want their devious practices exposed to the people.

The six witnesses were told that they would be subpoenaed in the near future.

Buck said that the government prosecutor asked questions that concerned the bombing of the Capital Building. The wide range of questions included ones about alleged meetings that went on before the bombing and the names of people they met during Mayday.

Davis added that "Some of the wildest line of questioning came out during the final hours of the sessions. " Goodwin, parroting a Perry Mason scene, suddenly asked Larry Canada: "Who sent you to Ottawa, Canada earlier this year to turn over secret documents to the Red Chinese ?" Davis added: "Guy Goodwin is obviously beginning to demonstrate the government's limitless fantasies of paranoia."

Grand juries are convening in major cities all over Amerika. In Washington, D. C. Marleen Fishlowitz and Carol Evans were released without bail pending a full hearing on their appeals of their contempt citation for refusing to testify. Both were subpoenaed concerning the Capital bombing. Carol will appear before the court on July 16th to argue that her contempt citation is unconstitutional on grounds the evidence that was used against her was gained by illegal wiretaps. And illegal wiretapping in New York has kept Stu Albert, Judy Gumbo, and 9 other witnesses from appearing before the grand jury.

Defense attornies again said that the Justice Department probably dismissed the N. Y. subpoenas believing they would be forced to give up the logs of their wiretaps to the defense. They just don't want to reveal the extent of their illegal activity, breaking the facade of our "free, democratic society" into more pieces than they have already.