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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1981)
Portland Observer, October 15,1961 Page 11 Keeping track o f the money S H A R O N H A YN ES (Photo: Richard B row n) G rassroot News. N . W . ~ B u ii- nesses, organization* and individu als can always use a good account ing service. It was reported last month that operation PU S H lost it* entire government funding because o f its refusal to let the government look at its books. So, for the non p ro fit this need is o f decisive im portance in securing and m aintain ing contributions. In the Northwest there** an ac counting service that provides book keeping services geared to assist the non-profit organization in keeping its books. Sharon Haynes, proprie tor o f Larue H aynes’ A ccounting Service, explains the premise o f her accounting service: " W e established ourselves about six months ago and our function is to help n o n -p ro fit groups w ith their accounting ser vice. We are out in the streets to let n o n p ro fits know the type o f ac counting service that they should use. This way their donors could see that their money is being used for the purpose that was intended. A donor could look and see how the money is spent and i f records are kept, then you could track down every penny. Having a system like this could increase the num ber o f people that would'give to your o r ganization. Larue Accounting ser vice also wants to make sure that the nonprofits aren’t short-changed if som ethin < were to happen in our government system where their non profit status would be questioned." The exam ple Haynes used was churches. A change in the system could alter their non-profit status. " I f the government were to come audit their books, would we lose a lot o f our churches? We are going to have to decide what makes a church tax-exempt.’’ Although her primary concern is churches, the whole area o f non p ro fit* could benefit from tighter accounting procedure*. " T h e amount o f people asking for tax de deductible c o n trib u tio n * has in creased. The people competing for charitable funds have to keep abreast o f why people give. One item a don or would look at is how y o u ’ ve spent the money you’ve been given. I f the books show that the money has been spent responsibly, they will be more likely to give and tell others to give.” How responsive is the non-profit com m unity to this accounting ap proach? "T h e community has been very responsive. I ’ve had experience working for one o f Oregon’s oldest non-profit schools and their respon siveness was high. 1 sent out a mailer and have received h a lf back. You see, most would have to pay $5,000 to get their books corrected by an accounting firm . A t L arue we charge them a very small fee which goes to m aterial costs and 29 per cent o f the fee is donated back to the organization. We believe in giving something back to the community because we know that it ’ s just like giving it back to our communities, our families and ourselves.” T o find out more about Larue writ P.O. Box 11543, Portland. OR 97211 or phone 287-2879. FBI faces m inority harassment charges I 6 t i r t t I n l i t * f t f P /I Z Z I Z l/Z O t t t A t (Continued from page I column 6) misconduct without the conducting o f a comprehensive in q u iry into whether or not the individual mea sures form part o f a pattern." The report says that much of A m nesty In te rn a tio n a l's work is for people imprisoned for obviously po litic a l reasons. When people are charged under laws banning the ex pression o f opinions or membership in p o litic al org an izatio n s, as happens in some countries, it is rela tively easy to decide that they are prisoners o f conscience. This is not what happens in the U .S ., it adds. W hen people arc convicted on charges o f crim inal offenses, it is often harder to establish whether the reason for prosecution is really political. Evidence o f FB I misconduct, it says, may not at first seem to affect the questions o f whether a crime was committed, and by whom. But when that evidence is ruled out, the court may not be in a position to de termine whether there is a pattern that influenced the preparation o f the case and the ultimate conviction. In the case o f Black Panther leader Elmer Pratt, it emerged long after his 1972 trial that he had been a target o f C O IN T E L P R O . The FBI denied this as late as 1979, but it lat er became clear from official docu ments. C O IN T E L P R O went beyond in telligence gathering to try to disrupt target groups. As used against Black nationalist organizations and acti vists, it was intended to discredit and demoralize them, to prevent the growth o f such organizations and the rise of any leader who could un ify the movement. Violence among Black groups was fomented. Arrests and prosecutions were used to in timidate and demoralize, according to records which have since become public. A U .S. Senate committee, com menting on C O IN T E L P R O , later said: "Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined con stitutional rights o f Americans to free speech, association and p ri vacy.” The Amnesty International report notes: "Undoubtedly there is a clear distinction between the 'chilling' of constitutional rights and (he impris onment o f individuals on political grounds. One object o f an inquiry would be to ascertain whether C O - IN T E I PRO, which certainly did the former, also resulted in the latter.” m K .l m * a b - ! . . J m ■ Elmer Pratt, a leader o f the Black Panthers in southern C a lifo rn ia , was targeted for "n e u tra liza tio n ” under C O IN T E L P R O . The report cites a long list o f irregularities in connection with his case, the latest o f which date from long after the trial and the end o f C O IN T E L P R O . Still trying to clear himself, Elmer Pratt argued that records o f F B I surveillance would show that he was attending a meeting in another city, Oakland, on the day the murder of which he was accused took place in Santa Monica, December 18, 1968. The FBI first replied that it had no inform ation about Elmer Pratt be fore 1969. When documents later came to light showing that there was surveillance o f the Black Panther leaders in precisely the period of the murder, the FBI was reported by an appeals judge to have said that “ the transcripts o f the conversations re corded by these telephone taps have been lost or destroyed.” At the time o f the trial, it was not disclosed that the chief prosecution witness, Julius Butler, had been re garded by the FBI as a "probation ary racial in fo rm an t.” He testified that Elmer Pratt had confessed the murder to him. I he FBI had planted informants in Elmer Pratt's defense team and it received information about prepara tion o f the defense case. In 1980, an F B I document emerged indicating that the FBI had passed to the Los Angeles police some 14 months before the trial in formation about an alleged second suspect in the m urder, and that it had information about the suspect’s id en tity. This had not been made known to the defense. Elmer Pratt's lawyers have said that the jury should also have heard evidence showing that another w it ness, who identified Elmer Pratt at the trial, appeared to have identified someone else earlier as the assailant. In cases involving the American Indian Movement (A IM ), Amnesty International points both to irregu larities in the F B I’ s actions against Richard M ars h all and to a back ground o f misconduct and alleged abuses against other Indians arrest ed in connection with an upsurge of unrest in South Dakota in 1975. M yrtle Poor Bear was a witness whose testim ony was used by the F B I and state authorities against both Richard Marshall and Leonard Peltier, another Indian later con Arbitration Report Next week; W hy the city lost • - a « ■ — - victed o f murder. She testified at Richard Marshall’s trial that he had confessed murder to her. E a rlier, her testimony that she had witnessed other murders had been used by the F B I to extrad ite Leonard P eltier from Canada so that he could be put on trial. M yrtle Poor Bear later re pudiated her testimony against both men, swearing that it was false. She said she testified against Richard M arshall after the FB I threatened her life and that o f her daughter. At different stages, both prosecu tion and defense argued that Myrtle Poor Bear was not a credible w it ness. In the Marshall case, the South Dakota Supreme Court said a retrial was unnecessary: but the Chief Jus tice, dissenting, said the jury might have reached a d iffe re n t decision without M y rtle Poor Bear’ s testi mony. He said the defense did not know o f her "apparently false a ffi davits" and her "tru e relationship with the F B I,” and that her medical history, which was not produced for the trial, "would probably have had a substantial effect on her c red i b ilit y ." M edical records and her family's testimony, he said, " in d i cate I ha« Poor Bear is a seriously disturbed young woman who often fantasizes and tells stories and lies." The prosecution did not use M yr tle Poor Bear as a witness at Leon ard Peltier's trial; she had already contradicted herself. The F B I’s use o f her testimony however to extra dite Leonard Peltier from Canada led an appeal court to com m ent: “ What happened happened in such a way that it gives some credence to the claim o f t h e . . .In d ia n people that the United States is willing to resort to any tactic in order to bring somebody back to the United States from C a n a d a ----- A nd if they are willing to do that, they must be will ing to fabricate other evidence. And it’s no wonder that 11nduyi peoplej are unhappy and disbelieve the things that happened in our courts when things like this happen.” G overnm ent witnesses against Leonard Peltier testified that FBI agents threatened, intim idated or physically abused them when ques tioning them about the murders early in (he investigation. Among other aspects o f the F B I’s actions against accused Indians, the Amnesty International report cites the in filtratio n o f defendants' de fense teams by paid informants. Re plying to appeals on these grounds, courts decided that they did not have evidence that significant infor m ation gathered by these in fo r mants was actu ally passed back through the FBI to the prosecution; but the Amnesty International re port says that in the context o f a pattern o f FBI bad faith and harass ment, the presence o f an informant in the defense team, with an oppor tunity to get confidential inform a tion on the defense case, requires careful study. "A m n e s ty In te rn a tio n a l," the new report says, "does not have any view about the need for any particu lar domestic intelligence investiga tion, but it wonders what conclusion should be drawn when a federal government agency (the F B I) con ducts such an investigation and at the same tim e appears w illin g to fabricate evidence against its ‘ ta r gets and to withhold inform ation which, according to law , should have been disclosed.” After citing a number o f FB I ac tions connected w ith the accused which were not disclosed during tria l, including the F B I's relations w ith witnesses, the report com ments: "Allegations against the FBI o f a pattern o f FBI intimidation of A IM must be considered against this background. " H o w widespread is such FBI misconduct? Amnesty International does not know.” In the Peltier and Marshall cases, inconsistencies in M y rtle Poor Bear’ s evidence, her retractions, and the evidence o f other irregularities were not considered decisive by courts hearing the individual cases. Amnesty International argues that the two cases considered together, w ith examples from other cases, give enough cause for concern about the F B I’s role and the effects o f that role on trials to point to the need for a broad, independent examination. The Amnesty International report makes the following recommenda tions to the United States G overn ment: 1. Amnesty International recom mends that the U n ited Slates Government establish an indepen dent commission o f inquiry to ex amine thoroughly and im partially the matters raised in this report. 2. The commission o f in q u iry should examine the effect o f the F B I’s domestic intelligence program " C O IN T E L P R O ” on crim in al prosecutions o f persons who were "targeted” under it. Amnesty Inter national considers that the case o f Elmer Pratt, including the role and conduct o f the F B I, should form part o f the material studied by the commission o f inquiry. 3. The commission o f inquiry should consider the conjunction o f FBI domestic intelligence investiga tion o f members o f the American Indian Movement with the irregular and inappropriate F B I conduct in prosecutions against them. Amnesty International considers that the case o f Richard Marshall, including the role and conduct o f the FBI. should form part o f the material studied by the commissin of inquiry. 4. The commission o f inq u iry should consider whether the politi cal views o f any citizens, or the F B I’ s attitude toward those views, have been a factor in prosecutions or the preparation o f cases against them and, if so, seek ways o f pre venting this from occurring in future. I Pacific Citizen Power o f the Week Galvin Irby is a Legal Rating Specialist for the federal Veterans Administration. Irby is a native of Youngstown, Ohio. After high school he joined the Army and served three years overseas. After returning home he graduated from Youngstown University. Irby studied law at Howard Law School, where he was part of the law team that researched the landmark school desegregation cases including Brown vs Board of Education. He studied under such leading educators as Thurgood Marshall and James Nesbit Upon graduation from Law School, Irby moved to Portland. He was first employed with the Oregon Employment Division. Irby is on the Board of Regents for Pacific Lutheran College, is an advisor to the Board of Control for Concordia College, is vice- president of Alpha Phi Alpha, and is a member of Sigma Delta Tau, a national legal fraternity. He and his wife, Virginia, have four chil dren. His words of advice to the young: "F irs t, don’t be afriad to dream. Never be unsure of who you are." (Photo: Richard Brown) Pacific Power B R O U G H T T O YOU BY ! ¡ATTENTIONI! HIGH SCHOOL S E N IO R S - PARENTS-CO UNSELO RS W AN T TO KNOW MORE ABOUT W HAT BLACK COLLEGES OFFER? Come to The Second Annual Black Colleges Conference: BLACK COLLEGES: AN ALTERNATIVE Hilton Hotel Saturday, October 24 For further information call June Key Portland 287-9669 Adults $10 (includes luncheon) Students $5
