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Gainesville: Trial Date Moved To July 31

By VVAW

Pre-trial hearings for the Gainesville trial were held before U.S. District Court Judge Winston Arnow in Pensacola, Fla., on June 20-23 and on July 6th. During these hearings it became apparent that the Gainesville 8 will be tried in an overtly hostile court.

A major thrust of the defense is to show the relationship between the trial of the Eight and the Watergate scandal. The defense has been attempting to show that the trial is yet another piece of the conspiracy on the part of the Committee to Re-Elect the President to cover up its crimes in the Watergate break-ins and buggings. Nevertheless, Judge Arnow has overuled every attempt to tie this trial in with the Watergate scandal. Arnow feels that the trial is not, under any circumstances a political trial. He even went so far as to quash the subpoenas of those witnesses called to testify in connection with the Watergate conspiracy and attempted frame-up of the Gainesville 8.

Arnow has similarly opposed all attempts by the defense to prove the use of illegal electronic surveillance in the case. He summarily refused to allow witnesses from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the FBI, and other federal agencies to testify. Guy Goodwin, the government prosecutor, falsely denied the existence of any government record of surveillance on the Gainesville 8. Only after two instances of federal electronic surveillance were revealed by other sources did Goodwin reluctantly admit their existence. Despite Goodwin's admission, Arnow maintained that "there is nothing in the record to show me there is any illegal electronic surveillance in this case."

The changing of the trial date from July 17th to July 31st, took place at the June 20-23 hearings. The reason for this was that Arnow wanted to hold the July 6th hearings on possible contempt citations against the defense and their attorneys. Arnow is still considering implementing various injunctions to prevent the defendants from creating an "undue" amount of attention around the trial. Given the history of conspiracy trials the best defense one has is to publicly expose the truth of the case and try to amass as much public support as possible. The alternative is to allow the government to hold their witch-hunting conspiracy trials whenever they feel like it. Arnow, however, feels that the demonstrations being called by VVAW/WSO to coincide with the beginning of the trial would "impede" the process of justice as they would be "tampering with the jurors."

Thus, at the July 6th hearing, motions were heard to consider court actions against the Eight. After testimony that the defense was not involved in planning the demonstration in Gainesville, but that the national organization of VVAW/WSO was doing the planning, Goodwin began an illegal cross-examination of the witness which ignored the question of jury tampering. Goodwin asked for all the names of all the people working on the action in support of the Gainesville 8. As this was a clear violation of 1st amendment rights of freedom of association, the witness refused to answer any of Goodwin's questions. Resulting from this repressive line of Goodwin's questioning, an outburst arose among the VVAW/WSO members in the courtroom. Six of the defendants and one other VVAW/WSO member were found in contempt and immediately sent to jail. Arnow later had them brought back to the courtroom and suspended their sentences with a proviso that they be on good behavior until the end of the trial.

Arnow's arrogance was not only directed against VVAW/WSO. He tried to even things up with contempt citations against CBS. A CBS courtroom artist had previously drawn sketches from memory of the courtroom scenes. While taking photos in court is illegal, drawing sketches is not. Nonetheless, Arnow fined CBS $500 plus costs. Clearly, Winston Arnow does not care for the press, or the public, closely scrutinizing this trial.

Overall, the general atmosphere in the courtroom is one of extreme hostility as Arnow constantly belittles and harasses defense attorneys. At one point, he even threatened the attorneys with a $25 fine for each question they asked that he didn't like. A defendant noted that "justice might get a little expensive at that rate." Because of Arnow's attitude, one of the defense attorneys has asked the judge to step aside in the trial. Arnow's reply was that "there is no hostility" and "the court will not disqualify itself." The truth is that Arnow really isn't the problem. The problem is that the courts are controlled by people such as those in the Nixon gang, the Mitchells, Haldemans, and Guy Goodwins. In any case, our defense is and always has been the people. The more people that are made aware of what's going on with the trial, the less ability the government will have to continue to blatantly subvert the judicial system.