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Racist Frame-Up: Lawton Trial

By VVAW

Gary Lawton's second trial is well under way at this time, but the prosecution has managed to offer little in the way of credible evidence. Lawton and Larrie Gardiner are being tried for the murder of two police officers which occurred in Riverside, Calif. over two years ago. Since their arrests, the government has done everything imagineable to frame these two brothers with the shootings for the simple reason that Gary Lawton was a much too effective community organizer.

This trial of Gary (the first trial in Indio ended with a hung jury of 9-3 for acquittal) is proceeding rapidly. A few of the prosecution's gallery of unending witnesses are worth noting as examples of the racism, and blatant repression which is going on in the Riverside courtroom. The prosecution has put a long line of police officers on the stand to testify against Gary, and one of the most important is Randall Lund who was the first officer at the scene of the murder. Lund testified in Indio that he had stopped Gary in the park near the scene of the shootings and told him to go home because he thought that Gary was a white man and he wanted to insure Gary's safety by getting him off the streets. Lund didn't file a written report about seeing Gary until the day after Lawton's arrest. In the Indio trial, Lund stated that he really couldn't be sure if he had seen Lawton in the park and wasn't positive that he was telling the truth. He also testified to having been on the look-out for "niggers" on the night of the murder, and stated that "what I want to kill is a nigger right now." In the Riverside trial, Lund has continually impeached his testimony. Now he claims that he had been in the park prior to the shootings and had stopped Gary and told him that the park wasn't a safe place for a white man. Under cross-examination, however, Lund again admitted that he wasn't sure if he actually remembered seeing Gary in the park at all, or if he had just imagined that he had seen him when Lawton was arrested for the crime.

Following Lund's testimony, the prosecution put a series of witnesses on the stand to try to substantiate the testimony given by Lund. One afternoon in the hall outside the courtroom, a spectator at the trial heard the District Attorney tell a witness what to say on the stand relating to Lund's testimony. The spectator reported this to the judge, and for some strange reason that we have yet to figure out, the District Attorney himself called this spectator to the stand and asked him to testify that he had overheard the D.A. coaching a witness. If that is an indication of the D.A.'s level of mentality, then Gary should have nothing to worry about.

But stranger things have occurred since this specific incident. On Aug. 14th, Jonathan Clark Cameron was called to the stand. Cameron had been in a segregation cell at one time with Gary and he testified that Lawton had at one time confessed to him about the murders and running away from the scene of the shooting. During his testimony Cameron became very emotional and began crying. Gary took the liberty to stand up and shout: "You'd better cry, you lying son of a bitch," and the judge let the remark pass with only a mild reprimand. Upon cross-examination it was determined that Cameron had been convicted of five felonies. He stated that he had turned to a life of crime because his wife had hypnotized him at one time and he couldn't stop himself. Cameron also admitted to having been in several mental institutions after attempting to kill himself 3 or 4 times. So much for that witnesses credibility.

The witness who followed Cameron succeeded in providing even more entertainment for the jury and spectators. Next on the stand was a person once known as Bobby Ramirez, who was also in jail with Gary shortly after the arrest. This witness testified that Gary told him that they couldn't prove anything against him because he had run away from the shootings too fast. Ramirez also testified that Gary had told him the entire case was a frame-up and that the D.A.'s office would resort to buying off witnesses if that became necessary to convict him. The problem with Ramirez's credibility is that he has been arrested three times since he was in jail with Gary, with the most recent charge being prostitution. It seems that with the help of modern science, Bobby Ramirez has been transformed into Mrs. Joanie Marie, and in the future will be residing in women's prisons.

The prosecution has 30 more witnesses to call before resting their case. However, if the remainder of the witnesses include people with a history of mental illness, liars, and transvestites, then the defense should have little to worry about. In fact, one member of the defense committee expressed the feeling that the prosecution has done more to free Gary than they could ever have imagined. It seems that the District Attorney has been dragging people from the depths of the earth in his attempts to silence the community work of Gary Lawton. The fact that their credibility is zero seems to be of little importance to the D.A., but it should be clear by now that no sane jury in world could convict Gary and Larrie of this crime with the sort of evidence that they have been offered.

The trial is expected to last until the first part of October. Though the end is in sight, the defense is still in desperate need of funds. Send your contributions or information requests to: Riverside Defense Committee, P.O. Box 5154, San Bernardino, California 92412.