2nd guilty plea in 1971 killing of S.F. officer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/07/BAKJ18JUNS.DTL
John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A second defendant has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in
connection with the 1971 slaying of a San Francisco police officer
nearly 40 years ago, but state prosecutors dismissed charges against
four other defendants.
That leaves just one man - Francisco Torres of New York - left to
stand trial for the killing of Sgt. John Young during an attack on
the San Francisco Police Department's Ingleside Station. "We didn't
give up," said David Druliner of the state attorney general's office,
which prosecuted the case. "We have two bulletproof pleas showing
guilt in a 39-year-old case."
A preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin Monday for six men who
were accused of planning and participating in the attack on
Ingleside, on Aug. 29, 1971. The start of the hearing was delayed as
prosecution and defense attorneys huddled. Later in the morning, the
hearing convened and it was announced that one defendant would enter
a plea and that charges were dismissed against four others.
Anthony Bottom, who is serving a life sentence in New York for the
murder in May 1971 of two New York City police officers, pleaded no
contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. He was
sentenced to a year in jail, which he has already served by awaiting
trial in San Francisco, and three years' probation.
As part of the plea deal, Bottom was not asked to testify against any
other defendants. He will be returned to New York to serve the rest
of his sentence there.
Druliner declined to say whether a plea had been offered to Torres. A
hearing will be held Aug. 10 to schedule his preliminary hearing. The
defense attorneys for all the defendants had split up the defense
work among them and must now consolidate all that work with the
attorney representing Torres, Chuck Bourdon.
Charges dropped
The defendants whose charges were dismissed were: Ray Boudreaux and
Henry W. "Hank" Jones of Altadena (Los Angeles County), Richard Brown
of San Francisco, and Harold Taylor of Panama City, Fla. The men said
little to reporters after the hearing, other than they were glad the
trial was over for them.
On June 29, defendant Herman Bell pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter in Young's death, and he will be put on probation for
that crime while he continues serving a life sentence for the murder
of the two New York police officers.
The defendants in the case are all alleged to have been members of
the Black Liberation Army, an off-shoot of the Black Panther Party.
The army, authorities said, saw itself at war with the United States
and had given to attacking police officers around the country in the
late '60s and early '70s. The group is thought to have been
responsible for the deaths of at least 15 police officers, including
Young and the two New York officers. Authorities believe nine men
were involved in the attack on Ingleside Station in August 1971 in
retaliation for the death of Black Panther field marshal George
Jackson at San Quentin Prison a week before.
Investigators said three men entered the station after setting off a
bomb to create a diversion at Stonestown Mall. One man fired a
shotgun blast at Sgt. Young, killing him and wounding a civilian
aide. Druliner said Monday that the plan was to kill every officer in
the building and then blow it up with a bomb.
Smudged fingerprint
Amid the noise and confusion of the attack, the bomb became
inoperable, and the men fled without having completed their mission,
authorities said. At the time, investigators said they found a
lighter and a fingerprint on the lighter but said it was smudged too
badly to make a match.
Three of the attack suspects were arrested in New Orleans and gave
incriminating statements. A judge ruled in 1975 that the statements
were inadmissible because they were made under torture.
In 1999, the Police Department took another run at the case.
Investigators used new technology to match the fingerprint. They now
say it belongs to Torres. In addition, one of the BLA members, who is
not being prosecuted, agreed to testify against his former comrades.
All of this culminated in the arrests of eight men in 2007. Since
then, some conspiracy charges were dropped, leading to all charges
against one man to be dropped.
Bourdon said the trial for his client, Torres, will hinge largely on
the fingerprint evidence. He said outside of court Monday that the
police exonerated his client when they checked the fingerprint on the
lighter in the early 1970s and that subsequent analyses by the FBI
have failed to match the print to Torres.
"Francisco Torres steadfastly maintains his innocence," Bourdon said.
--
E-mail John Koopman at jkoopman@sfchronicle.com.
--------
Harold Taylor Charges Dropped
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/50129262.html
Jul 7, 2009
A California judge has dropped the charges against a local man,
implicated in the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police officer.
The move came Monday in San Francisco, releasing 60-year-old Harold
Taylor for the potential murder charges he's faced, off-and-on, for
the last 38-years.
Taylor was arrested at his Callaway home on January 23rd, 2007. The
arrest was part of a coordinated nationwide operation in San
Francisco, New York and in Panama City.
Taylor and 6-others were arrested and charged with the murder of San
Francisco police Sergeant John Victor Young. He was killed at the
Ingleside police station in San Francisco in August 29th, 1971, in
what prosecutors described as a raid by Black Panthers and members of
the "Black Liberation Army".
Taylor and others were arrested back in 1971. Investigators said
Taylor planned the raid, in which the suspects had vowed to kill
everyone inside of the police station.
But the charges were dismissed after the judge ruled police beat
confessions out of a number of the suspects.
Taylor moved to Bay County in 1982, but California prosecutors never
lost track of him, or gave-up on the case. Months prior to his arrest
in 2007, Taylor refused to testify before a grand jury looking into
the 1971 murder, and was jailed for contempt of court.
After his arrest in 2007, the judge released Taylor on 350-thousand
dollars bond. He returned to Panama City where he was arrested in
December on drug charges.
He still has several cases pending against him in local court, but
the California murder charges are gone. The California judge also
dropped charges against 3-of Taylor's co-defendants.
2-of the original San Francisco-8 have entered pleas in the murder
case, one of those Monday, the other two weeks ago. A third is still
facing charges.
--------
Callaway man's murder charge dismissed in Black Panthers case
http://www.newsherald.com/news/dropped-75570-bay-francisco.html
July 06, 2009
By JON MILTIMORE / News Herald Writer
CALLAWAY Prosecutors dropped charges Monday against a Callaway man
and three others accused of involvement in a nearly 40-year-old bomb
plot that left a San Francisco police sergeant dead.
The charges stemmed from a 1971 attack on the San Francisco Police
Department's Ingleside station using an explosive. Though the bomb
failed to detonate, 51-year-old Sgt. John V. Young was shot in the
neck and shoulder and bled to death. A female desk clerk also was
wounded in the attack.
On Monday, the California Attorney General's Office dropped murder
charges against Harold Taylor, 60, of Callaway; Ray Boudreaux and
Henry W. "Hank" Jones, both of Los Angeles; and Richard Brown, of San
Francisco. At the time they were charged, authorities said the
suspects had ties to the Black Liberation Army, a violent offshoot of
the Black Panthers.
"Certainly, the state's decision was unexpected," said Jones' defense
attorney, John Philipsborn. "Our hope all along, especially for the
four whose cases were dismissed, was that there was not enough
evidence to pursue cases against them."
A spokesman for California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office
declined to comment Monday on why the charges were dropped.
Another defendant in the case, Anthony Bottom, pleaded guilty to a
reduced charge. Bottom, who is serving a life sentence for the murder
of two New York City police officers, pleaded no contest to
conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to a
year in jail, which he already has served by awaiting trial in San
Francisco, and three years' probation. As part of the plea deal,
Bottom was not asked to testify against any other defendants. He will
be returned to New York to serve the rest of his sentence there.
On June 29, defendant Herman Bell pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter in Young's death, and he was put on probation for that
crime, while he continues serving a life sentence, also for the
murder of two New York police officers.
That leaves just one man, Francisco Torres, of New York, left to
stand trial for the murder of Sgt. John Young, a case that had been
virtually dormant for nearly 15 years until it was reopened in 1999.
In 1975, several suspected had confessions ruled inadmissible in
court when evidence surfaced the confessions might have been the
result of torture. The case was closed until 1999, when new forensic
evidence surfaced.
By that time, Taylor had lived in Bay County for nearly 20 years. Bay
County authorities arrested Taylor at his 101 Swan Ave. home in
January 2007 on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Though the latter charge was dropped because Taylor's attorney
successfully argued the statute of limitations had expired, Taylor
was extradited to California and incarcerated at the San Francisco
County Jail the following month on a charge of murder. He bonded out
later that year and returned to Bay County.
In December 2007, Taylor landed back in jail when he was caught on
video purchasing a rock of cocaine from an undercover deputy. He was
sentenced in October 2008 to two years of probation and court costs.
--------
Former Auburn inmate pleads in cop killing
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2009/07/07/latest_news/latestnews03.txt
Monday, July 6, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - Prosecutors have dismissed murder charges against
four alleged ex-members of the Black Liberation Army accused of
killing a San Francisco police officer in 1971.
The charges were dismissed Monday against Henry Jones, Ray Boudreaux,
Richard Brown and Harold Taylor in the killing of Sgt. John V. Young
during an attack on a police station.
Another defendant, Anthony Bottom, pleaded no contest Monday to
conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter in Young's death as part
of a deal with prosecutors.
Bottom and Herman Bell were convicted of murdering two New York City
police officers and are currently serving prison sentences.
Bottom had been serving 25 years to life at Auburn Correctional
Facility since Nov. 16, 1977, but in 2007, Cayuga County Judge Thomas
Leone executed a California warrant to extradite him to San Francisco.
At the time of the extradition hearing, Bottom argued that he was
serving time at a California jail when the murder occurred and
therefore could not conspire in the murder.
"I couldn't possibly have been engaged in conspiracy with these men,"
he said in Cayuga County Court in March 2007.
But Leone said his role was not to determine the validity of the
charges, as that was outside the scope of his authority.
"Quite honestly, I agree with you," Leone said, "You weren't there,
but that's for Californian courts to decide."
In addition to Bottom, Francisco Torres, of New York, is the other
defendant charged in the San Francisco murder.
--------
Charges dismissed against four in 1971 murder; fifth man pleads no contest
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
July 7, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO Four former Black Liberation Army members accused of
the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police sergeant walked free
Monday, while a fifth man pleaded no contest to reduced charges.
Anthony Jalil Bottom, 57, raised a fist to his courtroom supporters
after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors dismissed murder charges against Bottom, who has been
incarcerated since 1971 for the murder of two New York City police
officers. Bottom was not present during the Aug. 29, 1971, attack on
the Ingleside Police Station, but prosecutors say he helped plan it.
Charges were dropped against Richard Brown, 68, of San Francisco;
Altadena residents Henry Jones, 73, and Ray Boudreaux, 66; and Harold
Taylor, 60, of Panama City, Fla. The dropping of the charges was a
condition of Bottom's plea agreement, though prosecutors said it was
due to insufficient evidence against the four men.
"This plea today is a gift that Jalil gave to the rest of his
comrades to put this nightmare behind us," said an emotional Brown
outside the courtroom.
A final defendant, Queens, N.Y., resident Francisco Torres, 60,
remains charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Sgt. John Young was killed by a shotgun blast after nine gunmen
attacked the Ingleside Station. Prosecutors say the suspects, all
members of a militant offshoot of the Black Panthers, then tried
unsuccessfully to blow up the station. The alleged triggerman, Herman
Bell, 61, pleaded guilty last week to voluntary manslaughter and
received five years probation. Like Bottom, Bell is also in prison
for the slayings of the New York City officers.
Special Assistant Attorney General David Druliner said the plea deal
was the result of trying a case 39 years after the crime. Charges
were filed against eight men in 2007 after new evidence was
discovered. The charges were later dropped against one defendant.
"This plea is a reflection on the age of the case. It does not
reflect that I or my office somehow felt sorry for these defendants,"
Druliner said.
Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers
Association, said he had been skeptical state prosecutors could get
enough evidence to convict the men. However, he said the two
convictions prove the group was responsible for Young's death.
"These guys killed John Young and the guilty pleas take away all
doubt of that," Delagnes said.
--
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