FBI Official ‘Revolted’ Over Benefit for Indian Convicted of 2 Murders

Southern California’s top FBI official said Friday that he is “utterly revolted” over an Orange County concert aimed at raising money for an American Indian activist convicted of “cold-bloodedly” killing two FBI agents.

Outraged by publicity surrounding a benefit concert for Leonard Peltier, Richard T. Bretzing, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, sent a letter Friday to Steve Redfearn, general manager of the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa. The concert is scheduled for Tuesday.

“I would like to believe the sponsors and participants of this program are not aware of the facts surrounding the murder of agents (Ronald) Williams and (Jack) Coler,” Bretzing wrote.

“Los Angeles FBI personnel attended the funerals of Ron Williams and Jack Coler, who were originally from the Los Angeles area, and saw the grief and despair on the faces of their families and friends. I wonder where Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson and Robin Williams were on that day?”

Performers Scheduled

Singers Nelson, Mitchell, Kristofferson and comedian Williams are all scheduled to appear at the concert, dubbed “Cowboys for Indians and Justice for Leonard Peltier.”

Peltier, a founder of the American Indian Movement, has become a cause celebre since his 1977 first-degree murder conviction. FBI agents said Peltier ambushed two agents who arrived at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to serve an arrest warrant for a robbery suspect.

Peltier is serving two life terms at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary for murdering the agents in the bloody, 1975 shoot-out that also left one Indian dead.

Bretzing declined to be interviewed or elaborate on why he wrote the letter. However, FBI spokesman Fred Regan said Bretzing “doesn’t do these things lightly.” Regan said Bretzing has no plans to take any other action in relationship to the concert.

Documents Released

Peltier’s defense committee has continued to pursue his case based on information in 15,000 pages of FBI documents released in 1982 as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Peltier’s motion for a new trial. In 1986, a federal appeals court in St. Louis denied Peltier’s motion for a new trial, while at the same time acknowledging “the newly discovered evidence indicating (that the FBI’s key ballistics expert) may not have been telling the truth.”

That motion had been supported by dozens of U.S. congressmen and the National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers, among other groups.

The appeals court denied the request for a new trial, saying that despite the “possibility” that the jury might have reached a different verdict based on the additional evidence, legal precedent “requires us to find that it is reasonably probable the jury would have acquitted Peltier had it been aware of this evidence. . . . Recognizing the difficulty of putting ourselves in the position of the jury, we hold that it probably would not have acquitted him,” court records state.

Bristles at Decision

One of Peltier’s defense attorneys, Lewis Gurwitz, still bristles at the appeals court decision.

“What the hell kind of legal standard is that to be measure against in the future? How can you tell someone what probability is versus what possibility is? . . . We’re now in the process of figuring out what further legal actions we can take in the courts and continuing to explore every area we can for Leonard’s eventual release.”

Gurwitz also said several thousand pages of additional information on Peltier’s case were withheld by the FBI on a national security exemption.

“We’re all amazed at what national security has to do with a gunfight between Indians and the FBI in the middle of South Dakota,” Gurwitz said.

‘It’s a Free Country’

“He (Bretzing) is just one voice, one individual,” said Karen Kossechomy, office manager for Peltier’s defense committee in Kansas City, Mo. “It’s a free country and people can support whoever they want to. He doesn’t have to go to this concert if he doesn’t want to.”

None of the entertainers scheduled to appear at the concert could be reached for comment on Bretzing’s letter late Friday. But actor Peter Coyote, one of the concert organizers, said: “They are artists but they are also citizens and they take their roles as citizens seriously. They all asked for background information so they could study the case.”

Coyote said he and other supporters believe that Peltier did not get a fair trial. “The concert (advertising) says ‘Justice for Leonard Peltier’--we’re not saying he’s innocent and that he should be released, we’re just saying he should get a new trial,” Coyote said in a recent interview.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s a dead middle of the road issue: Either an American has a right to a fair trial or he doesn’t.”