GO TO: Police Brutality | Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | Columns | Features

UPDATE: The Dale Hughes Story Suspicious Maneuvers by Police and District Attorney's Office

by Karen Saari

Police fabrications:
All we know for sure is that Dale Hughes was gunned down by the Santa Rosa Police Department on the night of November 19, 1997 at a bus stop at the corner of Sebastopol Road and Santa Rosa Avenue. Beyond that all of the details are in dispute. The police have one version and, according to the family, eyewitnesses have a very different one.

Police version: According to the Santa Rosa police, Officer Gregory Wojcik was on routine patrol when he approached Dale because he was engaged in suspicious activity in an area notorious for drug activity. All along police have contended that Dale was a felon and an "ex-con" who suddenly turned and opened fire on a lone cop who then shot and killed him.

Dale was neither a felon or an "ex-con." According to his parents, Dale had a run-in with the law when he was 19 and served some time in jail at night after work. Spending a few nights in the slammer (after work no less!) hardly qualifies one to be called an "ex-con." At the time of that incident, the family's attorney arranged for those records to be sealed.

At the time of his death, Dale was employed as a tugboat captain for Bay and Delta Towing in San Francisco Bay. He had also served in Desert Storm and had participated in the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup. Dale held both a federal license and a Merchant Marine card; neither could have been issued to him if he was a convicted felon.

Eyewitness reports contradict police version:
The day after Dale was killed, the family initiated their own private investigation. Dale's father, a former police officer, hired an attorney and a private investigator and ordered an independent autopsy. Even though the family's version has been presented to the local mainstream press, that paper has failed to conduct an investigation into the family's allegations and have dutifully defended the police version of events.

According to the family, numerous eyewitnesses have come forward to them with an entirely different story. They report that someone, probably a police informant, had called police about a minor altercation Dale had with someone hassling him. Probably thinking that Dale was a drug dealer, four cops arrived at the scene without lights and sirens. They sneaked up on Dale and opened fire on him without warning. In the ensuing shoot-out, Officer Wojcik was wounded by "friendly fire" and a bystander was shot in the leg.

There are even reports that Dale was severely wounded but still alive when the ambulances arrived. It has been said that a final fatal shot was fired after paramedics left the scene. Further, the officer who police claim acted alone may not even have fired his weapon.

DA holds press conference:
On Thursday, April 9, 1997, nearly five months after the killing, the Sonoma County District Attorney's office held a press conference to report they had completed their so-called investigation and determined the shooting was a "justifiable homicide." The police still have not released their report to the family. In other words, the police have yet to present one shred of forensic evidence to the family or the public which would support their contentions.

Eyewitnesses jailed:
On the day before the press conference on Wednesday, April 8, Donald Hughes, Dale's father, met one of the eyewitnesses at a cafe near the scene of the crime. Thirty minutes after leaving Mr. Hughes, that eyewitness was arrested for welfare fraud and taken to the local jail. When she arrived at the jail, she ran into another one of the eyewitnesses who had come forward on Dale's behalf. Therefore, on the day of the press conference, two eyewitnesses who could contradict the police version of events were locked up in the local jail.

The young woman who was incarcerated on April 8 is the mother of a 6-week old infant. She reports there had been a bureaucratic mix-up with her payments from the welfare department and that the welfare fraud charges are completely bogus. She was cooperating with the district attorney's office to straighten things out. To assure herself that matters were being properly resolved, she had a conversation with the DA's office the day before her appointment with Mr. Hughes.

When the witness arrived at the jail, she expected to be released on her own recognizance. Two days after arriving there, she learned that not only would she not be let out on OR but her bail had been set at $4,000. At that point she called the Hughes family to let them know of her plight. On Saturday, the Hughes family posted her bail. Six hours later the witness was released and could be reunited with her baby.

Police manipulation of eyewitnesses:
Santa Rosa Avenue and Sebastopol Road where Dale was shot down is in one of Santa Rosa's toughest street corners. It is known as a hangout for prostitutes and drug users and dealers. Most people there are immigrants, have histories with the police or are ex-felons. All of them are without financial resources. Consequently, they are easily manipulated by the authorities.

Many people saw the shooting that night. It is likely that the police have coerced false reports from many of them to support their version. Considering the high potential for retaliation from the authorities, it is extraordinary that so many witnesses have come forward to the Hughes family with their accounts.

What are they up to?
The police manipulation of witnesses in this case has diabolical parallels with the case of Mumia Abu Jamal. Mumia was accused of killing a cop in Philadelphia's red light district. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death largely on false testimony the police coerced from prostitutes in the area. He remains on death row while the courts maneuver to suppress the new evidence.

Implicating Officer Wojcik for a killing he probably did not commit has alarming parallels with the New York case where Abner Louima was beaten and tortured by police. In that case some cops charged with the beating were in fact innocent. Speculation as to why the authorities would do this to one of their own could go on endlessly. But one thing is certain: the confusion the authorities create impedes all genuine efforts to get at the truth and obtain justice for the victims.

Police brutality is on the rise nationwide.
The silence of many (witnesses, district attorneys, medical personnel, public officials, mainstream media and the courts) allows it to continue. We can stop state-sponsored abuse by exposing it. To join in the resistance to police brutality, contact the October 22nd Coalition's local chapter in San Francisco at 415-864-5153.

The information in this report comes from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and interviews with several members of the Hughes family and an eyewitness. I have not conducted an my own investigation. KS

E-mail Karen Saari

Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | About The Free Press | Columns | Letters to the Editor |