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

Is Bear Lincoln Guilty of Anything?
Waiting for the Verdict

by Johanna Lynch

Journalists are not supposed to write with a slant, unless they choose to write an opinion piece and tell it like it is; or like they subjectively think it is. Simply posing the question is Eugene "Bear" Lincoln guilty of anything, implies that the writer has serious doubts about the case.

43 year-old Eugene Bear Lincoln is on trial in Ukiah charged with the murder of a police officer, Deputy Robert "Bob" Davis who died on the night of April 14, 1995. Lincoln's long-time friend, Leonard "Acorn" Peters also died that night during the shootings that neighbors reported sounded like a war zone: "M-16s -- it sounded like five or six weapons going off at the same time." Since Lincoln's arraignment in 1995 one Mendocino journalist, Mark Heimann, who writes for the Anderson Valley Advertiser, has followed the case from the beginning admitting he had suspicions about the police evidence and charges from day one.

Such honesty from a journalist is startling. On an early September day I sat on a bench under the only shade tree in the hot town of Ukiah, outside the Mendocino Courthouse talking to Heimann about the trial, his concerns about what he calls the white-bread jury, and the conflicting testimony given by deputy Dennis Miller that sent Heimann's hair up on the back of his neck, early on in the trial. "Miller, an 18-year veteran, was EMPHATIC that only one man was on that road that night, (he changed his story four days later after learning that Peters' gun had not been fired) claiming he was confused. Now he's convinced he saw two men."

Surrounded by Native Americans, including Fred Short who was fasting to protest the incarceration of Leonard Peltier and the violent police tactics during the search for Bear Lincoln when he was on the run and hid for four months after the shootings on April 14, Heimann said, "People who read the AVA know they are getting a point of view, it's a lot more honest than reading something by a so-called "objective journalist" who poses as an unbiased reporter yet stacks the story with buzz-words like "accused cop killer."

It's not easy to write objectively sitting in a small courtroom whose sheriffs hover near the quiet family of Davis, reputed to have been a fair cop. Someone who was on friendly terms with residents on the Round Valley Reservation. In the same courtroom Native Americans, by blood and/or nurture, cousins, aunts, wives and mothers, sit solemnly, their black hair contrasting with the Lake County Judge Golden's pale skin. Bear Lincoln looks boyish for 43 and friends say "Mr. Bear" is gentle, loves to garden, ride horses across the hills, and teach the young people on the reservation about Native American lore and culture. Is this bit of information swaying the reporter who stares ahead at Lincoln's attorney, Tony Serra, focusing on his ratty, gray pony-tail, and crumpled gray suit? They say he's brilliant. How will his appearance affect the short-back-and-sides jury?

The Bear Lincoln trial has its mysteries that dumbfound family members, reporters, and trial watchers alike. Ambiguous details tangle up the Lincoln trial that even Hitchcock could never have invented. For example, the Prosecution claimed early on that four drops of blood that ran from the crime scene belonged to Lincoln. DNA, that dowdy, objective stickler, proved at least one drop of blood came from Davis. This tidbit of info, as journalists call it, proved that Deputy Miller lied when he said Davis never left his side. It might also prove that Davis was chasing someone from the scene? Deputy Miller was reputed to be a crack shot, but during one of the shootouts he accidentally shot his own police car!

In the May 10, 1995 AVA, Heimann asks cheekily, "What happened to the Shotgun?" referring not to Bear Lincoln's missing semiautomatic rifle, but to the shotgun carried in Miller's patrol vehicle. The Mendocino County Sheriff's office said the gun has been put back into service. Heimann concluded,

"This news came as a shock to the Peters family and their lawyer, Carlos Alcala. They contend that Leonard Peters was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun. Family members say a fist-size piece of the back of Peters skull is gone and that there were at least a dozen holes in the back of his head and neck."

The Prosecution claimed early in the trial that Peters pointed and shot a 30-30 pig gun at the two sheriffs that night that many remember as dark, but the helicopter pilot who arrived after the shootings reported as so brightly lit by moonlight he didn't need to turn on his lights to land. The 30-30 was never fired and was mysteriously reported, by the sheriffs, to be lying under Peters' body, or in another version at the end of his feet, and yet another version by a family member, Carlos Lincoln, who arrived on the scene "minutes after the shooting" who said Peters was lying on his side and he saw no gun.

The youngish prosecuting attorney Aaron Williams, whose demeanor is that of an indignant, impatient, self-righteous prig (or so he appeared to be on a day of testimony about confusing bullet fragments), has not proved his case against Lincoln according to critics. Is this observation accurate? Is the reporter biased? Some say Judge Golden has been merciless to Williams, ruling that he can't present evidence to prove his case against Lincoln that if he wins could end in Lincoln receiving the death penalty. Others comment that Judge Golden favors the young attorney, and they can present evidence that make it seem so.

James Joyce said of the Irish, "...are the most intelligent, most spiritual, and most civilized people in Europe" -- nonetheless it's a bloody mess in northern Ireland. Why are we shocked when murder occurs in what should be "the shell of night" a country place remote and safe under the stars where the nearest town is an hour away? Could it not be who is right or who is wrong, but the arsenals of weapons accumulated by families, sheriffs and neighbors that can only lead to "murder?" Disagreements over the back fence and the town's school parking lot end in everyday shootouts when resolution depends on weapons. Still we're surprised.

Was it murder? Did Miller accidentally shoot his co-sheriff when he tripped and fell into the bushes, his gun wildly firing? Why isn't he on trial? Did Lincoln return fire after his friend was killed? Who wouldn't? Who is guilty of murder and who is guilty of simply owning a gun and assuming it can solve anything? In the spirit of Mark Heimann and the brave tradition of the AVA, I'm going out on a limb. Bear Lincoln gave himself up, admitted he was at the scene and shot his gun into the night. He didn't have to admit he was ever at the scene of the crime. This seems to point to his claim that he wanted the truth to come out -- whatever that is.

"The Railroad of Bear Lincoln" -- Revolutionary Worker, p. 13, July 6, 1997

The first person to die in Round Valley on April 14 was Reginald "Gene" Britton, a Native American man who was shot by Acorn's brother Arylis Peters in the parking lot of Covelo High School. The shooting grew out of a long-standing dispute between members of the Britton family on one side and the Lincoln and Peters families on the other. According to the people in Round Valley the conflict between the Britton and Lincoln/Peters families has its roots in tribal, religious and historical differences. The Peters and Lincoln families are among the Native American families trying to revive long-suppressed indigenous culture and spirituality. The Brittons are among the more assimilated. The RW talked to several people on the Round Valley Reservation who claim that a pattern of discriminatory law enforcement -- police bias toward the Brittons and against the Lincoln and Peters families -- contributed to the dispute between the families and the shooting on April 14.

That night, following the death of Gene Britton, a manhunt was launched throughout the valley for Arylis Peters. The media have reported that Mendocino County Sheriff Tuso was in Covelo personally directing his men. Deputies Bob Davis and Dennis Miller were staked out on a ridge on a dirt road that leads down to Little Valley, a small isolated area in the western part of the reservation where Bear Lincoln and his mother Lucille lived. The sheriff's 4 by 4 was parked off the main road. Bear Lincoln and Leonard Acorn Peters were walking up the road to where the deputies were hidden out of sight. moments later Acorn Peters and Sheriff Bob Davis were dead.

GO TO: Police Brutality | Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | Columns | Features | E-mail the Free Press