No Pepper Spray on Nonviolent Protesters
www.nopepperspray.org(modified 3/27/05)
List of Plaintiffs and Legal Team
The Plaintiffs
Noel Tendick, 27, lives in Santa Cruz, California. He recently published a book of nature poetry, with poems inspired by Headwaters Forest activism and the pepper spray incidents, titled "Simple Frames." He is also a massage therapist.
Terri Slanetz, 41, lives in Oakland, California. She works as a naturalist with The American Youth Hostel's Adventure Program, is an organic gardener and curator of the BASIL seed library at the Ecology Center in Berkeley, and a docent at the Oakland Museum of California.
Jennifer Banka Schneider, 35 is a practicing Buddhist and has worked on issues of forest ecosytems, indigenous rights, AIDS, and animal rights. She has been a volunteer for the Buffalo Field Campaign, at the Nevada test site, and at the Sanaga-Yonge Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Cameroon, Africa.
Lisa Sanderson-Fox, 36, lives in Oakland, California. She works as a community health care provider and health educator.
Maya Portugal, 24, lives in Bayside, California. She grew up in Humboldt county, works at Los Bagels in Arcata, and volunteers at Planned Parenthood. Her post-trial plans are to enter the nursing program at Humboldt State University.
Sam Neuwirth, 46, has lived in Humboldt County for 24 years. He owns an organic farm that produces hay, potatoes, berries, vegetables and livestock in Arcata, California. He is also a timberland owner.
Mike McCurdy, 29, lives in Lansing, Michigan. He is a nonviolence trainer for the Michigan Peace team and has trained activists in nonviolence in Israel and Palestine, as well as in the U.S. While in Palestine, he produced a documentary about the International Solidarity Movement. He also works on an organic farm.
Spring Lundberg, 24, was raised in Arcata, Humboldt County. She is a musician, writer and activist on issues of corporate globalization and ecology.
Plaintiffs' Award-Winning Legal Team
Dennis Cunningham, lead counsel. San Francisco civil rights/criminal defense attorney.
J. Tony Serra, counsel. San Francisco criminal defense attorney.
Robert Bloom, counsel. Oakland civil rights/criminal defense attorney.
Ben Rosenfeld, counsel. San Francisco civil rights/criminal defense attorney.
William Simpich, counsel. Oakland civil rights/criminal defense attorney.
Brendan Cummings, counsel. California environmental law/civil rights attorney
John Tanghe, of counsel. Berkeley attorney.
Gordon Kaupp, of counsel. San Francisco attorney.
Alicia Littletree, paralegal, Earth First! activist.
Josh Morsell, paralegal.
The Trial Lawyer of the Year Award
The legal team (except Cummings and Kaupp, who are new to the team) received the prestigious Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for 2003 for their work on the Judi Bari vs. FBI civil rights suit, which resulted in a record-breaking $4.4 million jury verdict for the estate of Judi Bari and co-plaintiff Darryl Cherney. The award is given by the national Trial Lawyers for Public Justice ( www.tlpj.org ) who said in a press release:
"This award is bestowed annually upon the trial lawyer or lawyers who have made the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. It is the nation's single most prestigious award for trial lawyers."
"These exceptional attorneys offer powerful examples of how trial lawyers play a crucial role in exposing and redressing government intrusion and corporate misconduct," said outgoing Foundation President Paul Stritmatter of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Withey Coluccio in Hoquiam, Washington. "We are proud to honor them for their exemplary work defending the Constitution and protecting workers' rights."
For more details about the award see http://www.judibari.org/#TLPJ