Logging Protester Get New Trial
Anti-logging protesters whose eyes were swabbed with pepper spray during a 1997 protest will get a new trial in Eureka.
Federal Judge Vaughn Walker dismissed the original lawsuit in 1998 after jurors deadlocked four-to-four in the first trial. He has set May 12th as the date for the new trial.
Walker ordered that the trial be held in Eureka where the protest occurred, instead of in San Francisco, where the first trial was held. The plaintiffs claim Humboldt County sheriff´s deputies used excessive force when they used pepper spray during three protests in the fall of 1997 over Pacific Lumber Company´s logging of ancient redwoods.