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dangerous if you go talk about it? A. Would I feel danger if I killed somebody, is that what you mean? Q. No. My question is part of the reason you didn't try to help the authorities in finding the perpetrator of this murder because you were afraid that if you talked you could be in trouble yourself? A. I never thought about going to talk to somebody. I was going to school at the time, I was raising my children, that was my priority. Q. Back in the AIM days in say 1975, people who were involved in AIM, if they saw things happen that could be considered illegal, was it your experience that they would go tell the authorities about those things? A. I knew Doug Durham had gone to the authorities, but he is the only person I knew about. Q. Doug Durham was a paid FBI operative, though, wasn't he? A. Yeah. Q. Other than the FBI operatives who were planted in the American Indian Movement as moles, was it your experience that the members would go talk to the authorities about crimes that they may have observed? A. I never knew anybody that went to the authorities. Q. If somebody went to the authorities after observing JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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agree with that? A. Well, I don't know that. Q. When were you in Custer when you heard Leonard Crow Dog say that Anna Mae was an informant and that she could be kicked out of the place? A. While Dennis, it was in July while Dennis was on trial up there. Q. Of 1975? A. Yes. Q. Leonard Crow Dog you are telling this jury then in July of 1975 didn't want Ms. Pictou-Aquash anywhere near him because he thought she was a fed, is that right? A. He said he didn't want her near him or on his property. Q. Yet she was arrested on his property on September 5th, was she not? A. No. Q. Where was she on September 5th? A. She was at Diane and Al Runnings property. Q. Was she ever at Crow Dog's property after that? A. I don't know, she wasn't with me. Q. But you were at Crow Dog's property for a period of time after that, weren't you? A. I went there, that's where we were for the sundance. Q. What was it she was arrested for on September 5th, do JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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A. I don't know. MR. RENSCH: Nothing further at this time. THE COURT: Any redirect examination on these points? MR. McMAHON: Yes, Your Honor. REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. McMAHON: Q. Ms. Nichols, since it was brought up, would you tell the jury exactly how much you have received in financial assistance from the federal government total? A. $42,000. Q. Was part of that for your expenses for traveling? A. Well, when I found this information out in 2000 and I would travel around, like when I went to visit Troy Lynn in Denver, I paid all my own expenses, and there was actually several months before I asked could I get reimbursed, and I would send them my receipts and for that I got reimbursed, but I initially put up my own money. Q. In addition to that have there been two lump sum payments made to you? A. Yes. Q. What were they for? A. A year ago I was contacted about my security and my safety, and we discussed where I lived, and that I maybe needed to move to a more secure location in New Mexico, so it JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phil lips Avenue, #305A
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Q. So the first payment was to move you to the secured location? A. Right. Q. Because of your involvement in this case? A. Yes. Q. What was the second lump sum payment for? A. Well, Dennis Banks learned where I lived the first time, so it was to move to a different location. Q. So that was for the same reason? A. Yes. Q. You were asked some questions about whether you had seen any crimes committed and then failed to report them. Did you ever help tie anyone up? A. No. Q. You ever help haul anyone around the country side tied up? A. No. Q. Did you ever stand there while somebody was murdered? A. No. MR. McMAHON: That's all I have. RECROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. RENSCH: Q. But you did hold dynamite that was going to be used to blow something up, didn't you. A. No, I didn't hold it. JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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A. Because that was the plea bargain arrangement that was made. Q. And you did stand by while people placed bombs near power plants, right? A. I was in the car while they were placing them. Q. But you didn't do anything to help them plant those bombs, did you? A. No, I didn't help them plant them. Q. Because of that you didn't do anything wrong in planting the bombs, did you? A. No, I was in the car. MR. RENSCH: Thank you? MR. McMAHON: Nothing further. THE COURT: Thank you, you may step down. Call your next witness. MR. McMAHON: We call Mathalene White Bear, Your Honor. MATHALENE WHITE BEAR, called as a witness, being first duly sworn, testified and said as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. McMAHON: Q. Would you state your name, please? JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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Q. Where do you live? A. I live in El Monte, California. Q. How long have you lived in California? A. About 46 years. Q. How old are you now? A. Forty-nine. Q. So you grew up in California? A. Yes, I did. Q. Were you a member of AIM? A. Yes, I was. Q. What was your involvement with AIM? A. In what context? Q. Well, when did you become a member of the AIM movement? A. When I turned eighteen. Q. And what types of activities did you partake in? A. Shelter mainly. Q. Did you travel around the country to different events? A. Yes. Q. Did you have an occasion to meet someone by the name of Anna Mae Aquash? A. Yes, I did. Q. When did you meet her? A. I believe it was in 1974. Q. Do you remember where it was? JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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sweat lodge. Q. Where was that? A. Hacienda Heights, California. Q. Did you have occasion to see her after that? A. Yes, I did. Q. Where at? A. The AIM house in Venice Beach, and then my own apartment in Santa Monica, and then my parents home in Baldwin Park and then in El Monte. Q. Let's focus on 1975. Was there an occasion when she came to see you in 1975? A. Yes, there was. Q. When was that, approximately? A. It was September, the first part of fall. September, around in there. Q. Were you still living with your parents at that time? A. Yes, I was. Q. How old would you have been then? A. About 20; 19, 20, somewhere around there. Q. How old would Anna Mae have been then? A. About thirty. Q. Why did she come to visit you? A. She was seeking refuge, and looking for help. Q. What was she seeking refuge from? JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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threats that had been made on her life. Q. Did you have any conversations with her in which she indicated she was being accused of being a government informant? A. Yes, I did. Q. Was she scared? A. Angry. Q. Did she ever indicate to you that she was worried that something might happen to her safety? A. Yes. Q. How long did she visit you in 1975? A. It was a few weeks. I am not exactly sure of the exact amount of days, but a couple of weeks, somewhere around there. Q. This visit would have been after she was arrested in South Dakota on weapons charges? A. Yes. Q. She was also, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't she also afraid of the FBI? A. Yes. Q. What type of conversations did the two of you have with each other concerning her safety? A. Well, the conversations that Anna Mae and I had mainly had to do with her family, her daughters, and messages she wanted me to give to her daughters. And they also consisted JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, tt305A
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about my safety and not letting me know too many details. She wanted to clear up whatever the problem was, and she asked me pretty much to be ears for her and try to, you know, if I heard anything or whatever. And otherwise just to stay back and not get myself in any deeper. Q. Did the two of you make any types of arrangements whereby she could signal you if she was in danger? A. Yes, we did. Q. What was that arrangement? A. Okay, there came a point where she had to leave, and I didn't want her to go, but she had to leave, and my mother and I helped her disguise her, cut her hair and dressed her differently, and she left my home, but before she left my home she gave me some messages for her daughters. And then she showed me a ring, and it was a very unusual ring, silver, and a sort of an S filigree shape. And she told me, she gave me a phone number also, okay, and she told me 'that hopefully the next time I seen that ring it would be on her finger, but if it were to come to me another way, then what I was to do was to call that phone number. Q. Do you know whose phone number it was? A. At the time I wasn't really sure. Q. Did you find out? A. Yeah. JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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A. John Trudell. Q. Who is John Trudell? A. John Trudell is a brother of ours, he was very good to both of us. Q. Was he involved in the AIM movement? A. On the level of being a spokesperson. Q. I have laid Exhibit 27 in front of you. That is a picture of Anna Mae, correct? A. Yes. Q. Is that what she looked like when she was in California? A. I cut her hair. Q. You said she left, do you recall approximately when she left? A. The end of September, first part of October, somewhere around in there. Q. Did she tell you why she was leaving? A. She was going underground is what I was told. Q. Did you later hear from her at all? A. Yes, I did. Q. A letter, phone call, what was it? A. I received three phone calls from her. Q. Can you give us a timeframe of when the first one might have been? A. The end of September, first of November, somewhere JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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Q. Around the first of November? A. Somewhere around there, yeah. Q. Tell us what she told you during that telephone call? A. She was okay, she was with a couple, and they had given her a room, and she was just waiting for word as to where she was supposed to go next. Q. Did she say where she was calling from? A. At the time, no, she didn't. She, we had a code name at that point, and she didn't give any information other than she was okay, and she asked how my family was doing, how I was doing, and that was about it. Q. Then you said you received a second phone call, when was that? A. Maybe a week or two later. Q. Tell us about that telephone call? A. She was a little more upset, a little more distraught. She said she felt like she was being caged in. The people she was with had her afraid to go outside. They had her afraid to, that she was being watched is the feeling she got. You know, they were being watched closely, and for her own safety they kept her in doors, and she felt like she was being trapped almost. MR. McMAHON: Your Honor, I offer Exhibit 27. MR. RENSCH: No objection. JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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BY MR. McMAHON: Q. When was the third phone call? A. About, it was within a week, a week of that, or it came sooner than the space between the other two. Q. So are we somewhere around the first part of December, in that area now? A. Yeah, it would be in that area, that time of the year. Q. Do you know where she was calling from at that time? A. We had received a phone bill from her previous, collect calls, because she had called collect and they were from Colorado. Q. Any particular place in Colorado? A. Denver. Q. Tell us what was said during the third telephone call? A. She was scared. She was being trapped, she knew something was going wrong, and I offered to go get her or to find a way to go get her, or to do something, and she said we will see about that, and she told me have you heard from anyone? And I told her no. And she says tell my, something to do with tell my or something, and then the phone went dead. Q. The phone went dead? Did you ever talk to her again? A. No. Q. Are you ready to continue? A. Yes, please. JERRY J. MAY, RPR. CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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A. Yes. Within three, four days, something like that, I got a little box in the mail, and there was no return address on it, and when I opened it up, all that was in there was the silver ring. Q. That was Anna Mae's ring? A. The one she had shown me. Q. What did you do with the ring? A. I just put the cover back on the box and I called the phone number, and when John answered I just told him I received the ring. Q. What did do you after that? A. Well, I waited and John was there within 24 hours to pick the ring up, and then I spent 28 years of hell waiting to find out what happened, the truth. Q. Did you ever go to South Dakota? A. I did go to South Dakota. It was in December, January, I don't remember the exact dates. Q. Why? A. Well, a friend of ours was on trial, and I went to sort of be moral support for him, and also to make my presence known so that Anna Mae would know she had a friend here, and if there was any way possible that she could get in touch with me and I could see what I could do to help her. MR. McMAHON: That's all I have, thank you. JERRY J. MAY, RPR. CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. RENSCH: Q. You were present when Ms. Pictou-Aquash agreed to blow up a building in Los Angeles, weren't you, Ma'am? A. I never heard of any such thing. Q. You have never told anybody that you heard that Anna Mae agreed to blow up a building in Los Angeles after Banks ordered her to do that? A. No. Q. As a loyalty test to Dennis Banks? A. You mean for her to be loyal to Dennis Banks? Q. Yes. A. No. Q. Did you tell Special Agent Alan Garber that on August 30th, 1981? A. Not that I recall. Q. Do you remember speaking to a member of the FBI in 1981? A. Okay, there were two agents that I was led to believe were special agents from the Canadian Mounted Police that I spoke with. I never at any time agreed to speak with the FBI. Q. Did you talk to somebody in 1981 about the happenings surrounding when Anna Mae was with you in 1975? A. The only people I ever spoke to about that were the two special agents who came from the Canadian Mounted Police. MR. RENSCH: Nothing further, thank you. JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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MR. McMAHON: I have nothing further, Your Honor. THE COURT: Thank you, Ma'am, you may step down. Call your next witness. MR. McMAHON: Bob Riter. BOB RITER, called as a witness, being first duly sworn, testified and said as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. McMAHON: Q. Mr. Riter, will you introduce yourself to the jury, please? A. Certainly. My name is Bob Riter, I am a lawyer in Pierre. Q. How long have you been practicing law, Bob? A. I have been practicing law for thirty years. Q. Sorry. Have you been in Pierre all that time? A. Yes. Q. You have an occasion to represent Anna Mae Aquash? A. Yes. Q. When did that come about? A. I was appointed to represent her in September of 1975. Q. What was the charge? A. If I recall correctly, she was initially charged with a JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
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