Josh Wolf ordered back to jail

Bad News…
Posted by Insurgent in Uncategorized

I have recently been notified that the Assistant US Attorney, Jeffrey Finnigan has filed a motion to revoke my bail despite the fact that the ruling from the 9th circuit has not yet been finalized and there are still appeal options available to me within the 9th circuit.

In other words, The US Attorney’s office is so eager to place me back into jail that he has filed a motion stating that the court should take action to throw back into prison despite the fact that I am not accused of committing a crime, am not a safety risk in any way shape or form, and am not a flight risk. This means that despite the fact that there are appeal options still on the table, and despite the fact that the Federal Grand Jury will be in session until sometime in June, the US Attorney is eager to have you, the tax payer, flip the bill for my incarceration. As if you weren’t already upset about paying for the war in Iraq, now he wants you to pay for me to be held in prison while my case continues to make it’s way through the courts.

Does anyone have any ideas why the US Attorney feels that it is so important that I be placed back into prison immediately? Let me know… oh, and by the way - I’ll be appearing on Democracy Now tomorrow morning; I’ll try to link the clip to my site as soon as possible.

Finigan’s: Motion to Revoke Bail(pdf 271Kb) http://www.joshwolf.net/grandjury/mot-revoke.pdf

<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/19/BAGQ1L87KV1.DTL>

September 19, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle

Bail revoked for journalist in contempt case
By Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer

Freelance journalist and activist Josh Wolf is heading back to jail after a federal appeals court on Monday ordered his bail revoked unless he changes course and gives a federal grand jury outtakes of footage he shot at a violent San Francisco protest in July 2005.

Wolf, who has argued that he has a right as a journalist to withhold unpublished material, plans to turn himself in at the federal prison in Dublin before a 1 p.m. Wednesday deadline, said Jose Luis Fuentes, one of Wolf's attorneys.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected Wolf's appeal of a lower court's decision to hold him in contempt. The same three judges on Monday granted a federal prosecutor's motion to revoke bail.

Attorneys for Wolf, who has already spent a month behind bars, had hoped to keep their client free while he appeals the case. They plan next month to ask the full Ninth Circuit appeals court, based in San Francisco, to review the case and may also take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his argument for revoking bail, prosecutor Jeffrey Finigan wrote that Wolf must be jailed because the "coercive intent behind the recalcitrant witness statute is lessened with each passing day."

Fuentes said jailing his client will not be coercive because Wolf hopes to achieve victory through his appeals. "It's just punishment," Fuentes said.

The subpoena for Wolf's footage was issued by a grand jury investigating the alleged attempted burning of a San Francisco police car at an anarchist-led rally July 8, 2005, in opposition to an economic summit taking place at the time in Scotland.

A police officer was hit on the head during the protest and suffered a fractured skull. The grand jury is investigating the police car incident, which prosecutors say would be a federal crime because the Police Department receives money from Washington.

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa [at] sfchronicle.com.

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<http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/15553946.htm>

September 19, 2006
Associated Press

Journalist held in contempt ordered back to jail

SAN FRANCISCO - A freelance video journalist who has refused a federal grand jury's subpoena to turn over his footage of a political protest will return to jail, after an appeals court ordered his bail revoked.

Monday's order by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came a week after the same panel upheld a lower court's decision to hold Josh Wolf in contempt.

Wolf, who argues that reporters should be shielded from revealing confidential sources and unpublished material to federal authorities, plans to turn himself in at the federal prison in Dublin before his 1 p.m. Wednesday deadline, said Jose Luis Fuentes, one of Wolf's attorneys.

A grand jury investigating the July 2005 protest during the G-8 economic summit subpoenaed Wolf to acquire 30 minutes of unpublished material, but he refused and was jailed Aug. 1.

The appeals court allowed Wolf to be freed on bail a month later while it considered his case.

But the San Francisco-based panel ruled against him Sept. 11, saying 1972 Supreme Court precedent requires everyone, including journalists, to appear before grand juries if they have been summoned.

"The Supreme Court has declined to interpret the First Amendment to 'grant newsmen a testimonial privilege that other citizens do not enjoy,'" it wrote.

Wolf's attorneys said they plan to ask the full 9th Circuit court to review the case next month.

On Monday, the three-judge panel granted prosecutors' petition to revoke Wolf's bail to coerce him into turning over the footage of the protest, during which anarchists were suspected of vandalizing a San Francisco police car. One city officer was struck during the rally and his skull was fractured.

Fuentes countered that jailing his client will not be coercive because Wolf hopes to achieve victory through his appeals.

"It's just punishment," Fuentes said.

This is really lame that the goverment wants has its way and sends people to jail because they want to abuse th justice and legal system and our rights in the process. I feel real bad that Josh is going back to jail and that I think that he is really brave to stand up to them.