Bruno Bruhwiler, lead organizer of WeAreChangeLA, falsely accused of making a Terrorist Threat.
November 2010 Update
A lot of time has passed since the last update in regards to the fight for my freedom against perjured charges. My current attorney has been kept busy in court on other cases.
It has been decided, we are going to trial by jury. I was offered to sign a false confession on more than one occasion, but I refused. If I’m going to prison, then 12 jurors will send me there. I stand by my rights to due process, and my rights to dissent against tyranny at all levels of government.
Originally, I was charged with making a terrorist threat, a felony, against a Sheriff’s Deputy, and I was charged with two counts of felony resisting arrest, as well as misdemeanor contempt of court. Sheriffs Deputy Juan Espinoza interrupted me when I was talking and told me to my face, “You just threatened to assassinate me! That’s a terrorist threat!” This was about an hour after he had put handcuffs on me without probable cause. Apparently he was on the hunt to find something… anything he could charge me with. As you can see near the end of this video from WeAreChange Colorado ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMbV9UnQ7rE ), officers of the law have been instructed to determine whether or not anybody they detain is a terrorist. As far as we know, an officer gets a bonus if they detain someone they can pin as a terrorist.
A few months ago, one person wrote an article claiming that I was not charged with terrorism, but later apologized. The confusion stemmed from the actual count against me, which is California Penal Code 422. Though the code does not read ‘terrorism’ or ‘terrorist threat’, this is the code used when someone in California is charged with making a terrorist threat. I imagine they use this code because no new code has been written to cover charges of making a terrorist threat. Regardless, my testimony will include that Espinoza accused me of making a terrorist threat against him.
Allison Margolin who is partnered with her father, Bruce Margolin, now represents me. She got the misdemeanor contempt of court charge dropped in the Preliminary Hearing for lack of evidence. The prosecution announced that they also conceded to drop one of the felony resisting arrest charges for lack of evidence, but Judge Denise McLaughlin Bennett refused to let the prosecution drop the charge. An attorney in the Margolin law firm said, “In my 20 years as a defense attorney, I’ve never seen anything like that.” This brazen display of prejudice against me has been the pattern by all the judges in all the hearings in this case. They have disregarded due process and handed down orders that they have no authority to make. The disrespect and disregard that the law enforcement officers, the judges and attorneys have shown for our justice system is alarming. They are trying to put me away. If I lose this case, I could go to prison for as much as 4 or 5 years.
I am lucky to have so many people around me who care about me, and who care about the need to push back against tyranny. We have been collecting overwhelming evidence to secure my freedom on multiple fronts. Unfortunately, for us to use the justice system takes money… lots of money. The primary reason I wish I wasn’t in court the day I was falsely imprisoned is because I find it difficult to ever ask anybody for money, especially during these hard times. We have not asked for any more money for this case in the past several months because I wanted us to have a definite need before I asked. We now need the money. My attorney needs another $10,000 to go to trial. I believe Allison Margolin will fight on all fronts for me to secure my freedom. I need conservatively another $3000 to go on the offensive against the corruption displayed by the officers of the courts. This case is now about more than proving my innocence. This case is about helping in the struggle to expose the corruption in our justice system. Plus, I am still about $9,000 in debt to those who loaned me money to bail out of jail. Please donate any amount you can. We have a learned a lot during this ordeal. In the meantime, at WeAreChangeLA we have been organizing two or more large street actions each month, having film screenings, and doing what we can to support other truth activists and to spread information.
Thank you everyone for all you do. We’re all making a difference.
Peace,
Bruno Bruhwiler
WeAreChangeLA
http://www.Free-Bruno.org
P.S. Special thanks to my brother, Jay Blaq at http://www.JoomlaXTC.com
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Questions
Bruno, I get the part where you say Espinoza told you, “You just threatened to assassinate me! That’s a terrorist threat!”
According to the Complaint filed by the prosecutor in your case, you were charged under Section 422 of the California Penal Code with making "criminal threats." http://www.scribd.com/doc/40548000
You've acknowledged in this post, "Though the code does not read ‘terrorism’ or ‘terrorist threat’, this is the code used when someone in California is charged with making a terrorist threat."
Sec. 422 used to make reference to "terrorist threats;" the Code was revised after a 1987 court ruling that the language was unconstitutionally vague. The references to "terrorist threats" have continued to be applied however:
"Amendments to the Three Strikes Law, enacted in 2000 by initiative as part of Proposition 21, added “terrorist threats, in violation of section 422” to the list of serious felonies."
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"Given this history, it is not surprising that from 1987 until recently, case law has continued to refer to violations of section 422 as “terrorist threats,” even though the body of the statute has not referenced terror, terrorists, terrorism or social or political goals since the statute was found unconstitutional and repealed in 1987."
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1239861.html
Bruno, if you were being prosecuted as a "terrorist," which is the impression I've gotten from your description of things, you would be prosecuted under federal laws. It doesn't seem, from what I've looked at, that a cop saying you'd made a "terrorist threat" makes the offense any more serious.
What have your lawyers told you about this?
And what did Espinoza testify at the Oct 26 preliminary hearing, about what he heard you say to him, that he considered threatening? That's a public record, but I don't have a copy yet.
You've been charged w/ a serious crime. Assuming you're entirely innocent on the threat and other charges- that the cops have simply been lying and abusing their power- I hope you're acquitted of all of them, and I wish you the best in fighting these charges in court.
For the record, I'm the one who wrote the article that said Bruno wasn't charged w/ terrorism; my retraction is here:
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/was-bruno-bruhwiler-charged-w...
the website...........
.............wouldn't come up. I got this:
The Domain free-bruno.org is disabled.
Please get in contact with your Reseller for more information.
Try wacLA.org or WeAreChangeLA.org
Thank you for trying. Try wacLA.org or WeAreChangeLA.org to make a donation. Every little bit helps and we need all the help we can get.
Free-Bruno.org
It's been so long since we put out an article or tried to raise money for this case, so the website got neglected. Hopefully it will be back up, soon.
Here is the chip in. I need money to go to trial. Any amount will help out. Thanks to everybody for all you do.
Bruno, Thanks for the update
What a nightmare ordeal.
Please continue with the updates.