Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textfile/fija.zip/SPANVSAZ.TXT

Text File | 1990-08-29 | 8KB | 196 lines

               AZ VS. SPAN: SAD SAGA IN PHOENIX

         By J. Huston, Staffwriter, The Correspondent,

       P.O.  Box  9283, Missoula, MT  59807.  Source: New
             Times, Phoenix, AZ, May 16-22, 1990.



     The  day  began  normally  enough for  the  Span  family  of
Phoenix,  Arizona,  but  April  7, 1988,  soon  became  a  living
nightmare.   Two U.S. Marshals brutally terrorized a  74-year-old
man, Bill Span, his 72-year-old wife Virginia, and their children
Jerry and Darlene.



     That  was the day that Jerry and Darlene were  charged  with
resisting  arrest  and attacking federal officers,  and  the  day
their mother had to be rushed to the hospital from jail where she
nearly  died.   Assaults by the officers on Jerry,  Darlene,  and
Virginia were photographed, witnessed and attested to by  several
private citizens--yet the jury delivered guilty verdicts  against
Jerry and Darlene.  Why?



     Had  the jurors known that they had the right to  judge  the
law as well as the defendants according to that law, two innocent
victims of law enforcement brutality would not be facing a prison
sentence  today.   Also, five jurors would not be  consumed  with
guilt,  and lawsuits totaling four million dollars would  not  be
pending  against Jerry and Darlene.  If the Fully  Informed  Jury
Amendment  had been in force in Arizona, justice would have  been
served and those truly guilty would have been punished.



     U.S. Marshals Garry Grotewold and David Dains were trying to
track down a 69-year-old man by the name of Mickey Michael.  Bill
and  Virginia  have a son by that name, but he is only  39  years
old.   A  phone  number had led the marshals to  the  Span  home.
Marshal Grotewold testified at the trial that Bill Span  answered
the  men's questions,  allowed them to search his home  and  gave
directions to the family's place of business,  where  they  might
find Mickey.  Mr. Span's version was quite different.



     As related by Bill's daughter Alice, she found her father on
the  kitchen floor, sobbing and bruised with a knot on  his  head
and  a swollen eye, the house torn apart.  Mr. Span said  he  had
insisted  on  seeing a search warrant.  At that  time  the  hefty
Grotewold,  approximately  220 pounds, pinned the frail  old  man
against the wall while his partner Dains searched the home.  Bill
Span died two months after the incident.



     Later,   at  the  family's  business,  Grotewold  showed   a
photograph of Michael to Darlene.  She acknowledged that she knew
a Mickey Michael, her brother, but that he was not the man in the
picture.   About the same time Jerry Span appeared.  He  did  not
know the man in the photo either and offered to show the  picture
around and let them know if anyone knew him.



     Acting as though he did not believe them, Marshal  Grotewold
allegedly  threatened Darlene.  Jerry invited them to  leave  and
both  turned  their backs on the marshals to take care  of  their
customers.   At that time, Jerry claims Grotewold hit him on  the
back  of the head, kicked him in the back and knocked him to  the
ground.   Meanwhile,  Dains  grabbed Darlene,  by  her  hair  and
slammed her face into the fence where both fell to the ground.



     Marshal Grotewold claims that he was struck by Jerry between
30  and 40 times, and that Span had attempted to take  possession
of  his pistol 5 or 10 times.  Considering that Grotewold  weighs
about  90 pounds more than Jerry, this scenario is  difficult  to
imagine.   Even less credibly, Grotewold claimed he  was  fearful
for his life.



     One  customer,  who later became a defense  witness,  stated
that Jerry and Darlene "...had their backs turned to the marshals
when they blindsided them.  Darlene and Jerry never knew what hit
them."



     Due  to an ongoing eminent domain dispute between the  Spans
and  the city, Jerry and Darlene's brother Pete Span  was  taking
roll-film  photos  of the business when the  altercations  began.
Their  mother  Virgina  arrived  later  with  a  Polaroid.   Pete
declared  that Marshal Dains grabbed a roll of film from him  and
ground  it into the dirt with the heel of his boot, crushing  the
canister.   When  the  marshal went after  his  camera,  Pete,  a
marathon  runner, fled.  But film that could have  clarified  the
early part of the  assault had already been destroyed.



     According  to  witnesses,  Dains  and  Grotewold,  in  their
attempt to wrest the Polaroid from Virginia, grabbed her neck and
twisted  her arm behind her back, then threw her to  the  ground.
One witness stated later, "I'd have tried to kill them if it  had
been my mother.  All she was doing...was standing, watching,  and
occasionally taking a picture."



     Dains  charged  that Virginia Span had struck him  over  the
head with her camera, which he said he was trying to retrieve for
evidence  to validate the assault charges.  However, Dains  never
listed  scalp  lacerations  as  an  injury  received  during  the
altercation, and hair and blood samples were never taken from the
camera as evidence for the prosecution.



     In  front  of  witnesses,  to  justify  arresting  Virginia,
Grotewold  claimed that the puncture wound in his hand came  from
Virginia  biting him.  However, as Virginia pointed out, she  has
no teeth.  In Grotewold's report he stated that Jerry had  bitten
him.  The puncture wound apparently had come from Bill Span's dog
when the two men assaulted the old man in his home.



     Customers were witnesses to the confrontations, yet none was
questioned  by the Phoenix police, who arrived later, nor by  the
marshals.   In  an interview conducted by New  Times,  a  Phoenix
weekly, all of the witnesses backed up the story as the Spans had
related it.


     On February 23, 1990, U.S. Marshal Tomas Lopez wrote to  the
prosecutor  on  the  Span  case  acknowledging  that  Dains   and
Grotewold  both  had  reputations for  provoking  assaults.   The
judge,  however,  would not permit the letter to  be  entered  as
evidence on behalf of the defendants.  Instead, Lopez  reportedly
came under fire for writing the letter..



     Judge Broomfield instructed the jury that "Federal  officers
engaged  in good faith and colorable performance of their  duties
may  not be forcibly resisted, even if the resister turns out  to
be  correct, that the resisted actions should not, in fact,  have
been  taken.   The statute requires him to submit  peaceably  and
seek legal redress thereafter."



     Given this instruction, the jury returned verdicts of guilty
against  both Darlene and Jerry, even though they felt  that  the
marshals were the ones who initiated the assault.  Several  later
stated that they thought they had no alternative but to  convict.
Five  of them ended up signing a statement which expressed  their
belief  that  "such  a  law  is  completely  unfair  and  against
everything that the United States stands for."



     Had  even these five realized the power they held as  jurors
to  judge  both law and fact, it is unlikely the Spans  would  be
preparing  appeals right now, facing prison terms of up to  three
years if they fail, as well as lawsuits for damages of $2 million
filed  by  the  marshals. Instead, the Spans  could  be  pursuing
lawsuits of their own against the men who attacked them.



     Now  Bill Span is dead, Virginia no longer drives or  reads,
and  thousands of unaffordable dollars have already  been  poured
into  their children's legal defense.*  With justice  like  this,
who needs tyranny?



     And  oh, yes.  It later turned out that Darlene and  Jerry's
brother  Mickey Michael was indeed not the man the marshals  were
looking for, after all....

_________________________________________________________________

*EDITORS' NOTE: We at FIJA know that Darlene and Jerry Span  will
gladly  and gratefully welcome any legal or financial  assistance
sent in support of their appeal.  They receive mail at  P.O.  Box
44970, Phoenix, AZ 85064.