South Tucson's El Independiente, 1980-07-25

              EI in de
Hanigan trial sparks rights rally
'Justice now'
was the cry
By DON RODRIGUEZ
Staff Writer
More than 350 people marched through
downtown Tucson yesterday, then stood
in 95-degree heat in a park to listen to
demands for equal treatment for
minorities, specifically in judicial
proceedings.
Marching three abreast in a path
cleared by police, the crowd left the rear
parking lot of the Santa Rita Hotel at
noon and walked through downtown and
past the federal courtroom where the
...Hanigan trial, a catalyst for the rally,
was in its finalslages.
As motorists and pedestrians watched,
the group meandered through downtown
Tucson before heading west on Alameda
Street to El Presidio Park, a cement
courtyard bordered on three sides by
county and city office buildings.
The marchers, predominantly Mexican-
Americans, ranged from Episcopal
ministers to members of lowrider
groups.
Following the 15-minute walk,
speakers climbed the raised platform to
speak of the rights of minorities, alluding
mostly to the trial of Patrick and Thomas
Hanigan. The Hanigans are charged with
robbery affecting interstate commerce.
The three Mexicans claim they also were
tortured by the two on the Hanigan
ranch.
San Antonio, Tex. attorney Ruben
Sandoval, of the National Coalition for
Human Rights and moderator of the
rally, began the 1 ½ hour rally by an-nouncing
the absences of scheduled
speakers Cesar Chavez, Rodolfo
"Corky" Gonzales and Reies Lopez
Tijerina.
Nonetheless, he saïd, all three are
worried by the issues raised by the
Continued on Page 6
N-o Rio Nuevo architects
By PA. SALLEN
Staff Writer
A Tucson architectural firm called for
abandonment of a proposed downtown
revitalization project and the elimination
of the agency in charge of it at a Wed-nesday
night community meeting.
Residents of three neighborhoods. met
at Menlo Park Elementary School to
voice concerns about Rio Nuevo,the
Downtown Development Corporation's
latest building project. DDC was created
by the Tucson City Councïl in 1978 to
revitalize Tucson's downtown area. It
has a $0.2 million loan from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development to implement Rio Nuevo, a
proposed 300-acre community of single-family
residences, condominiums and
commercial buildings to be located along
the Santa Cruz River between St. Mary's
Road and 22nd Street.
At the meeting, the Tucson Community
DevelopmentDesign Center asked
residents of three neighborhoods, Menlo
Park, Manzo and Kroeger Lane barrios,
which border the Rio Nuevo project, to
join the center in demanding that Rio
Nuevo and other inner-city revitalization
projects be halted.
The Design Center is a non-profit
Continued on Page 7
statt photo by Linda Piatto
DOWNTOWN PROTEST A predominantly Chicano group carries signs urging equal treatment in court.
Jury deciding fate of Han igans
By PATRICIA JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
A U.S. District Court jury was to
resume deliberations today in the case of
the Hanigan brothers, who are accused
of robbing and torturing three Mexicans
in August 1976.
The eight-woman and four-man jury
left the courtroom at 4;30 p.m. yesterday
after receiving instructions from U.S.
District Judge Richard M. Bilby.
The jury deliberated two hours before
stopping for the night. Members of the
jury will be kept sequestered until a
verdict is reached in the trial of Thomas
H. Hanigan, 28, and Patrick W. Hanigan,
23.
They are charged with robbery af-fecting
commerce under the Hobbs Act.
The charges stem from an incident
durïng which the two brothers and their
father George allegedly encountered
three Sonora, Mexico men who had
crossed the Hanigan ranch near Douglas.
The three men, who had crossed the
border near the Hanigan ranch, said they
By ALBERT J. COUNTRYMAN JR.
Staff Writer
A special committee, created to
examine lowrider complaints of police
harassment, has clamped a lid of secrecy
on its meetings.
The move to close the sessions came at
the group's first meeting Tuesday night
when Tucson Police Maj. Peter Ronstadt
expressed concern that charges of unfair
treatment by police might be made
during the discussions. He said such
charges should be made public only after
the department had an opportunity to
investigate them.
Based on those comments, members of
the special group, which is a sub-committee
of the Citizens Police Ad-nd
nte
had been tortured and robbed. They
testified during the four-week trial that
they had gone to look for work on a
peanut farm near Elf rida.
The father, George Hanigan, died
before a slate trial was held in Bisbee in
1977. An all-Anglo jury acquitted Thomas
and Patrick Hanigan of all 22 counts of
robbery and assault in the state trial.
Nationwide protests of the verdict by
Hispanic groups prompted filing of the
federal charges. The trial began July 26.
After defense attorney Alex A. Gaynes
was denied a directed verdict of acquittal
by Judge Bilby for the second time this
week, prosecution attorney Linda Davis
began her closing remarks.
During her summation, Davis called
the trial a "contest" between defense
lawyers Alan K. Polley and Gaynes and
the three uneducated Mexicans. She
compared that "contest" to "Muham-mad
Ali fighting a 12-year-old."
Throughout the trial both Gaynes and
Pulley repeatedly questioned testimony
from the three Mexicans and pointed out
numerous inconsistencies in their
visory Committee, voted 9 to ito bar the
public from their meetings. After the
vote, an El Independiente reporter and
photographer left the meeting in the
Valencia Library.
Assistant City Attorney Brad Dietrich
supported the subcommitte's decision,
saying the state's Open Meetings Law
required only that "a meeting must be
open to the public when a quorum of the
full body io together."
Since only four of the 10 members of
the Citizens Police Advisory Committee
are on the subcommittee, the meetings
do not have to be public, he said.
Also on the subcommittee are three
Tucson Police officers and three
representatives from the Tucson
Continued on Page 6
stories.
"The only other match that might have
been as unequal," Davis said, "was out
there on the desert with the Hanigans."
She saïd the prosecution not only
presented evidence but also tried lo
explain why the incident happened.
Davis cited testimony from Patrick
Hanigan's former wife Pamela-who had
said that after a burglary on the Hanigan
property, the three men had been furious
and had agreed to patrol the Hanigan
land.
Davis said,"The Hanigans decïded
they needed to send out the word that
Hanigan land was off limits to all."
Polley, during his hour and a half
remarks, told the all-Anglo jury, "Most
of the closing arguments you have heard
are the product of some crystal ball that
neither you nor lam privy to."
Prosecution arguments have been that
the testimony from the three Mexicans
never changed regarding big or im-portant
facts, but defense attorney
Continued on-Page 6
A Yaqui's dream
See Page 4
Vol. IV, No.3
Published by the Editing Program for Minority Journalists July 25,1980
Press booted out
Lowriders, police talk