CLAIMS UNDER Sec. 910 et seq. of The GOVERNMENT CODE of the 
STATE OF CALIFORNIA

TO:	Board of Supervisors of MENDOCINO COUNTY
		Mendocino County Sheriff's Department
		Mendocino County District Attorney's Office
	Board of Supervisors of SONOMA COUNTY
		Sonoma County Sheriff's Department 
	Board of Supervisors of Humboldt Counts
		Humboldt County Sheriff's Department 
	City Collector, Fort Bragg, California
		Fort Bragg Police Department 
	California State Board of Control
		California Highway Patrol
		California Department of Forestry 
	United States of America
		U.S. Forest Service
		Bureau of Indian Affairs
		Federal Bureau of Investigation
		Bureau of Land Management
		Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms

CLAIMANTS:	Lucille Lincoln, Eric Lincoln, Carlos Lincoln, 
	Deborah Lincoln & two infants, Sharlisa Unca Sam & two infants, Perry 
	Lincoln, Pat Lincoln, Edwina Lincoln, Sonya Lincoln, many Lincoln 
	children, Nathan Burgess, Della Bye, Peter Bye and child, Agnes 
	Duncan, Silvia Duncan and grandchildren, Edwin Duncan, Toni 
	Duncan, Allan Frazier, Barbara Freeman, Anne Frease, David Frease 
	and children, Nia Green, Frank Hoaglen, Doreen Hoaglen, Finnis 
	Johnson, Ernest Leggett, Leona Luna, Steve Luna, Antoinette Mafuso, 
	James Maxwell, Gary Nova, Connie Reboca, Jake Reboca, Eliste Reeves 
	and children, Jack Scribner, Charlotte Smith, Cheri Smith, Hank 
	Whipple, a minor, and Leonard Whipple, a minor, 

-- who lodge this claim for themselves and others similarly situated, at 
Round Valley and other rancherias in northern California, who have 
been victims of racially-motivated harassment and misconduct by 
officers of the above-listed agencies in April and May, 1995, and since. 

These named Claimants reside on the Round Valley Indian 
Reservation at Covelo, California 95428.

All Claimants can be reached in care of: 

	Dennis Cunningham
	Attorney at Law
	3163 Mission Street
	San Francisco, CA 94110
	Ph. 415-285-8091/FAX 285-8092

OCCURRENCES:	Events, dates and locations described below. 

CIRCUMSTANCES:	Described below. 

INJURIES:	Violation of Constitutional, Civil and Human rights, racial 
harassment and intimidation (per Cal Civil Code Secs. 51.7 & 52.1; 42 
U.S. Code Sec. 1983 et seq.), assault and battery, false arrest, false 
imprisonment, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional 
distress, and conversion of property, all as described below. 


PUBLIC EMPLOYEES CAUSING LOSS OF RIGHTS. INJURY. & 
DAMAGES:

	Mendocino County Sheriff's Department: Sheriff JIM TUSO, 
	Capt. BERLE MURRAY, Deputies TIM ELLIS, SHANNON BARNEY, 
	AL TRIPP, (FNU, first name unknown) SMALLCOMB, (FNU) 
	KENDALL, (FNU) STEPHANI, John/Jane Does #1-X;
	Mendocino County D.A.'s Office: John Doe #2-X
	Sonoma County Sheriff's Department: Deputy ROY GOURLEY, J. Does #3-X;
	Fort Bragg Police Department: J. Does #4-X;
	Calif. Highway Patrol: Ofcr. (FNU) SENSERI, John Does #5-X;
	California Department of Forestry: J. Does #6-X;
	U.S. Forest Service: DIANE WELTON?, J. Doe #7-X;
	Bureau of Indian Affairs: J. Does #8-X
	Federal Bureau of Investigation: J. Does t9-X 
--together with other unknown, sworn officers and employees of 
various agencies who have participated in the activities and conduct 
complained of below.  Names of these personnel are presently 
unknown to Claimants. In the event of litigation relating to these 
claims they will be sued as unknown named defendants along with the 
above-listed officers. 

AMOUNTS CLAIMED: Injury, damage and loss in the amount of One 
hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00), and punitive damages in a like 
amount are demanded for each claimant, except where lasting 
emotional injury to children is shown, in which cases upper limits on 
damages cannot be determined at this time. 

Legal action for these violations lies in the Superior Court of California, 
County of Mendocino and/or the U.S. District Court for the Northern 
District of California. 

FACTUAL BASIS OF CLAIM(S): 

INTRODUCTION

	These claims arise from a series of incidents in which members 
of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department, sometimes joined by 
officers from the California Highway Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service 
(USFS), the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, and, on information 
and belief, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, the California 
Dept. of Forestry (CDF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Fort Bragg Police Department, and 
other agencies still unknown, carried on a campaign of illegal and 
unconstitutional harassment and intimidation against numerous 
Indian people and others related to or associated with Leonard "Acorn" 
Peters and Eugene "Bear" Lincoln, or their families, after the two were 
involved in a shooting incident, on April 14, 1995, which left Peters and 
a sheriff's officer dead.
	These activities--occurring against a background of long-standing 
hostility and gross discrimination against Indian residents of 
Mendocino County by Sheriff's Department and Highway Patrol 
officers, stretching back years -- began shortly after the shooting; they 
have continued intermittently up to the present.
	The illicit purpose of these actions by sworn peace officers from 
the various local, state and federal authorities was and is to exact 
revenge, retaliation and group punishment -- in what has been a 
distinctively pointed and heightened outburst of perennial racist 
hostility towards Native Americans in Mendocino County -- for the 
death of a colleague. 

THE SHOOTING INCIDENTS

	As reported in the press and court proceedings, Arylis Peters had 
a confrontation with Gene Britton late in the afternoon of April 14, 
1995, which is said to have begun in mutual recriminations over a 
"fight" in which Peters' son was beaten by several youths, including 
members of the Britton family. This conflict, in turn, had its roots in a 
long-standing hostility, a feud, between various members of the Britton 
family and of the Lincoln-Peters group, going back at least ten years. 
Sheriff's officers assigned to the local area were well aware of the 
enmity between these groups, and often took sides with the Britton 
belligerents against the others.
	According to reports, Peters and Britton argued and threatened 
each other with increasing heat until both men went to get guns from 
their vehicles, in the high school parking lot at Covelo; apparently 
Peters was quicker and Britton was shot dead.
	On information and belief, events thereafter were as follows: A 
police dragnet invaded the reservation in stormtrooper fashion, seeking 
Arylis Peters. Deputies Miller and Davis at some point positioned 
themselves near the intersection of a fire trail with Little Valley Road, 
in a remote part of the reservation. They hid in the darkness, 
presumably lying in wait for Arylis Peters. 
	In darkness, the officers saw someone walking up the trail 
carrying a rifle. Without warning or identifying themselves, they 
ambushed and shot and killed Arylis Peters' brother, Acorn Peters, and 
continued the assault against Bear Lincoln, who was walking behind 
Acorn. He returned fire and fled for his life. Reports suggest that Deputy 
Davis was killed by Deputy Miller, firing into the darkness.
	Bear Lincoln became the object of a massive purported manhunt, 
in the course of which the violations and abuses complained of herein 
occurred. He has now turned himself and been jailed, and indicted for 
murdering Davis and Peters, and attempted murder of Deputy Miller. 
The history of violations and injury alleged by the Claimants is as 
follows:

THE ASSAULT ON THE LINCOLN FAMILY

	The first episode occurred only a very short time after the 
shooting on Little Valley Road, when claimants LUCILLE LINCOLN, 
ERIC LINCOLN, CARLOS LINCOLN, DEBORAH LINCOLN, and 
SHARLISA UNCA SAM, with four very young children, frightened by 
this large amount of gunfire close to their house, and believing they 
were in danger from members of the Britton family seeking revenge for 
the earlier shooting, tried to leave the area in a truck. They stopped a 
short distance from their house when their headlights showed the body 
of a man lying in the road in front of them.
	Ms. Lincoln stopped and leaned out the window to see. Just as 
she could recognize Peters, brother of the man being sought in the 
earlier shooting, a voice rang out: "Turn out your lights or we'll blow 
your fucking heads off." As she did so, bright spotlights came on all 
around them, and angry male voices shouted at them to "get out of the 
fucking truck or we'll blow your fucking heads off."
	Blinded by the lights and frightened by the threats and curses of 
many officers in the darkness, the Claimants were forced to lie down in 
the dirt, or thrown down, and handcuffed; the babies were crying, Acorn 
Peters lay in the road in a pool of blood, and freaked-out sheriff's 
deputies and highway patrol officers were screaming at two-year olds to 
put their fucking hands in the air.
	Here is what happened to Ms. Lincoln, who is 60 years old. When 
she stopped the car and got out, she had to step over the body of Acorn 
Peters, who lay in the road unattended. She began to protest being 
stopped and screamed at, and a voice called her by name from the 
darkness and told her to keep quiet. She was led out of the light and told 
by an officer to get on the ground. She said she was crippled and he said, 
"Fuck the cripple."
	This officer then pushed her to the ground and handcuffed her 
behind her back. He shouted at her don't move, shut up. He pulled her 
up and put her in a police car. Then he dragged her out the other side of 
the car by her feet. He ordered her to run to another car; when she said 
she couldn't run he said, "Do the bunny hop," and she fell down again. 
He yanked her to her feet by her coat and shoved her into another 
police car.
	All the adults were handcuffed while the babies sat in the truck, 
crying. Eric Lincoln was walked away from the others by an officer he 
believes was Deputy Miller, who accused him of lying about Arylis 
Peters in an encounter about an hour earlier, and threatened to put his 
shotgun up Eric's butt and kill him.  Deputy Miller made three separate 
threats to kill Eric Lincoln.  The police took everyone to the high school 
and questioned them for about an hour. Their truck was impounded for 
no good reason, and they were told they couldn't return home because 
officers were in the area searching for Arylis Peters. It was a week and 
more before the truck was returned and the family allowed to return to 
their home. 

THE POLICE CAMPAIGN OF MASS PUNISHMENT

	In the following days and weeks, members of the Peters and 
Lincoln families and others connected to them suffered non-stop 
nastiness, threats and intimidation from various deputies, CHP officers, 
a blond woman -- believed to be Diane Welton of the U.S. Forest 
Service, who wore unmarked fatigues and played a leading role in the 
harassment of these Claimants, carrying an assault rifle which she 
menacingly brandished and pointed at Indian people, especially 
children and elders she knew or should have known were unarmed, 
and often paralyzed with fright -- and others, including mysterious 
units of black- or camo-clad, gun-wielding sapper-type combat troops of 
some kind, repeatedly seen skulking about in the forest background at 
locations where police rousting and harassment of various Claimants 
occurred.
	These individual officers and cadres persistently carried out the 
Respondent agencies' deliberate terror campaign against Claimants in 
revenge for the death of Deputy Davis.  In particular, this campaign and 
the unconstitutional, non-immune conduct of the Respondent officers 
which comprised it, continued to unfold after the shootings and the 
above-described non-lethal ambush of the Lincoln Family in 
Grandmother's truck, as follows: 

APRIL 16, 1995. 

	PERRY LINCOLN was arbitrarily arrested on the street in Ukiah 
on April 16; his truck was searched without warrant or probable cause, 
and his wife was told he would be released if he told police where Bear 
Lincoln was. Later, on/about May 10, he was surrounded in a grocery 
store parking lot in Fort Bragg by officers pointing guns at him; they said 
they thought he was Bear Lincoln. A week later he was followed on the 
highway, with his wife and children, by highway patrol cars. He stopped 
in French's Camp and five CHP cars surrounded him, officers with 
guns drawn and pointing.
	Three officers pointed a pistol, a rifle and a shotgun at his head, 
while others pointed their guns at his family. His wife was handcuffed.  
He was interrogated about Bear Lincoln and his truck was searched. 
Perry and his family were rousted again at gunpoint by CHP officers 
later in May; he was arrested and the car was searched without a 
warrant or probable cause.
	In June Perry Lincoln was stopped in Covelo by an officer who 
made a U-turn when he passed him, and demanded to know where 
Bear Lincoln was. When Perry asked why he was stopped, the officer 
said, "I'll find something."

	DOREEN HOAGLEN was first stopped on April 16, 1995, by 
officers, including TIM ELLIS, on the pretext that she had a broken 
windshield. Ellis was insinuating and intimidating. She was 
subsequently stopped and harassed a number of times by various 
officers, also including SHANNON BARNEY, including on April 29, 
May 2 or 3, May 6, and on two or three more occasions later in May. 
Once she was arrested, supposedly for drugs, then released in Ukiah at 
4:00 a.m.  She had her car towed for no reason, was repeatedly talked to 
and jibed at menacingly, questioned about Bear Lincoln, and on one 
occasion "felt up" in a series of unlawful, sexually assaultive and 
perverted searches of her person by officers including Deputy Tim Ellis, 
who said to her, "I told you I'd get you." 

	ERNEST LEGGETT had his home invaded and searched by 
officers including Barney, Gourley and the Blond Woman, who came 
with drawn guns and insisted on looking inside for Bear Lincoln.  They 
took a rifle which belonged to a friend, and have never returned it to 
Leggett or the owner, whom they promised to notify of the seizure, but 
didn't. 

	FINNIS JOHNSON was accosted by Deputy Tim Ellis and two 
other men on April 16 or 17; one man said he was the Coroner. They 
questioned him, and accused him of having helped Bear Lincoln escape. 
They detained him for two hours, and searched his truck without 
warrant or probable cause. 

APRIL 17, 1995

	On April 17, 1995, sheriff's deputies and other officers made a 
roundup of friends and associates of Bear Lincoln, arresting as many as 
ten members of this Claimant class on bogus charges, expired or 
discharged warrants or other pretexts, for the purpose of punishment, 
intimidation and coercion. On information and belief, the roundup was 
ordered with the knowledge and agreement of Sheriff Tuso, Captain 
Berle Murray, and others in positions of command and supervisory 
responsibility in the Sheriff's Department, the CHP and other agencies. 
In the roundup: 

	JASON REBOCA was awakened at his mother's home that 
morning by Shannon Barney and a CHP officer. Barney told him he was 
under arrest on a warrant. Numerous other officers were outside with 
guns, including assault rifles, trained on the house and on Jason when 
he emerged in handcuffs. There was no valid warrant against him, but 
only a previous license offense which had been resolved, and Deputy 
Barney knew it was resolved. Jason was arrested without probable cause 
and pursuant to an unlawful policy of the Sheriff's Department to 
intimidate, coerce and punish the Lincoln clan.
	With Jason in the van the officers continued a sweep of the 
reservation, stopping at many houses and taking several men into 
custody, all of them related to Bear Lincoln or the Peters brothers by 
blood, marriage or other ties. At several houses they again set up 
menacing armed perimeters, with automatic weapons pointed at 
houses they knew to be occupied by families with children.
	It was their intention and policy to terrify and punish all those 
residents, including the children, especially the children. Jason Reboca's 
mother, CONNIE REBOCA, Was in the house with three 
grandchildren, aged 8, 3 and 1.  She saw a uniformed man pointing "the 
biggest gun I had ever seen" at her house. The police continued to drive 
back and forth past her house many times a day afterward. She is 
frightened and depressed. Jason was stopped by the CHP for no reason 
on/about April 26 and hassled. 

	FRANK HOAGLEN was arrested in this round-up also. His 
home had been invaded and searched without a warrant early the night 
of April 14 by Deputy Bob Davis and three or four other deputies and a 
man in plainclothes. He had been checked out that night and there was 
no warrant; now Shannon Barney said he was wanted for shooting a 
deer. Living on the reservation, he has deer tags, as Barney & co. well 
knew.
	Hoaglen was also arrested as part of an illegal round-up meant as 
intimidation and illicit punishment and revenge, ordained by the 
Sheriff's Department chain of command; a matter of policy. People 
grabbed in the round-up were kept handcuffed inside a police van, and 
not permitted to use the bathroom, for hours on end, to make them 
suffer, and punish them, for being related to Bear Lincoln, and being 
Indian. On information and belief as many as ten people were illegally 
bagged up and held in punitive custody in this terror sweep by the 
Mendocino County Sheriff's department.
	MCSO Officers AL TRIPP and ROY GOURLEY (Sonoma County) 
continued to harass and pester Frank Hoaglen about Bear Lincoln for 
days and weeks after the sweep. 

	JACK SCRIBNER was also taken into custody by the sweep party, 
meeting them on the road after learning they had been to his house. 
Officers had gone to his house with drawn guns, which were 
brandished in front of children, to frighten them. Deputy Barney told a 
neighbor, "We are here to make a point."
	The warrant was for a traffic ticket issued to Scribner's father; 
Barney et al knew this or should have known, from the address. 
Scribner was held in custody for eight hours and, like the others, let out 
in the middle of the night in faraway Ukiah to punish him for the 
supposed offense of Bear Lincoln, and for being Indian. 

	EDWIN DUNCAN was also illegally taken in the sweep. During 
the arrest of Edwin, his sister, Sylvia Duncan was told by a deputy, "It 
would be better for Ed if you would just tell us where Bear is."

	KATHLEEN "NIA" GREENE was arrested by officers including 
BARNEY & Gourley on April 17 or 18.  Although she was sick and 
injured, she was denied medical attention, and food. she was held in 
jail for eight days on various pretexts and questioned repeatedly about 
Bear Lincoln, particularly by Gourley, although he and other officers 
well knew she had no information. When first arrested, she was held in 
a vehicle for five hours or more and forbidden to go to the bathroom, 
despite that she suffers from a kidney disorder. After her release she was 
repeatedly accosted and harassed by Barney, Ellis and other Mendocino 
deputies.

	JAMES MAXWELL and NATHAN BURGESS were stopped and 
searched by a large squad of 14-16 officers including Deputy Ellis and Ms. 
Welton of USFS, and questioned by a man in plain clothes. They were 
taken to jail in Ukiah and held for four days, then released without 
charge. 

	AGNES DUNCAN and BARBARA FREEMAN had their homes 
searched by Barney & co. on this day; and Lucille, Eric and Carlos 
Lincoln were stopped and hassled by the CHP driving to Willits. 

	The Sheriff's Department thoughtfully brought along the media 
to witness the roundup operation and caravan to the jail, so the event 
could be broadcast on television, the better to stir up fear and race hate 
against the Claimants and Bear Lincoln among the public, and the jury 
pool. The arrests in this roundup of April 17, like other later arrests, 
were made in bad faith, on pretext and with evil, racist motive, without 
probable cause, for the purpose of imposing unconstitutional 
punishment, revenge and intimidation on these Claimants. 

APRIL 18, 1995. 

	Officers including Shannon Barney entered the home of ANNE 
and DAVID FREASE while they were away and only children were 
present. They questioned the children about Bear Lincoln; they had 
been to the house the day before and the day before that. On 4/17 they 
brought David's parole officer, and purported to do a parole search.  
They were visited and searched again on the 19th, and told by an officer, 
"we can come here and search your house any damn time we want."  
Pure harassment. 

	Officers again visited the home of SYLVIA DUNCAN while no 
adults were home and again brandished drawn guns and pointed them 
at children, to frighten them; children, including HANK WHIPPLE and 
LEONARD WHIPPLE were interrogated and intimidated, and officers 
pushed past them into the house despite the children's refusals to agree 
to their entry. 

	STEVE LUNA was arrested by deputy SMALLCOMB and other 
officers, including the blond woman without a uniform who carried an 
assault weapon. The officers ignored his request for a lawyer, searched 
his car, and took him to a CDF station. When his mother, LEONA 
LUNA came to see about him with PAT LINCOLN and his wife 
EDWINA LINCOLN, they were surrounded by officers who pointed 
guns at them in the parking lot and searched their vehicle without 
warrant or probable cause. They told Ms. Luna they wanted to search 
her house. When she asked if they had a warrant they told her that if 
they obtained one, she would not be allowed to go back to her house. 
Knowing Lucille Lincoln's house had been illegally quarantined by 
sheriff's officers for more than a week, she submitted to the search. 

	SANDRA McCLOUD was followed home by officers who 
intimidated her and the children with her. Officer STEPHANI gave her 
a false speeding ticket. 

APRIL 19, 1995, and After:

	DELLA BYE, PETER BYE and their daughter were riding bicycles 
on Hulls Valley Road when they came upon several people with guns 
in their hands, looking in the other direction. When the Byes 
approached the group all turned and pointed their guns at them. They 
were stopped and interrogated by these people-who included the blond 
woman believed to be Diane Welton and several additional men all 
dressed in black who were hiding in the bushes. They were stopped 
again and questioned when they passed back by that way. 

	ELISTE REEVES came home to find that officers with drawn guns 
had entered her house, where they terrified PHILIP REEVES, age 9, and 
LUIS ALVAREZ, age 10; they searched the house without a warrant and 
questioned and intimidated the two boys with no adult present. 

	SONYA LINCOLN was harassed, threatened and intimidated by 
deputies, including Shannon Barney, on April 19, 25 and 26, 1995. ANN 
MARIE MARUFO and CHARLOTTE SMITH and CHERIE SMITH were 
harassed and intimidated by deputies Barney, Ellis and KENDALL-and 
CHP Ofcr. SENSERI on or about April 24, 1995. EMMIT SIMMONS was 
accosted at the site of the shooting of Acorn Peters and Dep. Davis by 
Deputy Ellis and eight unknown officers in blue jump suits. GARY 
NOVA was arrested and questioned about Bear Lincoln at a 
government building for two hours on a day late in April by Mendo 
deputies, CHP officers and FBI agents. ALLEN FRAZIER was tracked 
from the woods with a weird laser sighting device wielded by men in 
Camo suits who shined a red beam in his eyes from the woods as he 
drove along the Covelo Road on May 26, 1995. 

CLASS CLAIM

	This list goes on to include others not yet interviewed, some who 
have yet to make their inclusion in the list of victims known to 
investigators, others residing at other rancherias in northern California 
where similar and connected abuses are reported to have occurred, and, 
importantly, a number of children whose involvement as victims has 
not yet been verified.
	This claim is therefore lodged on behalf of the above named 
individuals for themselves and others similarly situated as victims of 
acts of threat, intimidation or coercion and/or violence or the threat of 
violence directed at them because of their race and/or their association 
with the Lincoln and Peters families, as a class.
	The said class, and this Claim on behalf of its individual 
members, and each of them, is intended to include each adult and 
minor child who has been so harassed by Respondents as part of the 
above-described campaign of vengeance between April 14, 1995, and the 
present. 

October 11, 1995.

	signed,
	Dennis Cunningham
	Attorney for the Claimants

Front Page