Former Black Panther denied bail in police shooting
/- Originally Published by the Globe and Mail [here
] on Thursday, Aug 26, 2004
By JAMES RUSK
Although family and friends were willing to put their life savings on the line as surety for former Black Panther Joseph Pannell, Judge Ian Nordheimer yesterday denied bail to the man accused of shooting a Chicago police officer 35 years ago.
It would not be difficult to foresee a scenario in which Mr. Pannell, who twice skipped bail in the United States, and his wife Natercia Coelho decide that leaving for another jurisdiction would be preferable to facing charges in a U.S. court, Judge Norheimer ruled.
After reviewing the record, he also found that "a conviction on the [U.S.] charges is a very real possibility."
Judge Nordheimer said that while it was obvious from her testimony that Ms. Coelho "loves her husband very much," he noted that she had actively participated in the cover-up under which he lived and worked in Canada under an assumed name, Douglas Gary Freeman.
Ms. Coelho testified that they met at Concordia University in Montreal in 1975 and began dating in 1979.
He was "a person like no other I had ever met. . . . He made me feel I could achieve anything. He made me feel beautiful," testified Ms. Coelho.
She testified that before they were married in Vermont in 1982, he disclosed his real name to her.
They now live in Mississauga and have a family of four children, two of whom are from a previous relationship of Mr. Pannell.
She also said that she knew "there had been a situation in Chicago," that he told her that he had shot a police officer in self-defence, was in Canada illegally and that he feared for his safety if he returned to the United States. When the children were older, they were also told of their father's past, she testified.
Ms. Coelho also testified that, to her knowledge, her husband had never been a member of the Panthers, a militant black group. Police affidavits list him as a member of the Panthers.
His lawyer, Marshall Drukarsh, said that an affidavit from a U.S. law professor, Mark Kadish, who will be part of the team to defend Mr. Pannell if he is extradited, states that, while some Black Panthers referred Mr. Pannell to him in the 1960s, he was not a member.
Federal Crown prosecutor Milica Potrebic Piccinato said that those who offered to support him were not aware of the charges against Mr. Pannell, who is accused of the attempted murder of a Chicago police officer, Terrence Fox, who stopped him in front of a high school on March 7, 1969.
She told the court that Mr. Pannell fired 13 shots, three of which hit the police officer while he sat in his car, and that he subsequently skipped bail twice, the last time in 1974.
