Forwarded from another mailing list...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 13:54:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dale Seago <itachi(a)crl4.crl.com>
To: (distribution deleted)
Subject: On The Importance Of "Image"
<snip>
A few weeks ago one of my dojo students, Rex Biteng, took some
photos to be used in an article for a on-line magazine for which
Rex writes. The photos featured Rex, another of my students named
Robert Candelaria, and a friend of theirs holding some firearms
owned (quite legally) by this third party.
Rex took the photos to a chain called Costco, which offers a photo
developing service (okay, you can see it coming already, right?).
Next thing he knows, people at his bank are telling him that police
of- ficers have been showing these photos around and asking
questions about his financial affairs. According to Rex, before he
picked up the devel- oped photos, someone had seen the guns, called
the police, and said they had some photos of gang members with
guns.
Rex asked me whether I thought he should get a lawyer and go after
Costco, and my response was "definitely". Rex is in the middle of
the hiring process to become an officer with the San Francisco Po-
lice Department, and I warned him that this would almost certainly
arise and bite him when they got to the background investigation
phase. He ultimately decided to drop the matter: figured that he
didn't have the money for a lawyer, wasn't interested in creating
further problems or getting anyone in trouble, and the police
hadn't bothered to con- tact and talk with HIM so apparently the
matter had been dropped. Then I received his e-mail message, below:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 13:22:58 -0800
From: (Rex Biteng)
To: dale seago <itachi(a)crl.com>
Subject: It happened!!!!
Dale,
Hows it going there??? Well, let me tell you of the recent drama.
Feel free to tell anyone you want. At 0700 this morning the santa
rosa pd, rohnert park pd, and the sonoma sherriffs (gang task
force) raided Robert and my house simultaneously. It was very
depressing. A full swat team with their mp-5's and riot shot-guns
compleate with their kevlar helmets, black bdu-s and riot shields
put my brother, me, my uncle (who is a retired Philippine Marine
officer and saw combat duty during his service), and my old
grandfather, in hand-cuffs face down. Let me tell you that it is a
very scary feeling to have a mp-5 with the safty off pointed at
your back when you are truly innocent. They served me a search
warrant and confiscated my brothers telescopic baton, my black
ruck-sack which included my black bdu's and my tabi that I use for
Bujinkan and a photo album of mine with some of the gun pictures in
it. It's funny because in that same albulm I have my Guardian Angel
pictures in there plus some pictures of when I was at Airborne
school in ft. Benning.
I told them the whole story and I even had to explain my bdu's that
I use for Bujinkan. The investigator told me 'as if he was a expert
in the martial arts' that dosen't your dojo use gi's and have
ranking systems. I had to explain that Bujinkan is not a normal
style that he was use to. In fact, One of the investigatiors who I
will not say, treated me as if I was a dumb unintelligent nit.
Trying to make me say things that were not true. I even had to
explain about a little ninja dash ornament that Jason and I have in
mine and his car. I told them about having an attorney present but
he just told me that if i had nothing to hide to tell him the
information that I knew. So I told them everything. Apparently, I
guess you now have to prove your innocence instead of being
innocent untill proven guilty.
I don't know how Robert faired because I haven't been able to talk
to him yet. But I'll keep you up to date on what happens.
Your Bujinkan Warrior,
Rex
(End of forwarded message)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The following night in the dojo I also was able to get Robert's
side of things. Pretty much the same story: They cuffed Robert and
told his father and stepmother to get out, at which point Robert's
62-year- old stepmother sort of "lost it" and snapped back to her
girlhood in France, when the Nazi soldiers came to her village and
behaved the same way. She actually attacked one of these modern
ones and knocked the fine German-made HK MP5 submachine gun out of
his hands.
No firearms were found at either residence, and no one was taken
into custody. They tried to question Robert, but he informed them
that they were welcome to search for the items specified on the
warrant, but that if they found nothing and wished to question him
about anything else, they would have to arrest him and take him to
the station, whereupon he would answer questions only in the
presence of an attorney.
What, specifically, were they looking for? Following are ex- tracts
from the search warrant:
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF SONOMA
SEARCH WARRANT
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, to any sheriff, policeman, or
peace officer in the County of Sonoma:
PROOF, by affidavit, having been made before me by DEPUTY
(deleted), SONOMA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, that there is
probable cause to believe that the property described herein may be
found at the locations set forth herein and that it is seizable
pursuant to Penal Code 1524, as indicated below by "X"(s), in that
it:
(3 of 5 possible choices were "x'd")
X was used as the means of committing a felony
X is possessed by a person with the intent to use it as a means of
committing a public offense or is possessed by another to whom he
may have delivered it for the purpose of concealing it or
preventing its discovery
X is evidence which tends to show that a felony has been committed
or a particular person has committed a felony
you are therefore COMMANDED TO SEARCH the premises located at
and described as: (followed by addresses and descriptions of
Rex's & Robert'sresidences and vehicles) and the persons of
(followed by Rex's & Robert's names and physical descriptions;
and)
3. Subject #3, the person depicted in the attached photographs,
should he be present at either location; for the following property:
1. AK-47 variant, 7.62x39 with Choate handguards and thumb hole
stock with thirty round magazine. This weapon is defined as an assault
weapon by 12276(a)(1) PC, which covers the AK-47 and all of its variants;
2. Chicom SKS, 7.62x39 with folding stock and thirty round de-
tachable magazine. This weapon is defined as an assault weapon by 12276
(a)(11) PC, when it has a detachable magazine;
3. Any miscellaneous gun pieces, ammunition, gun cleaning items
or kits, holsters, ammunition belts, original box packaging, targets,
expended pieces of lead, photographs of firearms or any paper work show-
ing the purchase, storage, disposition or dominion or control over any
guns, ammunition or any of the above items;
4. Articles of personal property tending to establish the ident-
ity of persons in control of any premises, storage areas or containers
being searched, such as utility company receipts, rent receipts, charge
card receipts, tax receipts, airplane tickets and other receipts, checks,
deposit slips, savings account passbooks, passports, drivers licenses,
vehicle registrations/titles, land titles, escrow papers, legal docu-
ments, Social Security cards, Food Stamps, Medi-Cal cards, insurance
bills and/or policies, medical records, prescriptions and prescription
bottles, doctor bills, hospital bills, cancelled mail, addressed envel-
opes, photographs, weapons with serial numbers, keys and safes;
5. To search and/or seize any and all computer equipment, in-
cluding any and all storage media, either hardware or software, located
within said residence for evidence relating to this crime;
6. Any and all electronic day planners located within said res-
idence for any and all evidence pertaining to this crime;
You are authorized to defeat any and all security and/or pass-
words; and to SEIZE it if found and bring it forthwith before me, or
this court, at the courthouse of this court.
(signed by the issuing magistrate)
(end of warrant excerpts)
The firearms in question, as I mentioned earlier, are actually
owned by a friend of Rex's & Robert's in the Sacramento area.
Robert told the Naz. . I mean, the Nice Officers who the individual
is and where he lives. How did the folks in the Sacramento
jurisdiction handle it with this third guy? Couple o' folks came to
his house, talked with him, looked at the weapons and determined
that they either are not the statutorily defined assault weapons
mentioned in the warrant (it IS hard to distinguish a lot of these
carbines from each other from a pho- tograph alone); or, if they
are the weapons described, they are none- theless legally possessed
by the owner. And they left, with no arrest of confiscations.
Rex, Robert, and their respective families should at this point (in
my humble lay opinion) have excellent cases against both Costco
(for slander and defamation; also for loss of future income in
Rex's case if the San Francisco Police Department now refuses to
hire him) and (at least) the Sonoma County Sheriff's department. An
important as- pect of self-defense (and of ninpo, for that matter)
is to have the right sorts of connections to get things done, and
I've contacted an attorney who is interested in looking into the
matter. For the record: Yes, I most certainly WILL "go to war",
metaphorically speaking, for my people.
Regards,
Dale Seago
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