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Notes from the Remand Hearing before Judge Sabo, June 26, 1997

(These are condensed notes of the first hour of testimony taken by Clark Kissinger, and are not a complete or exact transcript.)

The hearing began with a lengthy argument between Mumia's counsel and Judge Sabo over which witnesses would be heard. Sabo maintained that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (PA SC) remand order instructed him to hear only Pamela Jenkins. Defense counsel had subpoenaed a number of collateral witnesses who could testify to various points that Pamela Jenkins was expected to raise. Sabo declared that he would hear only Jenkins. The state's attorney said that the state didn't object to some of the witnesses being heard. Sabo said "I don't care what the state doesn't object to." Sabo kept repeating that if the defense wanted to hear any other witnesses they would have to go back to the state Supreme Court and get a new order.

Len Weinglass argued that the PA SC order was to take testimony "with respect to Pamela Jenkins," which would require hearing other witnesses beside Jenkins. Sabo said: "I don't know what they [PS SC] want. Let them put it in plain English. I will do whatever they want." He said again that he would hear only Jenkins without a new order form the PA SC, and Jenkins was called to the stand.

Since Jenkins was being held in the lock-up, it took a few minutes to get her to the courtroom. During this time Weinglass was allowed to list for the record the other witnesses he had subpoenaed. These included Richard Ryan, Lawrence Brachman, Officer Boston, and "Sarge" (believed to be Louis Mayer) [this list may be incomplete and some names may be spelled wrong]. Then Rachel Wolkenstein renewed the defense team's call for complete disclosure of all evidence held by the state. She itemized some of the Brady material (evidence that should have been turned over under the Brady decision by the US SC) that was withheld and has come to light. This includes the fact that Officer Faulkner had on his person a driver's license or application of Arnold Howard which had been loaned to Kenneth Freeman. She recounted the details of the suspicious death of Kenneth Freeman on the night of the infamous bombing of the MOVE house. And Wolkenstein demanded again that the state produce Cynthia White, stating that White was a police informant and that information was also Brady material.

The state's attorney said that there was no allegation in Pamela Jenkins' affidavit that White was an informant. So Wolkenstein read from the transcript where Jenkins said that she was. Sabo interrupted and said again "we are only going to hear Pamela Jenkins today. You go to the Supreme Court if you want something more. Don't waste my time."

Pamela Jenkins was then brought in and sworn in. Without trying to repeat all the questions and answers (except where important), Jenkins testified as follows: In 1981 she was 15 years old. She was not at 13th and Locust the night of the shooting. She had met officer Tom Ryan when he arrested her for truancy. She began sleeping with him [ed. note: this is statutory rape] and became a paid po-lice informant. She met with Ryan after the shooting of Faulkner, and went with him to the central district. She talked with Tom and Richard Ryan in an interrogation room. "They wanted me to say that I saw Mumia shoot the officer." They kept pressing her to say that she had been there. Tom Ryan had paid her for information previously. But she refused to lie in this case. She heard from them that other cops named Boston, O'Neal and "Sarge" were present at the shooting.

Pamela Jenkins testified that she had know Cynthia White, also known as "Lucky."

Q. Did she have any relationship with the police?
A. Yes.
Q. What was it?
A. Prostitution.

Jenkins testified that Lucky was in fear of the police and that she had then disappeared. Later Ryan wanted Jenkins to help find Lucky, and paid her $150 for that.

Pamela Jenkins was shown her previous affidavit, in which she states that the police had gotten Lucky to testify that Mumia was the shooter [ed. note: other witnesses in the case placed Lucky at a spot where she could not have seen the incident]. Jenkins affirmed that her affidavit was truthful.

Then in a very dramatic turn of events, Weinglass asked Jenkins when she last saw Lucky. She answered "this year"! She said that she saw her at "Yates House," 1326 13th St. "When she saw me, she looked like she saw a ghost, ran out the door and got into Tom Ryan's truck." Jenkins went on to say that this was in early March of this year. The truck was a red pickup and both Tom and Richard Ryan were in the truck. She saw them drive away with Cynthia. Jenkins was there because she was helping an investigator for the defense named Don to track down Cynthia White. After this hap-pened, she wrote out a statement of what she had seen.

The significance of the this revelation is that it supports the contention of the defense that the police are hiding Cynthia White so she cannot be subpoenaed to testify.

Q. Did Cynthia White have any other relationship with the police in '81?

A. Other than tricking?
Q. Yes.
A. She gave them information.

Again, if Cynthia White was a police informant, this is Brady material that should have been disclosed to the defense at the 82 trial.

At this point Weinglass questioned Pamela Jenkins about why she is in custody. According to the testimony, this is what happened: Jenkins, who has been a federal witness in the current police scandals in Philadelphia, contacted the FBI with information about a stolen painting. They came out to see her, and told if she could help return the painting, there would be no charges against her. She did this, and several month went by, during which time she was public and available, but was not charged with anything. Then on May 30 the PS SC ordered the current hearing before Judge Sabo to hear her testimony. A few days later she was arrested by the Philly police on felony charges of re-ceiving stolen property. She has never before been charged with a felony.

At the police station, Officer Richard Ryan said to her "I see you have graduated to the big league." They had some words ending with Pamela telling him to fuck off. He told her "my name better not come out of your mouth."

Pamela also testified to knowing a friend of Ryan's whose street name was "Peanuts."

With regard to her work for the FBI, Jenkins provided testimony against an officer John Baird as well as Tom Ryan. Jenkins had been paid by Baird to lie at his hearing. This deal was recorded, because the FBI had wired Jenkins for sound. Baird is now serving a 13 year sentence.

She also testified before a federal grand jury in the 39th Precinct scandal. The grand jury voted indictments, including against Tom Ryan who was sentenced to only 10 months after he turned state's evidence.

Weinglass tried to question Jenkins about how Baird had hidden her in a motel [to establish how the police hide witnesses], but Sabo would not allow it. Sabo: "Well Baird did it, does that mean the whole police department is corrupt?"

Jenkins was asked if she is currently afraid. She said "only for my kids."

Q. Why?
A. Look what they did to me!

This was the end of the direct examination of Pamela Jenkins.


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