Opinion ID: 2707
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Testimony of Major Weber

Text: Major Weber testified that he had been informed by Reverend Davis on February 25 that an injunction order was being signed, ordering the cessation of construction work at the site. When Zellner arrived, Weber was waiting for the injunction to arrive so we could put things to rest. (Tr. 94.) Weber and Zellner shook hands, and Weber said to Mr. Zellner, are you the lawyer. He said yes. ( Id. ) Q. When he said yes, . . . what is the next thing that you say happened? A. I said to him, where is the paperwork. Q. Did he respond to you? A. Yes. Q. What did he say? A. He said you keep thesekeep this truck out of here even without the paperwork. ( Id. at 95.) Major Weber testified that when he proceeded to inform Zellner that trucks were coming in to refuel on-site equipment and instructed one of the troopers to let the arriving truck enter, Zellner sat down on the ground. ( See, e.g., id. at 133-34, 176.) Weber stated that at first he thought Zellner had had a heart attack, but Zellner then yelled for everyone else to sit down as well. ( See, e.g., id. at 135, 176.) Weber testified that he was no more than six or eight inches from Zellner at the time, and he described the event as follows: Q. When you were standing that distance from Mr. Zellner, could you describe for the jury how you claim he sat down? A. I shook hands with Mr. Zellner. He introduced himself. I said, are you the lawyer. Mr. Zellner replied, either yes or yeah. I said, where is the paperwork, meaning the injunction. He started saying that you should keep these trucks out without the paperwork. . . . . I explained to Mr. Zellner that the truck was coming in to refuel equipment so they could leave. They already stopped the work. They wanted to leave the scene to go to other projects for the next thirty days, construction projects. They needed some of their equipment. Their purpose was to gas the equipment and leave. With that, Mr. Zellner again said to me, you should keep the trucks out. I was confused. The trucks were going to move out in ten or fifteen minutes. With that I said to him, the trucks are coming in and they [ sic ] are coming in now. And I told my captain . . . [to] get these trucks [ sic ] in because the trucks [ sic ] created a danger to the children that were at the scene. [The captain] proceeded to try to get the trucks [ sic ] in. With that, Mr. Zellner dropped to the ground right in front of me. Q. Okay. Sir, can you describe how Mr. Zellner dropped to the ground? A. Mr. Zellner proceeded down. While attempting to sit down he stated, everybody down, everybody down. Then he either went down on his backside or on his ankles. Q. Sir, when you say either went down on his backside or his ankles, [you] were standing six inches from him? A. Yes. Q. So which was it? A. Either his rectum or his ankles. I am not sure. Q. Sir, he didn't A. This happened in a split second. Q. He didn't sit on his rectum, did he? A. Either sat on his backside or his ankles. Q. Sir, when this happened, that being Mr. Zellner allegedly sitting down on his ankles or his backside, as you indicated, were there other officers standing right behind Mr. Zellner? A. I don't know. Q. Take a look at the picture, sir. Did their position change any? You are looking at [PX] 19-A, right? A. This picture doesn't tell me that Mr. Zellner is going to sit down. He's standing up. . . . . Q. Was the position of the officers with regard to Mr. Zellner different from the point at which [PX] 19-A depicts and the point at which Mr. Zellner sat down on his ankles or his backside? A. At the time, when Mr. Zellner dropped, I didn't notice any troopers around him. Nor was I looking for any troopers around him. I was concerned with Mr. Zellner sitting down because at first I thought he was sick. Something was happening right in front of me. He was going down. I was unsure what it was until he stated everybody down, everybody down. Then I knew I had a problem. (Tr. 133-36.) Q. Up to this point that he began dropping, how long had your conversation with the plaintiff lasted? A. Twenty, thirty seconds. Q. When he began dropping, what was your reaction? Did you think you had probable cause of anyfor an arrest of any kind? A. No. . . . . . . . Q. Did he say anything when he was sitting down? A. No. I thought when he started going down, this had never happened to me before, I thought I had somebody sick on myI thought I had a heart attack on my hands. He started going down. Okay. Then when he started yelling, everybody down, everybody down, I knew I had what we call passive resistance. He was going to sit down and try to block traffic and he was going to try to get the twenty, thirty, forty other demonstrators to follow his lead, and I knew I had a problem. I had women and children. If they started squatting in front of that pickup truck, and tribal members or demonstrators started gathering on that pickup truck . . . . . . . I knew I had a problem. If that operator attempted that left-hand turn, people would have been hurt. Q. How many times did the plaintiff yell everybody down? A. I believe, two times. Maybe three. Q. Did you see anyone else sit down? A. No. Q. What did you do when the plaintiff sat down and said everybody down? A. I knew I had to get him. I had two objectives at that point. Get him away from the scene and get the trucks [ sic ] inside the driveway, to defuse the situation. Q. Did you say anything to the plaintiff when he sat down? A. I grabbed him underneathI believehis right armpit with my left arm. I said get up. Q. Did he get up? A. No. Q. What, if anything, was the crowd doing at that point? A. I heard the crowd behind me, yelling and screaming. . . . . Q. . . . . What did you do at that point? A. When Mr. Zellner wouldn't get up, I looked up and I saw two or three troopers there and I said, get him out of here, dis con, which is disorderly conduct. (Tr. 176-78.) At his deposition some 10 months before trial, Major Weber had been asked what Zellner had done that constituted disorderly conduct. Weber's answer had then been: He sat down on a driveway in a paved portion of the road, I don't know exactly where, for the purposes of obstructing vehicle traffic, and I determined that was disorderly conduct. . . . (Tr. 144 (internal quotation marks omitted).)