US vs LEONARD PELTIER
TRIAL TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS
Case Number CR77-3003

LAWRENCE DOLEY WHITE EYES, OGLALA HOUSING RESIDENT



VOLUME 3
 

MR. CROOKS:  Your Honor, if it please the Court, the United States would call Mr. Lawrence Doley White Eyes.
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 LAWRENCE DOLEY WHITE EYES, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
 DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. CROOKS:
 Q  Mr. White Eyes, would you repeat your name again for the record.
 A  Lawrence White Eyes.
 Q  And you are here pursuant to government Subpoena, are you not?
 A  Yes.
 Q  Where do you live, Lawrence?
 A  I live in Pine Ridge.
 Q  And have you lived in Pine Ridge area all your life?
 A  Yeah.
 Q  And you're an enrolled member of the tribe there, is that correct?
 A  Yes, sir.
 Q  Mr. White Eyes, I'd like to call your attention back to June 26th, 1975, and you recall that this was the day of the shooting involving the two FBI agents?
 A  Yes, sir.
 Q  On the morning of that day where were you?
 A  In the Oglala housing area.
 Q  That is in the village of Oglala itself?
 A  Uh-huh.
 Q  Whose home were you at?
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 A  Young. LaVonne Young.
 Q  And during the morning hours of that day were there some visitors that came to the door?
 A  Yes.
 Q  Was there anybody in the house other than yourself?
 A  No. Just me.
 Q  Who did the visitors identify themselves as being?
 A  Williams and Coler.
 Q  And who did they work for?
 A  They worked for the FBI.
 Q  And about what time of the day was it when they came to the door?
 A  Somewhere around 9:00 o'clock, 9:30 or 10:00, something like that.
 Q  When they came to the door, did they say what they wanted?
 A  They wanted to know if Jimmy Eagle was there.
 Q  Now is Jimmy Eagle a guy you knew?
 A  Yeah. I knew him.
 Q  You'd known him for some time?
 A  Oh, maybe a year or so.
 Q  So at least you knew who they were talking about?
 A  Uh-huh.
 Q  Did they say what they wanted with Jimmy Eagle?
 A  No, they didn't. They just said they wanted to know if he was there.
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 Q  Were looking for him?
 A  Yes.
 Q  They didn't say whether they had a warrant or what charges or anything of that nature, is that correct?
 A  No.
 Q  They just were looking for him?
 A  Yes.
 Q  Was Jimmy Eagle there?
 A  No.
 Q  Did you tell him, what if anything did you tell him about Jimmy Eagle?
 A  I just told him he wasn't there.
 Q  And did you tell him how long had it been since you'd seen him?
 A  No. They didn't ask me.
 Q  In any event, did they search the house or do anything else other than ask if he was there?
 A  No, they didn't. They just asked whether he was there or not.
 Q  And in fact Jimmy Eagle wasn't there, is that correct?
 A  No, he wasn't.
 Q  You were the only one in the house?
 A  I was the only one there; yeah.
 Q  Mr. White Eyes, I'd like to show you two pictures, Government's Exhibit No. 28 and Government's Exhibit No. 27 which has been {437} identified as pictures of Special Agents Williams and Coler and I'd ask you to look at those two pictures and tell me whether or not those were the two young agents that came to see you on that morning.
 A  Yeah. Them are the two. They're the ones.
 Q  Do you recall which of the two guys, two agents came up to the door, or did both of them come up?
 A  No. Mr. Williams the one that came up to the door.
 Q  So he would be the darker haired individual?
 A  Yes.
 Q  It would be this picture?
 A  Yes.
 Q  27?
 A  Uh-huh.
 Q  And the other man, where did he go or what did he do?
 A  He stayed down on the pavement, on the sidewalk.
 Q  Now insofar as Special Agent Coler, at the time that you saw him was there any difference in his appearance such as a beard or moustache?
 A  He had a moustache.
 Q  He had a moustache?
 A  Yes.
 Q  Which is different from this picture in Exhibit 28?
 A  Yes.
 Q  Now insofar as the two agents are concerned, did they come {438} in one car or two cars?
 A  They came in two cars.
 Q  Could you describe those cars for us?
 A  One was a green one, one was a tan one.
 Q  A green one and a tan one?
 A  Yeah.
 Q  The green one, do you know what make that it was?
 A  No, I don't.
 Q  Was it a dark green or a light pea green or what color green?
 A  Kind of a light green like.
 Q  And when they left, did they leave in both cars or did they leave one car there for some reason?
 A  No. They both went in both cars.
 Q  Now do you know from your own observations which car belonged to which agent?
 A  No, I don't. I didn't see them get back in the car.
 Q  You didn't see them drive up?
 A  No. I didn't see them drive up.
 Q  The first you saw them would have been when they came to the door?
 A  Yeah. When they knocked at the door.
 Q  What did you do after that, Mr. White Eyes?
 A  After they talked to me?
 Q  Yes.
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 A  I went, oh, I stuck around there for maybe an hour, something like that, then I went to the post office.
 Q  How much after they were there did you learn of the shooting?
 A  When I went to the post office.
 Q  Well, would that have been an hour?
 A  Oh, maybe an hour, hour and a half or something like that.
 Q  Hour, hour and a half or so?
 A  Something like that.
 Q  Then you had heard there'd been a shooting and two agents had been shot?
 A  I didn't know whether anybody was shot. They said there was a shooting.
 Q  I'm sorry. I stand corrected. You heard about a shooting?
 A  Uh-huh.
 MR. CROOKS:  That's all the questions we have, Your Honor.
 MR. TAIKEFF:  We have none, Your Honor.
 THE COURT:  You my step down.
 MR. CROOKS:  We would ask Mr. White Eyes be permanently excused.
 MR. TAIKEFF:  No objection, Your Honor.
 THE COURT:  And you are excused.


TRIAL TRANSCRIPT