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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday. November 16, 1967
Wichita police accused of rights violation-
Continued from page 1
for a lawyer, quoted Hannon as saying an attorney would be called when he was good and ready to allow them to call one.
Torkelson said Hannon then began lecturing the SDS members on the dangers of membership in a radical left wing organization. "Hannon said Wichita is too small a town to absorb militant groups on the right or the left," Torkelson said, "and he said Wichita wouldn't tolerate these groups."
Torkelson began taking notes of the happenings in Hannon's office. Hannon objected.
Notes taken
"He said, 'No one has the right to take notes while I am speaking,'" Torkelson reported, "and he directed an officer to take the notes from me."
Attorney Nelson said he asked Hannon for the notes and was told they had been destroyed.
"They had no right to do that,"
Nelson said, calling the police action "robbery."
The four SDS members said they were arrested. Hannon said they were "invited."
"We wanted to interview them as witnesses in the case against Blackmon," Hannon said. "We don't arrest witnesses."
The four did say they were given a choice of going to police headquarters willingly or of being arrested. They elected to go willingly, but they, their attorney and Blackmon's attorney contend that they were, in effect, arrested
—and that they were going to be taken to police headquarters regardless of whether they went willingly.
The four remained at police headquarters for more than two hours before Torkelson was allowed to telephone Nelson. They left shortly after Nelson arrived, agreeing to return to be questioned by Secret Service agents later that afternoon.
Nelson said Secret Service agents also attempted to question the SDS members without an attorney present, and that they became "quite upset" when he would not allow them to question his clients either in a group or separately without his presence.
Two agents then interviewed Goodvin concerning Blackmon's alleged threat. After some preliminary questioning, they asked Goodvin how long he had known Blackman.
"About eight months," Goodvin replied.
"Did you ever hear him make any threats against the President?"
The question was asked again and again Goodvin answered no.
"No. he is nonviolent."
The agents asked if Goodvin had ever heard Blackmon say anything derogatory about President Johnson. Nelson objected to the question as being irrelevant.
"There's no reason to continue this questioning," the agent said, according to Nelson. "We'll just be wasting time. We'll let you appear before a grand jury."
"The question about derogatory comments is ridiculous," Nelson said later. "If that could be interpreted as a threat most of the country could be arrested."
The question of what constitutes a threat was also raised by Blackmon's attorney, James Johnston.
"I saw a TV show recently where a comedian made the joke:
'I love my President—in fact, I worship the quicksand he walks on.'
"This was spoken in jest," Johnston continued, "but could it be construed as a threat?"
Blackmon's arrest resulted from a complaint filed before U.S. Commissioner Arthur Johnson by Secret Service agent James Cantrell. The Secret Service acted on information given to the Wichita police by an unidentified informer.
Hannon admitted that one of his agents, Gary Caldwell, infiltrated Wichita State's SDS chapter under the assumed name of Gary Redmond. However, Hannon would not reveal whether Caldwell was the unidentified informer.
A preliminary hearing has been set for Tuesday.
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