OREGON STANDOFF:  FBI AGENT'S LAWYERS SUGGEST OREGON TROOPER FIRED FIRST SHOTS AT LAVOY FINICUM

"........The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, which led the shooting investigation, and state police have declined to identify the trooper who fatally shot Finicum.  The agencies have turned down repeated public records requests seeking the names, citing threats against the troopers.

Lawyers in the Astarita case have the troopers' names but they're under a court protective order"

Maxine Bernstein-"OregonLive" story 6/13/2018

Oregon authorities have been obsessed with protecting the identities of the two Oregon State Police troopers who fired the shots that killed LaVoy Finicum on January 26, 2016, citing threats against them.

But the defense lawyers for FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita have their names and the threat of character assassination for them is now becoming a reality as the lawyers are suggesting one of the troopers fired the first two shots at LaVoy Finicum instead of Astarita.

The lawyers cite two other incidents involving "Officer 1" and the fatal shooting of civilians that happened before the Finicum shooting.

They are demanding documents about those shootings and asking US District Judge Robert E. Jones to compel their release by the prosecution, which has refused to do so.

The "Brady rule" about sharing of innocence proving evidence by prosecutors has been brought up by the lawyers and its worth noting that Astarita's lead defense lawyer Rob Cary used the "Brady rule" to win his most high profile case in the past, the one involving corruption charges against Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

Are the defense lawyers uncovering something really relevant to their client's innocence or just trying to create doubts through public disclosure of their theory for the jury pool of Oregonians who will be picked beginning July 24th?

How much further will the defense lawyers go to discredit the Oregon police investigation which led to an investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and then federal grand jury indictments against Agent Astarita?

Link below........

"OregonLive" story 6/13/2018