And the verdict is…
The jury in former Blue Lake Police Chief Dave Gundersen’s rape trial returned a verdict yesterday, which will be read sometime this morning.
KHUM reports jurors incorrectly filled out their forms and were sent to correct them before the verdict is read.
Developing…
UPDATE: “Not Guilty” on 24 felony counts of rape, but “but guilty of 11 lesser charges of battery, under penal code 242,” according to the Times-Standard. Read the rest.
From the Eureka Reporter:
He was found not guilty of 24 charges of spousal rape with an intoxicant.
For counts 1 – 11, he was found guilty of battery, a lesser charge than spousal rape with an intoxicant.
He was found guilty of unlawful possession of a machine gun and a silencer. He was also found guilty of violating an emergency protective order.
He was found not guilty of attempting to dissuade a witness.
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The Humboldt Herald 
KHUM reports jurors incorrectly filled out their forms and were sent to correct them before the verdict is read.
Do you think the same thing might have happened at the OJ trial some thirteen years ago?
No.
UPDATE
Wow! WTF? ????
-boy
They got him on the weapons charges, but the not guilty verdict on witness intimidation is a real head shaker.
What’s-up with the FPPC stuff and Johnny C. and Tommy Boy?
The weapons charges are unlikely to hold up on appeal.
This is a guy who had a machine gun and a silencer. He was abusive and a Dick. His wife said he fucked her while she slept ….often. He Drugged her and had sex with her. How could you not get a conviction?????? I hope he gets the karmic cum-upings he deserves in prison.
Ooops – First of all I’m sure the guy is a real piece of work and I don’t mean to defend him in any way, but….
The burden of proof has to go beyond what she says. The reason the jurors convicted him on all the other charges is because they feel he did all these things and its the only way to punish him. Clearly there is not enough evidence for the other charges which are based on he said/she said and as far as I know there’s no physical evidence.
Then again I have been ignoring the hell out of this because I find it boring.
Having been on juries before, it is funny how judges really direct what goes on in the jury room. They really parse out the language and most of the time is spent just trying to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing. This is the state where Michael Jackson went free. Juries seem reluctant to convict men with power, authority or fame.
juries seem reluctant to convict on arrant mudslinging, selective immunity, rampant official lying and bullying.
He’s as not guilty as any of Ed Denson’s doper clients, some of whom
have quite potent arsenals, thank you very much.
Well, the difference is Ed Densons clients don’t have to drug their partners in order to have sex with them. The difference is Ed Densons clients aren’t employed to maintain law and order in Blue Lake. And if Ed Densons clients had machine guns with silencers, I’m pretty sure even the great Ed Denson couldn’t get them off.
no you right paving,
Its just hard to imagine the good ol boy system really convincting a fellow “fraternal order brethren” . i have been around enough that i see how power and money allows the OJs and the R kellys get away with…murder. I know first hand how the judicial system works. If you have money “no worries mon”. I was once told that if i tried to sue an off duty cop for a crime i saw him commit “the whole fraternal order would mark me and i would get harassed ever more. when you have a system that has men with guns and power on one side and an unconected citizen on the other, the out come has become woefully predictable.
Heraldo, you are so easy wieghing in on your opinion. A real head shaker? Really? Where in the courtroom were you sitting for ALL of the testimony? Seems you can only call it a head shaker IF you heard the evidence and not depended on what you read in the paper or on the blog.
Ahhhh, but that would call for an unbiased opinion wouldn’t it?
I am so suprised. Nothing here on the demise of Measure T. Maybe if we bury our heads in the sand it will go away.
Did anyone else notice the lack of law enforcement support during this trial? I don’t believe he is considered a comrade to what “ooops” calls the whole fraternal order. Hate to see them painted with the same brush.
Where were the whoops and hollers when the “not guilty” verdicts were read?
let’s hope the law enforcement people are as in shock over this as the rest pf us. Guilty verdict or not, I sure hope the guy can never be a cop again. But somehow I don’t imagine it works like that–maybe he will go to Texas or New Orleans.
There weren’t any Heraldo. Rightly so.
This wasn’t like Douglas – Zanotti. Still, the thing was way overcharged and DG packed an arrogance that sets him apart…way apart from other cops. That’s why he had no sworn friends or supporters and that speaks volumes
Paul failed to control his evidence and his witnesses. Still, Gunner’s style and methods are well know by the folks in Blue Lake. Any conviction is a good thing. I too thought he should have been nailed on the witness tampering.
I have to believe that the jury saw the difference between a personal and a professional arsenal. Good on them. That’s where the jail time begins.
So I think that Paul over-reached and the evidence wasn’t there to convict a resolute failure as a man and as a husband.
Gunner didn’t rape anyone, he was just so pathetic that he couldn’t get love so he opted for control and the wives…bought it.
This jury got it.
pretty damn sad all the way around.
I totally agree Sysyphus. The only real evidence here was the two weapons and the protective order. I can only think that advancing his own career and his wife’s case were the cause of why he charged and dug in on the rape counts.
Now don’t think I am a Gunner defender, far from that. The guy has always given me the creeps, but I am getting tired of our current DA abusing his power by over and mis charging folks for his own agenda.
Gallegos had the evidence in the form of a victim’s statements, and as D.A. he was doing his job of prosecuting serious crimes based on credible evidence. The fact that the witness recanted (giving a combination of ” lies, half-truths and truths” according to the juror quoted in the T-S) was not within his control. Would you prefer that he ignore all serious crimes with any possible prosecutorial issues? Or that he always assume law enforcement personnel can do no wrong. Hey wait, wasn’t that the view of the old regime?
You are way too funny. The woman recanted at the same time she reported. She was under psychiatric care, on psychotropic medication The case should never have been filed. Ity was plain stupid and a waste of time and money.
That being said, it seems that even the battery charges will be thrown out given what I read in the paper this morning. And our idiot of a DA doesn’t even know when the statute of limitations runs on crimes! Wow, that’s illuminating.
under psychiatric care?
If Douglas was still running the Eureka Police Dept., he might have been called on to just send SWAT after the wife.