While driving through
Oakland, California on their way to a benefit concert for the
Redwood Summer campaign to save California's
coast redwood trees, activists
Judi Bari and
Darryl Cherney were injured when a
pipe bomb detonated under the driver's seat of Bari's car. Bari, who was driving, was critically injured. Oakland police and the FBI approached the explosion as a terrorist incident, and arrested Bari and Cherney. In their investigation, they tried to prove that the activists were transporting an explosive device that accidentally detonated. The two were never charged with a crime. They filed a civil rights lawsuit in 1991 against these law enforcement organizations for violation of their constitutional rights. In 2002 they won the lawsuit (Bari had died of breast cancer in 1997). Cherney and the late Bari's estate were awarded $4.4 million, to be paid by the FBI and Oakland Police Department. The authorities allegedly did not investigate any other suspects. Discovery during the lawsuit revealed crime scene photos that clearly showed the bomb was located under Bari's seat, not in the back seat as investigators had alleged. == Reception ==