Testimony ends in controversial MOVE tril in U.S. District Court

Opposing sides fought for jury'sOpposing sides fought for jury'sattention before deliberationsOpposing sides fought for jury'sattention before deliberationsbega late this week After seven weeks of testimony, the controversial MOVE trial concluded last Friday, June 7 in the U.S. District Court with opposing sides vying for the jury's attention with sound bytes and video images. The racially diverse jury of five women and three men began deliberations this week. Ramona Africa defended on Friday an obscenity-laced broadcast by MOVE hours before the fatal 1985 confrontation with Philadelphia police. The civil lawsuits contend that police used excessive force in trying to evict MOVE members from their heavily fortified rowhouse in West Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. Africa and the other plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages. The confrontation began with a 90-minute gun battle that morning. Later, police bombed the two-story MOVE compound on Osage Avenue in an attempt to destroy a rooftop bunker that MOVE members had used as a center to attack them. During the last day of testimony, Africa made a rare appearance on the stand and admitted to using "vile language" against the hundreds of police officers who had surrounded the group's compound. "We used that as a defense mechanism to back them off," Africa said. "The police thought that they could just rush in on you as defenseless, weak." Last Thursday featured a different type of clash -- one between Africa and her fellow plaintiffs. Africa called her sisters traitors and they said the same of her in the highly publicized event. "They are traitors," Africa said about the two sisters. "They went to the cops and instigated a confrontation." One of the sisters, James Johnson, says Africa is disloyal to her husband, John Africa. The defendants -- the city of Philadelphia and two former top officials -- finished playing a 90-minute police audiotape of threats that MOVE members broadcast over loudspeakers mounted on their rowhouse in West Philadelphia on the day of the confrontation. The plaintiffs -- Africa and relatives of two MOVE members killed that day -- played a videotape of police beating a MOVE member in 1978 during a clash. The 1978 battle was not very serious compared to the one in 1985. Africa was the only adult to emerge alive from the burning building on Osage Avenue. The bomb that started the fire destroyed 61 houses, including MOVE's. Six adults and five children were found dead after in the debris. It was the worst residential fire in the history of Philadelphia. In the 1978 clash, a police officer was killed in a shootout with MOVE. After the killing, police attacked Delbert Africa. He and eight other members of MOVE were sentenced to 30 to 100 years each in prison.

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