Attorney General Wants $200,000 To Free Pun & Craig

ATTORNEY GENERAL WANTS $200,000 to FREE PUN & CRAIG

Pun Plamondon and Craig Blazier, both members of the Rainbow People's Party (RPP), were arrested in Ann Arbor on the afternoon of March 1, in a pair of raids synchronized and directed by Frank Kelley's state attorney general's office. They were immediately whisked upstate while their lawyer was forced to wait in the lobby of the Ann Arbor Police Department.

Both brothers are now being held on an exorbitant bond of $100,000 -- requested by two special prosecutors from Kelley's office - in a county jail in Beulah, Michigan, about 250 miles north of Ann Arbor. They are awaiting a March 12 preliminary exam on charges of conspiracy to extort (25 years), extortion (25 years), armed robbery (life) and usury (5 years).

RPP spokespersons have said that the charges are false and are part of an organized attack to destroy viable alternative political organizations like the RPP.

"I'm confident that we will be able to prove both Pun and Craig innocent as we have in the past with other trumped-up charges, " explained Genie Plamondon, Pun 's partner. According to Kelley's office, which issued a rare press release to all media, the charges in this case come from an admitted rip-off artist named Uwe Wagner, alias Uwe Wheeler, who was exposed in an article in the Jan. 23 issue of the SUN (which is reprinted above.)

It appears that, after the article appeared, Wagner concocted a story to smear the RPP, either by himself or with the help of police.

Such a tactic is not unusual in the history of government dealing with the RPP and its precedes for, the White Panther Party.

In 1969 Pun and two other brothers were charged with bombing a secret CIA office in Ann Arbor. That case was based on the word of David Valler, who admitted the bombing but who tried to implicate the others so he could be granted immunity.

The bombing charges were later dropped, as were all other charges against Pun-with the exception of carrying a false draft card, use of marijuana, and being drunk and disorderly in high school.

Craig has no other convictions except for one juvenile misdemeanor offense.

Yet Kelley's office apparently still believes in this testimony, long since debunked, given to a notorious state cop:

"Gentleman, based on the information we obtained through other normal police functions we would have to consider the White Panther Party as an organization bent on the total destruction of the present government and detrimental to the welfare of this country."

The current charges against Pun and Craig seem to be based on this accusation Pun and Craig, however, have spent most of the past year helping to build the People's Ballroom and helping to repair the RPP houses. Pun has also been active in the Michigan Committee for prisoners Rights.

The RPP is asking that donations to aid Pun and Craig's defense be sent to RPP Legal Defense Fund, 1520 Hill Street, in Ann Arbor.

Beware of Rip-off!

The SUN has learned from members of a commune near Ann Arbor of an outrageous rip-off of a substantial sum for their communal money by a "brother" who frequents the Ann Arbor area from time to time. Since this information has been confirmed by disinterested witnesses and since this "brother" may well intend to rip-off some of his other "friends", the SUN feels compelled to identify him as a public service. This dude's name is Uwe (pronounced "oo-vay") Wheeler. He's about 19, about 5'6" tall, weighs about 145, has brown semi-shoulder length hair, and speaks with a heavy German accent.

Wheeler is supposedly staying in the Traverse City-Elk Rapids area.

SUN Editorial Board