In parole bid, Chesimard cohort denies killing trooper
Sunday, February 08, 2004
BY JONATHAN SCHUPPE
Star-Ledger Staff
A former Black Liberation Army member imprisoned for the 1973 murder of a state trooper told a parole official last week that he accepts blame for the crime but did not shoot the officer.
In his first account to authorities of the roadside gunbattle, Sundiata Acoli told a hearing officer that he was knocked unconscious while scuffling with Trooper Werner Foerster. When he awoke, he said, the shooting had ended, and he fled with his companions, fellow BLA members James Costan, who was mortally wounded, and Joanne Chesimard.
"I didn't actually shoot him (Foerster), but I take responsibility for it," Acoli, 67, told the State Parole Board official in a telephone interview Wednesday from the federal penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa.
But Acoli also claimed the trooper had tried to pistol-whip him and that he grappled with Foerster "so he couldn't shoot me."
According to authorities, Foerster was shot four times, twice in the head by his own service weapon, after an early morning traffic stop. Chesimard and a second trooper, James Harper, were wounded.
Acoli, born Clark Edward Squire, was convicted in 1974 of first-degree murder for killing Foerster. Chesimard, who also goes by Assata Shakur, was convicted three years later but escaped from prison and fled to Cuba, where she remains the State Police's most wanted fugitive.
Thirty years later, Acoli's parole case has stirred up old animosity between law enforcement authorities and supporters of civil-rights-era black militants. The State Parole Board has been flooded with hundreds of letters from around the world. Two dueling Web sites argue for and against his freedom.
Acoli has never given a statement to police and never testified in court, and there is no record of statements he made in his unsuccessful bid for parole a decade ago. Authorities believe Wednesday's interview, a tape of which was provided to The Star-Ledger, marks the first time Acoli has given his version of the shooting.
"I regret it," Acoli told the hearing officer. He also said, "I won't commit another crime."
But he offered no explanation of who fired the fatal shots.
"You don't remember anything as far as how Trooper Foerster ended up getting shot, I believe it was four times?" the officer asked him.
"Uh, right," Acoli said.
"You don't recall what happened to Trooper Foerster?"
"No."
Yesterday, State Police Sgt. Kevin Tormey called Acoli's account "a fairy tale."
"What he's trying to do is make himself look good in front of the parole board and reduce his involvement in the crime," said Tormey, a terrorism investigator who's been tracking Chesimard for 15 years.
Florence Morgan, one of Acoli's lawyers, would not comment on the parole interview because she had not heard it. But she said what mattered was that Acoli had reformed himself and was no longer a threat.
"Sundiata Acoli has been in prison more than three decades. He's 67 years old, and he's fully rehabilitated. He's gotten positive reports from his prison caseworker. Denial of parole would be the equivalent of a death sentence," Morgan said.
According to authorities, Harper pulled over a white two-door Pontiac sedan for a defective taillight near a New Jersey Turnpike entrance ramp in East Brunswick on May 2, 1973. Acoli was driving, with Chesimard and Costan his passengers. All three were members of the Black Liberation Army, an offshoot of the Black Panther Party that advocated armed revolution and the creation of a separate black state.
Foerster arrived as backup, and patted down Acoli while Harper questioned the others. Foerster found a gun clip on Acoli, shouted to Harper, and that's when authorities say Chesimard pulled out a gun and shot Harper.
In the ensuing gunfight, Harper shot Chesimard and Costan before running to a nearby State Police station for help.
Acoli, Chesimard and Costan got into their car and drove five miles south on the Turnpike, where Chesimard was arrested, and Costan was found dead, lying on top of Foerster's gun. Acoli fled into the woods, where he was caught more than 30 hours later.
In last week's interview, Acoli said that while frisking him, Foerster found his gun and ammunition clip.
"Then I guess he got mad, and he started trying to pistol-whip me. He started pistol-whipping me," Acoli said.
Acoli said he was knocked against the car and heard gunfire. He said he began wrestling with Foerster, who had his service weapon in one hand and Acoli's gun in the other. Acoli said Foerster fired once, but missed him.
"Both of us were just kind of facing each other, and I was holding both of his hands real tight," Acoli said. "We were mostly kind of just jostling around. ... The main thing, I wanted to make sure I held his gun so he couldn't shoot me."
Then, Acoli said, Harper fired at him, grazing him in the head.
"It knocked me out. And when I came to, (Costan) was leaning against the car, and I took him and put him in the car, put Assata in the back seat and drove away."
After the interview, Acoli's hearing officer filled out a report that classified it as "unfavorable."
"Denies shooting of trooper," the officer wrote.
Next, the parole board will solicit comments from prosecutors, Harper and the family of Foerster. Acoli and his supporters will have a chance to respond. Then the case will go to a two-member panel that will travel to Allenwood to interview Acoli.
Then the panel will decide whether he goes free.
Jonathan Schuppe covers criminal justice. He can be reached at (609) 989-0398 or
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