Escaped killer now a $1M target

SOMETIME IN 1984, convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard surfaced in Cuba, about 1,200 miles from the New Jersey prison from which she had escaped five years earlier.

As her exile hits the 25-year mark, a changing political landscape in both countries and the $1 million that dangles over her head have kept authorities in New Jersey hopeful that a break will come.

It's not clear how Chesimard - who now goes by the name Assata Shakur - made it to the Caribbean island, but as long as there's no collateral damage, New Jersey authorities say they don't really care how the former Black Liberation Army member is returned home.

"If she's healthy and walking and talking and there's no carnage in the wake, I don't think there would be issues," said New Jersey State Police Lt. Kevin Tormey, who has been assigned to the case since 1989.

The hefty reward, which jumped from $50,000 to $1 million in 2005, has spurred a slow but steady stream of calls, Tormey said - from bounty hunters, former Cubans and even some anonymous officials within the country itself. Tormey has traveled to at least a dozen countries to conduct interviews.

So far, nothing's panned out.

"We've done more than most people would think, and a lot of it's classified. We'll talk to anyone, anyplace, anytime," he said. "There's only one home run, and we've had triples and doubles."

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro welcomed Shakur and spoke on her behalf when the reward was raised. Tormey said there's never been any productive dialogue between Castro's government and authorities in New Jersey.

"I think he has said that she was mistreated," Tormey said of Castro. "I don't think he has the information of her guilt."

Shakur was one of three passengers in a 1965 Pontiac pulled over by State Trooper James Harper on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, for a faulty taillight on the night of May 2, 1973.

Trooper Werner Foerster, 34, arrived on the scene as backup.

During questioning, authorities said, Shakur and one of the men opened fire with automatic weapons. Both Foerster and Shakur were hit. Shakur then took Foerster's gun and fatally shot him as he lay on the ground, authorities said.

Shakur's brother-in-law, James Coston, was killed in the gun battle, and the third passenger, Clark Squire, also known as Sundiata Acoli, eventually was arrested and sent to prison.

According to a New York Times article after the shooting, the two other men in the car were transporting Shakur to a hideout in Philadelphia at the time because she was wanted on numerous offenses.

Shakur eventually was convicted by a jury in 1977 and escaped two years later from the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women, in Hunterdon County, with the help of three gunmen acting as visitors.

Over the years, New Jersey elected officials have pleaded with federal and international governments to demand Shakur's return. The state police even asked Pope John Paul II to intervene when he visited Cuba in 1998.

During the 2005 U.S. Conference of Mayors in Chicago, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer spoke of not normalizing relations with Cuba until Shakur was returned.

That stance riled the large international contingency of Shakur supporters active on the Internet, earning Palmer the nickname "Black Bounty Hunter" by one Shakur supporter.

"I just think that certainly we need to make sure she comes back for justice," Palmer told the Daily News in an interview this week.

Earlier this week, Cuban President Raul Castro ousted some of his ailing brother's longtime appointees, furthering the rumor of sweeping changes in the communist country. Meanwhile, the world waits to see if President Obama will open lines of communication between the U.S. and Cuba.

Now in her early 60s, Shakur has stopped giving interviews, but has said publicly that a "regime change" in Cuba would send her "up the creek without a paddle."

Tormey said the Obama administration has bigger concerns than Cuba at the moment, but he'd love to have Shakur return through diplomatic channels rather than bounty hunters.

The U.S. State Department did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A Google search for Joanne Chesimard or Assata Shakur shows many Web sites created on her behalf, and the support she has engendered from all walks of life, including law professors, celebrities and Mumia Abu-Jamal, himself on death row for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Tormey said Shakur has used time to her advantage and has cast a distorted veil over the truth.

"The facts are that this woman was part of a violent black-separatist group that wanted to overthrow the U.S. government and viewed police as soldiers of the government," Tormey said. "She started the shooting on the turnpike. Her weapon shot both troopers and she had an all-star defense team."

Shakur's version of the story - on the Web site www.assatashakur.org, in excerpts from her autobiography, and from information on other sites - is that she had been pulled over and had tried to surrender but was shot with her hands raised.

Shakur also claimed she had been beaten at the hospital and kept in bug-infested cells, even while pregnant with her daughter.

In a "Statement of Facts in the New Jersey Trial of Assata Shakur," Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt and former attorney, claims, among other things: that Trooper Harper lied under testimony, that Shakur's fingerprints were not found on any weapon, and that several members of the all-white jury were either friends or relatives of law-enforcement officers.

"Assata is an innocent woman. Not only should the bounty be lifted, but she should receive some type of compensation," said Mukasa Afrika, founder of Laying the Foundation, a Philadelphia-based organization devoted to African-culture education.

"It's a hunt. That's all it is, and the fact that she continues to inspire people angers police."

Even after her 25 years in Cuba, police in New Jersey certainly remain angry.

"She's been compared to Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King on some site," Tormey said. "She had nothing to do with peace."

For more information about Assata Shakur, visit the New Jersey State Police Web site at www.njsp.org, or visit www.assatashakur.org.