Stand with Derk for Due Process and a Fair Trial

Due Process for Derk

Derk was taken into custody on December 17, 2024. Since his arrest, a group of community activists have monitored his treatment and access to due process including innocent until proven guilty, which is a fundamental principle of the U.S. criminal justice system and is implied by the Constitution's due process protections. We are alarmed by how Derk has been treated as a Native American (Klamath Tribes descendant) and Nlaka'pamux person enrolled in Lytton First Nation (Lytton, British Columbia, Canada).

Derk is a private, shy person who has lived in Fort Bidwell since August 2020. He did not engage in social activities very often but enjoyed hiking and exploring the mountains around Fort Bidwell, and helping people when the opportunity presented itself. In his quiet way, he was a helpful neighbor to many, including getting groceries and picking up other necessities in town for others, changing tires, and helping with minor car and home fixes. He helped pull more than one person out of snow banks along the dirt roads of Surprise Valley. He is very bonded to his son Ryland, whose mother is not a presence or parent in his life. As a single parent, Derk decided to live in Fort Bidwell because of the healthy community and environment provided to Ryland, who has been on the honor roll at Surprise Valley Elementary for the last four semesters. Ryland also played basketball for the school team, joined in many community soccer games, and has shown a talent for poetry, music, and performance.

This is not Derk’s first experience with injustice within the justice system, and while it may be normalized to him and others, we find it unacceptable. The justice system must be fair to all, or it will only serve injustice. In Canada, the Gladue Decision (passed by the Supreme Court in Canada in 1999) protects Indigenous people, especially men, in the criminal justice system by stating that the court must consider historical and intergenerational trauma when trying the case. The United States has no such similar protection. Thus, people who enter the system without resources, protection, allies, or support are easy targets for abuse, mistreatment, and poor representation. This is particularly the case in reservation border towns.

We support the practices and concepts of restorative justice and an end to systemic racism in order to reduce harm and prevent violence and crime at its root. All of us have a responsibility to improve our communities. We find the current justice system in Modoc County, California, and beyond, lacking in solutions toward these outcomes. We ask that all involved work to make decisions within the scope of their authority that help end cycles of intergenerational trauma and focus on repair and recovery in the individual, family (children), and community.

Please support Derk’s right to a fair trial by contributing to a criminal defense attorney who can represent him in his case as well as travel expenses for family support. Concerned community members secured his attorney through the pre-trial, but more funding is needed if the case goes to trial, and we would like to pay back the kind people who moved quickly to secure an attorney for Derk.

Let this campaign send a signal to our local, regional, and national justice system that we are holding them to the highest standards of due process for all. Let this campaign also serve as a demand for improvements and advancements toward restorative justice programs that focus on truly healing people, families, and communities so that we are all safer and healthier people. We stand in commitment to ending the systemic cycles of trauma and abuse that harm our communities.