"ELF, no sprawl"

[NJFFSA16]

They strike again

Feds say guilty pleas expected in UW fire

SEATTLE (AP) - Federal prosecutors say they expect two people to
plead guilty tomorrow in an arson fire that destroyed the Center
for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington in Seattle
in May of 2001.
The fire was part of a string of arsons and other acts of
vandalism around the Northwest blamed on so-called ecoterrorists.
The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy collection of
environmental activists, claimed responsibility for the U-W fire.
It issued a statement saying the hybrid poplars the center did
research on posed "an ecological nightmare" for the diversity of
native forests.
The U-S attorney's office in Seattle says the two defendants --
who have not been publicly identified -- are expected to enter
pleas tomorrow before U-S District Judge Franklin Burgess in Tacoma
(at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.).
A federal grand jury last May issued an indictment accusing five
people of being responsible for the fire. Two of those indicted
have not been publicly identified.
The Center for Urban Horticulture was eventually rebuilt at a
cost of about seven (m) million dollars.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Guilty pleas

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Two women pleaded guilty Wednesday to
conspiracy, arson and bomb charges in the 2001 firebombing of the
University of Washington's horticulture center, one of the
Northwest's most notorious acts of ecoterrorism.
Jennifer Kolar, 33, and Lacey Phillabaum, 31, were released
without bail after entering the pleas in U.S. District Court in
Tacoma. Authorities said the two turned themselves in and have
cooperated with ongoing investigations.
Under their plea agreements, prosecutors will ask U.S. District
Judge Franklin Burgess to waive mandatory minimum sentences on the
charges of arson, attempted arson and use of a destructive device.
That bomb charge alone would otherwise carry a statutory minimum of
30 years, and a maximum term of life.
The plea deals instead will ask that Kolar serve five to seven
years and Phillabaum face a recommended sentence of three to five
years. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5.
Neither woman commented to reporters after leaving the
courtroom.
After the hearings, U.S. Attorney John McKay said the women had
"the misguided belief that they would influence public policy.
They have not."
"These violent acts of destruction are not a valid form of
political speech," he said, calling the arson an act of domestic
terrorism.
The fire on May 21, 2001, severely damaged the building, which
was rebuilt at a cost of about $7 million. The center had done work
on fast-growing hybrid poplars in hopes of limiting the amount of
natural forests that timber companies log.
The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy collection of
environmental activists, claimed responsibility and issued a
statement saying the poplars pose "an ecological nightmare" for
the diversity of native forests.
Kolar also pleaded guilty Wednesday to an attempted arson charge
for a failed 1998 firebombing that damaged a Colorado gun club that
organized a multistate turkey shoot.
Under the plea deal, the two women will not face additional
prosecution for other attacks, including Phillabaum's admitted role
in destroying five acres of canola in Eastern Washington and
Kolar's alleged part in arsons in Oregon in 1997 and California in
2001.
At least three others were involved in the UW firebombing, court
documents allege.
Briana Waters of Berkeley, Calif., has pleaded not guilty and is
scheduled for trial in May. William Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz.,
committed suicide in jail after being charged with other acts of
ecoterrorism.
A fifth suspect, Justin Solondz, formerly of Jefferson County,
Wash., remains at large.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Four people awaiting trial on charges
they were part of an ecoterrorism cell that caused $20 million in
damages from firebombings around the Northwest are due in federal
court on Thursday to change their pleas.
Attorneys for the defendants and the prosecution refused to
comment on terms of the plea agreements that will be put before
Judge Ann Aiken in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
A total of 13 people were indicted out of Eugene as part of an
investigation known as Operation Backfire. Six have pleaded guilty,
agreeing to testify against the others, and three are fugitives. A
14th person, Prescott, Ariz., bookstore owner William C. Rodgers,
described as the leader of the cell, committed suicide in jail just
before he was to be sent to Oregon to face charges.
Related cases are being prosecuted out of Washington and
California.
The Oregon defendants were charged with arsons from 1996 to 2001
that were claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal
Liberation Front in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and
Colorado. Authorities said a Eugene-based group calling itself The Family
set firebombs around the Northwest to stop logging, wild horse
roundups, genetic engineering of plants, sport utility vehicle
sales and the expansion of a Vail, Colo., ski resort into
endangered lynx habitat.
For years, investigators came up with little more than the
remains of five-gallon plastic buckets that had been filled with
diesel and ignited with homemade timing devices.
The firebombings stopped after the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001.
Then a special taskforce adopted a cold case approach and
convinced an informant to go to members of The Family with a hidden
recording device.
Nathan Frazer Block, 25, of Olympia, Wash., is charged with
conspiring to commit arson and topple a high-voltage electric
transmission tower in Central Oregon just before the change of the
millennium, setting fire to SUVs at the Romania Chevrolet Truck
Center in Eugene in 2001 and attempted arson and arson at the
Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie in 2001.
Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, 40, of Ashland, a wildland
firefighter and animal rights activist, is charged with conspiracy
to commit arson and topple the electrical tower, and setting fire
to a horse slaughterhouse in Redmond in 1997.
Daniel McGowan, 32, of New York City, who was working for a
nonprofit law firm helping abused women when he was arrested, is
charged with conspiracy to commit arson and toppling the electrical
tower, setting fire to the Superior Lumber Co. office in Glendale
in 2001, and attempted arson and arson at the tree farm.
Joyanna L. Zacher, 28, of Olympia, Wash., is charged with
conspiracy to commit arson, toppling the electric tower,
firebombing the SUV dealership, and attempted arson and arson at
the tree farm.

[PFDTruck18]

They all get off way too easy.

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Radical U.S. environmentals plead guilty to arson
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Four radical
environmental activists pleaded guilty Thursday to arson and
conspiracy charges for a series of fires that prosecutors
called the largest eco-terrorism case in U.S. history.
The guilty pleas from the four defendants, acting on behalf
of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, end
a case involving 13 defendants, 20 arsons and other crimes that
caused a total $30 million in damages.
"This is the largest case of eco-terrorism in United States
history," Karin Immergut, U.S. Attorney for the District of
Oregon, told reporters at a press conference in Portland.
"The pleas of these individuals today ... have effectively
dismantled the Northwest cells."
The four defendants are expected to get jail sentences
ranging from three to 15 years, Immergut said.
Authorities said the four defendants played a role in the
conspiracy to commit arsons in locations around Oregon
including a meat-packing plant, a car dealership and a tree
farm. No one was injured in any of the crimes.
One celebrated incident connected with the Earth Liberation
Front and Animal Liberation Front apart from the Oregon cases
was a firebombing in Vail, Colorado, in 1998 against the
expansion of a ski resort that the radicals felt would encroach
upon a lynx habitat.
REUTERS

[LaFireEducator]

3 to 15 years for up to 20 arsons and hundreds of firefighters lives put in peril. It's too bad that our court system doesn't seem to take arson sriously as a volient crime.

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December 13th

2 defendants in 1998 Vail arson case to plead guilty Thursday

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Two people accused of being involved in the
1998 arson fire at Vail Resort are expected to formally enter their
guilty pleas tomorrow in an Oregon courtroom.
Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislaus Meyerhoff agreed in July to plead
guilty in the Vail case. They're among three people alleged to be
part of an ecoterrorist cell that planted fire bombs throughout the
West between 1996 to 2001.
Suspect William Rodgers committed suicide in an Arizona jail.
Damage from the Vail firebombing amounted to 12 (m) million
dollars. The Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility, saying
it burned the resort's buildings and ski lifts because they were an
obstacle to the development of wild lynx.
Sentencing is expected in April.

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More

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Two people who have admitted to helping set
fire to a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998 as part of an Earth
Liberation Front campaign were due in court Thursday to plead
guilty to federal arson charges.
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Stanilas Gregory Meyerhoff, both 29,
have already pleaded guilty to some of the $20 million worth of
arsons committed between 1996 and 2001 by a Eugene-based cell of
the Earth Liberation Front known as the Family. Under plea deals
with federal prosecutors, they agreed to have the Vail charges
transferred from Colorado to Oregon to be settled along with their
other cases.
The Vail firebombing did $12 million in damage and focused
national attention on radical environmentalists who ascribed their
attacks to the secretive Earth Liberation Front and Animal
Liberation Front, characterized by the FBI as the nation's top
domestic terrorism threats.
Two others indicted in the Vail arson, Josephine Sunshine
Overaker and Rebecca J. Rubin, remain at large.
The Vail firebombing was one of 20 firebombings in Oregon,
Washington, California, Wyoming and Colorado blamed by federal
investigators on the Family. Twelve people - 10 in Oregon and two
in Washington - have pleaded guilty in the case known as Operation
Backfire. Others remain at large.
Authorites have said the group was led by William C. Rodgers,
who had left Eugene and was running a bookstore in Prescott, Ariz.,
last December when he was arrested along with Gerlach, Meyerhoff
and others. Rodgers committed suicide in jail just before he was to
be transferred to Oregon.
Gerlach was working as a DJ in Portland and living with a
Canadian animal rights activist when she was arrested. She grew up
in Sweet Home, a timber town where her father worked in a mill, and
Eugene, a college town known for its anarchist and environmental
activists.
She has already pleaded guilty to 18 counts in five attacks,
saying she was motivated by "a deep sense of despair and anger at
the deteriorating state of the global environment," but has since
realized the firebombings did more harm than good for her cause.
Prosecutors have recommended she get a 10-year sentence in those
cases. According to court records, authorities in Wyoming,
Washington and California have agreed not to pursue potential cases
against her.
Meyerhoff, who was attending community college in
Charlottesville, Va., when he was arrested, has renounced ELF and
pleaded guilty to 54 counts from seven attacks. Prosecutors have
recommended 15 years and eight months in prison for those cases.
Authorities in Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Wyoming and
California will not prosecute potential cases against him, court
records showed.
According to court records, the group started in 1996 by
firebombing two ranger stations on the Willamette National Forest
outside Eugene, where Earth Liberation Front graffiti was painted,
and disbanded in 2001 after toppling a high-tension electrical
transmission tower in Central Oregon.
According to court records, Rodgers recruited Meyerhoff and
Gerlach to help him firebomb the ski resort in Vail to prevent it
from expanding into endangered lynx habitat.
Meyerhoff gave up on the plan after Gerlach's truck got stuck in
mud and snow on its way to the mountaintop, but the next day
Rodgers planted firebombs made from diesel and five-gallon plastic
buckets that burned a lodge and ski lifts. Then Gerlach picked him
up and drove to Denver, where she e-mailed a communique taking
responsibility from the public library.
Vail Resorts Inc. has since rebuilt the lodge 11,000 feet above
sea level, some 100 miles west of Denver.
The investigation went nowhere for years. But after a task force
adopted a "cold case" approach, they were able to find an
informant, who, with a hidden tape recorder, looked up old friends
from the group and talked to them about the crimes, according to
court records and testimony.

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Arson...on behalf of saving the environment?

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Two people who have admitted helping in the
$12 million arson of a Vail, Colo., ski resort as part of an
ecoterrorism campaign formally pleaded guilty Thursday to federal
arson charges.
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, both 29,
had already pleaded guilty to some of the $20 million worth of
arsons committed between 1996 and 2001 by a Eugene-based cell of
the Earth Liberation Front known as the Family. Under plea deals
with federal prosecutors, they agreed to have charges from the 1998
Vail arson transferred from Colorado to Oregon to be settled along
with their other cases.
Prosecutors have recommended a 10-year prison sentence for
Gerlach, who is to be sentenced April 18, and 15 years and eight
months for Meyerhoff, who has a sentencing hearing scheduled for
April 10.
The Vail arson focused national attention on radical
environmentalists who ascribed their attacks to the secretive Earth
Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, characterized by the
FBI as the nation's top domestic terrorism threats. The
investigation went nowhere for years until a task force found an
informant who got old friends to talk about the crimes in recorded
conversations.
Two others indicted in the Vail arson, Josephine Sunshine
Overaker and Rebecca J. Rubin, remain at large.
The Vail arson was one of 20 fires in Oregon, Washington,
California, Wyoming and Colorado blamed by federal investigators on
the Family. Twelve people - 10 in Oregon and two in Washington -
have pleaded guilty in the cases, and others remain at large. The
alleged leader of the group, William C. Rodgers, committed suicide
in an Arizona jail in December 2005.
The lodge destroyed in Vail, about 100 miles west of Denver, has
been rebuilt.