[Ppnews] Feds ask for longer sentences in eco-crimes

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1178335507184270.xml&coll=7>http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1178335507184270.xml&coll=7 


Feds ask for longer sentences in eco-crimes

"The Family" - Prosecutors see the group's serial arsons as acts of terror

Saturday, May 05, 2007

BRYAN DENSON

EUGENE -- Government prosecutors filed court papers Friday seeking 
longer prison terms for a gang of convicted eco-saboteurs now 
awaiting sentencing, saying their serial arsons constituted "federal 
crimes of terrorism."

The government's 148-page sentencing memorandum is part of the 
biggest prosecution of eco-saboteurs in U.S. history. It summarizes 
firebombings and other sabotage across the West from 1995 to 2001, 
and spells out the extraordinarily secretive measures of the 
saboteurs, who called themselves "The Family."

The sentencing memo, which the government cobbled together through 
statements by the accused, also clears up a series of crimes that, 
for a time, made Oregon synonymous with the word "eco-terrorism."

Solved: the Animal Liberation Front's Christmas 1995 arson at Dutch 
Girl Dairy in Eugene.

Solved: the torching of a truck at the U.S. Forest Service's Detroit 
ranger station in October 1996, the first arson attributed to the 
Earth Liberation Front in the United States.

Solved: The 1996 release of 2,000 minks from a farm in Lebanon.

Six men and four women are set for sentencing before U.S. District 
Judge Ann Aiken beginning May 22. All were convicted for their roles 
in a five-state arson campaign that left timber company offices, 
dozens of SUVs, meat companies, federal installations and a ski 
resort in smoldering ruins. The government estimates damages at more 
than $40 million.

Defense lawyers will file responses before Aiken holds a May 15 
hearing on the proposed sentences. But Eugene attorney Kelly R. 
Beckley, who represents defendant Daniel McGowan, said the defendants 
are neither "monster terrorists" nor "Osama bin Laden and friends."

"The label isn't the issue in this case," Beckley said. "The issue is 
whether or not the terrorism enhancement is appropriate under the 
federal sentencing guidelines. It is the defendants' position that it is not."

The crimes attributed to the group commenced with the October 1996 
torching of a Forest Service ranger station in Oakridge and concluded 
with the simultaneous firebombings of Jefferson Poplar Farm, near 
Clatskanie, and the University of Washington Horticulture Center in 
Seattle in May 2001.

Taking responsibility for much of the sabotage were the Animal 
Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, underground groups that 
the FBI classifies as the nation's most destructive domestic 
terrorist organizations.

Punish corporations

The motive of the saboteurs, who often channeled claims of 
responsibility to news media, was to punish corporations, the 
government and symbols of capitalism for harming the air, forests and 
animals for profit.

Proponents of such sabotage have long described the crimes -- even 
those by fire and pipe bombs -- as non-violent "actions" intended to 
cause economic harm but not to kill humans.

Federal law and sentencing guidelines define terrorism as crimes 
intended to influence or affect government conduct by such measures 
as coercion or retaliation. The government's sentencing memo devotes 
dozens of pages to describing how the 10 defendants met that test: 
"The court starts with the admission by all 10 defendants -- that 
each of them was part of an overarching conspiracy with the purpose, 
among other things, 'to influence and affect the conduct of 
government' and others by means of violent acts, and 'to retaliate 
against the conduct of government' and others."

The longest prison term sought by federal prosecutors is 15 years, 8 
months in the case of Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, a 29-year-old anarchist 
known as "Country Boy."

According to the government, Meyerhoff co-owned a pair of MAK-91 
semiautomatic rifles, helped write the Earth Liberation Front's 
manual on how to set fires with electrical timers, coached others how 
to make them, and led arsons at Eugene's Joe Romania Truck Center and 
the Jefferson Poplar Farm near Clatskanie.

One of the defendants, a former South Eugene High student named 
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, showed federal agents a cache of firearms -- 
including two AK-47s and a pair of 9mm Glock handguns -- she had 
buried in the Siuslaw National Forest.

Classes on sabotage

Friday's sentencing memo also explained how some of the defendants 
took part in "Book Club" meetings in Eugene and Sisters, as well as 
Olympia, Tucson, Ariz., and Santa Cruz, Calif., to learn about eco-sabotage.

"Examples of classes being taught," according to the memo, "included 
lock picking, reconnaissance of targets, computer security, encrypted 
messaging, and manufacture of mechanical and electrical timing 
devices used to initiate incendiary devices."

Participants kept the meetings secret by holding them in different 
states and communicating with a shared e-mail address in which 
members wrote draft messages of e-mails, did not send them, but 
shared them in their "draft file." They eventually progressed into 
using PGP encryption software to keep their messages confidential, 
according to the memo.

"While at each of the meetings, the attendees were expected to 
explain how they arrived, what counter-measures they used to avoid 
detection, and what alibi and alias they were using as cover for the 
meeting," prosecutors wrote. "This extraordinary 'wall of silence' is 
what kept their identity from being discovered by law enforcement for 
such a long time. Ultimately, this 'wall' crumbled."

The government cracked the case by turning one of the saboteurs, 
34-year-old Jacob Jeremiah Ferguson, into a snitch. He wore a wire 
into meetings with seven of the people now awaiting trial.

"One by one," prosecutors wrote, "the perpetrators, faced with the 
prospect of lengthy prison sentences, began to tell of their and 
others' involvement in the numerous acts of arson and destruction."

Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; 
<mailto:bryandenson at news.oregonian.com>bryandenson at news.oregonian.com

Prison-bound
Saturday, May 05, 2007

Here is the sentencing schedule for the six men and four women in 
U.S. District Court in Eugene, and a summary of crimes for which they 
have been convicted:

May 22: Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, 29. Recommended sentence: 15 years, 
eight months. Crimes: Toppling a Bonneville Power Administration 
high-voltage transmission tower near Bend in 1999 and seven fire 
bombings -- a ski resort in Vail, Colo. (1998), Childers Meat Co. in 
Eugene (1999), Boise Cascade in Monmouth (1999), a Eugene police 
substation (2000), Joe Romania Chevrolet Truck Center in Eugene 
(2001), Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale (2001), and Jefferson Poplar 
Farm near Clatskanie (2001).

May 24: Kevin Tubbs, 38. Recommended sentence: 14 years. Crimes: 
Arsons at the Forest Service ranger station in Oakridge (1996), the 
Cavel West Inc. horse-rendering plant (1997), the U.S. Bureau of Land 
Management's wild horse and burro facility at Burns (1997), Childers 
Meat Co. in Eugene (1999), the police substation in Eugene (2000), 
and the three 2001 firebombings. He also has acknowledged an 
attempted arson of the U.S. Forest Industries headquarters in Medford (1998).

May 25: Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, 30. Recommended sentence: 10 years. 
Crimes: Vail ski resort, Childers Meat, Boise Cascade, the Eugene 
police substation, Jefferson Poplar Farm and the BPA tower toppling.

May 29: Darren Todd Thurston, 37. Recommended sentence: 3 years, one 
month. Crimes: An arson at the BLM's wild horse corrals near 
Litchfield, Calif., in 2001.

May 31: Suzanne Nicole Savoie, 29. Recommended sentence: 5 years, 
three months. Crimes: Superior Lumber and Jefferson Poplar Farm.

May 31: Kendall Tankersley, 30. Recommended sentence: 4 years, three 
months. Crimes: Attempted arson and arson at U.S. Forest Industries 
in Medford, both in 1998.

June 1: Joyanna L. Zacher, 29. Recommended sentence: 7 years, eight 
months. Crimes: Joe Romania and Jefferson Poplar Farm.

June 1: Nathan Fraser Block, 26. Recommended sentence: 7 years, eight 
months. Crimes: Joe Romania and Jefferson Poplar Farm.

June 4: Daniel Gerard McGowan, 33. Recommended sentence: 7 years, 
eight months. Crimes: Superior Lumber and Jefferson Poplar Farm.

June 5: Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, 41. Recommended sentence: 4 
years, nine months. Crime: Cavel West.

-- Bryan Denson




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