State Police seek DNA samples from Earth First!ers
By Victoria Wallack
Statehouse Reporter
AUGUSTA (): Maine State Police have asked for DNA
samples from environmentalists, including some members
of the group Earth First!.
Will Neils, a member of Earth First! in Maine, said
the one thing in common among all who have been asked
is their vocal opposition to Plum Creek, which is
seeking state approval of a development and
conservation plan covering hundreds of thousands of
acres around Moosehead Lake.
“They’re just focusing on people who are speaking
their minds,” Neils said, adding they’re not all Earth
First! supporters. “It's not exclusive to Earth
First!. It’s actually exclusive to Plum Creek."
Maine State Police did not say that recent attacks on
Plum Creek were the motivation for the DNA requests.
Stephen McCausland, spokesperson for the Department of
Public Safety, said the Maine State Police sought the
DNA “in connection with ongoing investigations,” which
he would not discuss.
Asked specifically if it was about Plum Creek, he
declined to say. “We have the right to ask anyone for
DNA,” McCausland said. “They also have the right to
refuse. Most did.”
McCausland said the dozen or so people being asked for
their DNA were part of a group that tried to illegally
camp on Sears Island in late April.
A message dated March 31 from an anonymous poster on
the Earth First! website invited people to "Wassumkeag
(Sears Island), Maine ... [i]n the rowdy pagan and
labor tradition of May Day, [to join Maine Earth
First!] for a weekend of eco-resistance, community
building and direct-action training against the forces
threatening Maine including Plum Creek and Liquefied
Natural Gas."
Sears Island belongs to the state and is under the
jurisdiction of the Maine Department of
Transportation. There has been talk in the past of
building a liquefied natural gas facility on it.
Neils was one of a handful of campers whose gear was
confiscated by police after dark April 27 on Sears
Island and later returned.
Neils said when he went to pick it up, police asked
him for a DNA sample — usually taken with a mouth swab
— and fingerprints. Neils declined, telling police
they already had his fingerprints from an arrest in
2000 when he and others locked themselves in an office
at the Department of Labor to protest policies
displacing Maine loggers in the North Woods.
About a month after the raid on Sears Island, Maine
State Police went knocking on doors of others who
attended the event.
Earth First! made its name in the 1980s in the Pacific
Northwest, with members chaining themselves to logging
equipment, sitting in trees and sometimes putting
metal spikes in trees, making them dangerous to cut.
But Neils said Earth First! had nothing to do with the
attacks on Plum Creek last fall, where homes and
office buildings were splattered with paint, and some
were hit with animal feces and foul-smelling
chemicals.
"Right at the stroke of midnight, they started
throwing rocks at the house. It was a rock-paintball
kind of combination," Jim Lehner, general manager of
Plum Creek’s Northeast Division, told the Bangor Daily
News. "It broke four windows; two of the rocks came
into the house, so the living room was full of glass."
Lehner said his wife, who was recovering from an
operation, was traumatized by the incident.
Also hit were the offices of attorney Severin
Beliveau. Beliveau is a powerful figure in Augusta,
who led Gov. John Baldacci’s transition commission
when he was first elected, and is now representing
Plum Creek.
No one was charged, and the matter remains under
investigation.
Asked if EF! was involved, Neils said: “Absolutely
not. Plum Creek has infuriated thousands of people who
live in this state with their level of contempt for
what Mainers want. They’ve pissed off so many people,
it’s impossible to know who went after them.”
Plum Creek wants to build 975 homes and two resorts in
the Moosehead Lake region on land it purchased from
the SAPPI paper company in 1998. It presented one plan
last year, which was withdrawn under heavy public
criticism, and a revised one was submitted April 27 –
the same day Maine State Police raided the illegal
campers on Sears Island.
While Neils claims Beliveau is pressuring the governor
to come down hard on protestors, the vandalism
incidents were condemned across-the-board last year,
even by groups stridently opposed to Plum Creek’s
plans.
Some of those same groups, however, said Thursday that
asking people who have not been charged in a case to
submit DNA to the Maine State Police is over the top.
Judy Berk, spokesperson for the Natural Resources
Council of Maine, said asking those who attempted to
illegally camp on Sears Island to give DNA samples was
a form of intimidation and a kind of a “witch hunt.”
“Nobody was arrested or charged. That’s what’s so
troubling about this incident. There was no incident,"
said Berk. "And here they are approaching people in
their home[s] and asking them for DNA samples, which
is about the most personal information you can give."
Berk said it “reflected badly on the state police ...
I don’t know what the state police are investigating,
[but the DNA request] potentially will have a chilling
effect on free speech.”
Baldacci’s spokesperson, Crystal Canney, said the
governor was not involved in the investigation. “The
governor wouldn’t want to inhibit them from collecting
consensual evidence in an investigation,” she said.
“We don’t get in the middle of state police and how
they do their investigations.”
Rep. Janet Mills, D-Farmington, who was a district
attorney for 15 years in a district that included
parts of Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties,
said she wasn’t taking a position on the case, but
thinks voluntarily giving up one’s DNA is a bad idea.
“I would never advise anybody to voluntarily give DNA
samples to police, because you don’t know what kind of
database it’s going into or what it will be used for,”
she said. “There are shades of J. Edgar Hoover in this
episode.”
Based in Augusta, syndicated Statehouse Reporter
Victoria Wallack can be reached at 207-236-8468 or by
e-mail at news@villagesoup.com.
Statehouse Reporter
AUGUSTA (): Maine State Police have asked for DNA
samples from environmentalists, including some members
of the group Earth First!.
Will Neils, a member of Earth First! in Maine, said
the one thing in common among all who have been asked
is their vocal opposition to Plum Creek, which is
seeking state approval of a development and
conservation plan covering hundreds of thousands of
acres around Moosehead Lake.
“They’re just focusing on people who are speaking
their minds,” Neils said, adding they’re not all Earth
First! supporters. “It's not exclusive to Earth
First!. It’s actually exclusive to Plum Creek."
Maine State Police did not say that recent attacks on
Plum Creek were the motivation for the DNA requests.
Stephen McCausland, spokesperson for the Department of
Public Safety, said the Maine State Police sought the
DNA “in connection with ongoing investigations,” which
he would not discuss.
Asked specifically if it was about Plum Creek, he
declined to say. “We have the right to ask anyone for
DNA,” McCausland said. “They also have the right to
refuse. Most did.”
McCausland said the dozen or so people being asked for
their DNA were part of a group that tried to illegally
camp on Sears Island in late April.
A message dated March 31 from an anonymous poster on
the Earth First! website invited people to "Wassumkeag
(Sears Island), Maine ... [i]n the rowdy pagan and
labor tradition of May Day, [to join Maine Earth
First!] for a weekend of eco-resistance, community
building and direct-action training against the forces
threatening Maine including Plum Creek and Liquefied
Natural Gas."
Sears Island belongs to the state and is under the
jurisdiction of the Maine Department of
Transportation. There has been talk in the past of
building a liquefied natural gas facility on it.
Neils was one of a handful of campers whose gear was
confiscated by police after dark April 27 on Sears
Island and later returned.
Neils said when he went to pick it up, police asked
him for a DNA sample — usually taken with a mouth swab
— and fingerprints. Neils declined, telling police
they already had his fingerprints from an arrest in
2000 when he and others locked themselves in an office
at the Department of Labor to protest policies
displacing Maine loggers in the North Woods.
About a month after the raid on Sears Island, Maine
State Police went knocking on doors of others who
attended the event.
Earth First! made its name in the 1980s in the Pacific
Northwest, with members chaining themselves to logging
equipment, sitting in trees and sometimes putting
metal spikes in trees, making them dangerous to cut.
But Neils said Earth First! had nothing to do with the
attacks on Plum Creek last fall, where homes and
office buildings were splattered with paint, and some
were hit with animal feces and foul-smelling
chemicals.
"Right at the stroke of midnight, they started
throwing rocks at the house. It was a rock-paintball
kind of combination," Jim Lehner, general manager of
Plum Creek’s Northeast Division, told the Bangor Daily
News. "It broke four windows; two of the rocks came
into the house, so the living room was full of glass."
Lehner said his wife, who was recovering from an
operation, was traumatized by the incident.
Also hit were the offices of attorney Severin
Beliveau. Beliveau is a powerful figure in Augusta,
who led Gov. John Baldacci’s transition commission
when he was first elected, and is now representing
Plum Creek.
No one was charged, and the matter remains under
investigation.
Asked if EF! was involved, Neils said: “Absolutely
not. Plum Creek has infuriated thousands of people who
live in this state with their level of contempt for
what Mainers want. They’ve pissed off so many people,
it’s impossible to know who went after them.”
Plum Creek wants to build 975 homes and two resorts in
the Moosehead Lake region on land it purchased from
the SAPPI paper company in 1998. It presented one plan
last year, which was withdrawn under heavy public
criticism, and a revised one was submitted April 27 –
the same day Maine State Police raided the illegal
campers on Sears Island.
While Neils claims Beliveau is pressuring the governor
to come down hard on protestors, the vandalism
incidents were condemned across-the-board last year,
even by groups stridently opposed to Plum Creek’s
plans.
Some of those same groups, however, said Thursday that
asking people who have not been charged in a case to
submit DNA to the Maine State Police is over the top.
Judy Berk, spokesperson for the Natural Resources
Council of Maine, said asking those who attempted to
illegally camp on Sears Island to give DNA samples was
a form of intimidation and a kind of a “witch hunt.”
“Nobody was arrested or charged. That’s what’s so
troubling about this incident. There was no incident,"
said Berk. "And here they are approaching people in
their home[s] and asking them for DNA samples, which
is about the most personal information you can give."
Berk said it “reflected badly on the state police ...
I don’t know what the state police are investigating,
[but the DNA request] potentially will have a chilling
effect on free speech.”
Baldacci’s spokesperson, Crystal Canney, said the
governor was not involved in the investigation. “The
governor wouldn’t want to inhibit them from collecting
consensual evidence in an investigation,” she said.
“We don’t get in the middle of state police and how
they do their investigations.”
Rep. Janet Mills, D-Farmington, who was a district
attorney for 15 years in a district that included
parts of Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties,
said she wasn’t taking a position on the case, but
thinks voluntarily giving up one’s DNA is a bad idea.
“I would never advise anybody to voluntarily give DNA
samples to police, because you don’t know what kind of
database it’s going into or what it will be used for,”
she said. “There are shades of J. Edgar Hoover in this
episode.”
Based in Augusta, syndicated Statehouse Reporter
Victoria Wallack can be reached at 207-236-8468 or by
e-mail at news@villagesoup.com.
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