Feds ask for longer sentences in eco-crimes

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

oregonlive.com

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; bryandenson@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