Sentence delayed for animal rights leader in slaughterhouse arson

6/5/2007, 4:50 p.m. PDT By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Sentencing was postponed Tuesday for a leading figure in the animal rights movement who admitted to setting fire to a horse slaughterhouse in 1997 after his defense lawyer objected to the way the judge applied federal sentencing guidelines.

A volunteer firefighter in the rural Oregon community of Greensprings at the time of his arrest in January 2006, Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson for mixing the fuel and serving as a lookout in the July, 27, 1997 fire that destroyed the Cavel West Co. horsemeat packing plant in Redmond, Ore.

Paul, 41, is the last of 10 people in Oregon to be sentenced after pleading guilty to charges they were part of a Eugene-based call known as The Family that set more than 20 fires in five Western states from 1996 through 2001 that were claimed by the shadowy radical groups Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. Three others from the group are to be sentenced in Seattle later this year.

The Animal Liberation and Earth Liberation Front have been described by the FBI as the top domestic terrorist threats in the nation.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken calculated a sentence of four years three months for Paul, six months less than the prosecution's recommendation under a plea deal, but withdrew it after defense attorney Marc Blackman objected. She ordered attorneys for both sides to file briefs. No date was set to complete the sentencing.

Blackman argued that based on the judge's finding that the slaughterhouse fire was not an act of terrorism and her application of sentencing guidelines in related cases, the sentence should have fallen in the range of 27 months to 33 months.

During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer described Paul as the "proto-arsonist of the Animal Liberation Front," for helping set fire to the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine in 1987, the first fire in the United States attributed to the Animal Liberation Front.

Paul went on to join in several raids on research labs to free animals, harassed members of the Makah tribe hunting whales off Washington, lived with animal rights activist Rod Coronado, and went to jail rather than testify against other activists, Peifer said.

Based on his reputation, Paul was recruited into The Family at an Earth First! rendezvous in Oregon in 1997 by Joseph Dibee, who remains at large after taking a leading role in the slaughterhouse fire, Peifer said.

After Paul recruited his girlfriend, Jennifer Kolar, and paid her way to the fire, he was spurned by The Family for being arrogant and bringing in an outsider, Peifer said.

Paul was arrested last year after others involved in the slaughterhouse fire named him to authorities.

Kolar and two others face sentencing in Seattle later this year.

In a tearful statement, Paul, who lives off an inheritance from his father, renounced arson as a means of saving animals, saying a change of heart upon seeing the flames at the horse slaughterhouse led him to devote his life to work as a firefighter and EMT.

Paul said he was horrified to think that his sister, Caroline Paul, the first female firefighter in the city of San Francisco, could be put in danger from arson, and vowed never to do it again.

Paul added that he did not look forward to going to prison, but it paled in comparison to the loss he felt at never again being able to work as a firefighter and EMT.

Blackman argued that Cavel West, a Belgian company that exports horsemeat to Europe, should not be "romanticized," because there is evidence it employed illegal aliens, paid low wages, engaged in inhumane treatment of animals, and polluted the local water system with blood.

The plant has not reopened.

Blackman added that Paul, after his arrest, sold a house and paid the insurance company $250,000 to settle their lawsuit against him, despite the fact his assets were largely immune from litigation.