Activist's intentions at center of case

Three words disputed in bomb-making discussion
By Greg Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 12, 2007

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The basic facts concerning the prosecution of Rodney
Coronado, environmental and animal-rights activist and current defendant
in San Diego federal court, aren't in dispute.
Prosecution and defense lawyers agree that Coronado was in San Diego on
Aug. 1, 2003.

While here, he delivered a speech to a small group in Hillcrest,
recounting his “direct action” activism sinking whaling ships in Iceland
and setting fire to animal research facilities in Michigan.

And in a question-and-answer session after the speech, Coronado was asked
how to make an incendiary device. Using an apple-juice jug, he
demonstrated how it could be used to burn down a building.

While there is little dispute about that, the core of the case, which
began yesterday in front of Judge Jeffrey Miller, is not so much what
Coronado said – though that is important – but what he intended to
communicate.

And that means the case against Coronado is not so much a “whodunit,” but
a “what did he mean by it?”

It also means the case raises pointed questions pitting government
investigators against free-speech activists.

Coronado's speech came hours after an early moring arson leveled a huge
apartment complex under construction in University City. The arson caused
an estimated $50 million in damage, and the Earth Liberation Front – a
radical, loosely-knit environmental group Coronado was once tied to – took
credit for the blaze. The ELF has taken credit for burning ski lodges,
housing developments and other projects across the country in the past
decade.

But Coronado is not charged with anything related to that fire. In fact,
no arrests have been made in connection with the blaze.

Instead, in 2006, more than two years after the blaze, federal prosecutors
obtained an indictment against him under a rarely used law.

That law makes it a crime to teach or demonstrate how to make a
destructive device with the intent that people hearing or seeing it would
go out and commit an act of violence.

Prosecutors will have to prove that when he answered the question,
Coronado wanted his listeners to act on the information he was giving
them.

They will show jurors excerpts from previous speeches Coronado had given
and passages from his writings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Skerlos
said.

Skerlos told jurors those past comments will help show that Coronado's
intent in Hillcrest was to “encourage people to follow in his footsteps.”

But Gerald Singleton, one of several lawyers for Coronado, said Coronado
had no intention of inciting anything that night. He acknowledged that
Coronado is a “very passionate” activist and speaker who has said some
things in the past that jurors might find offensive.

He pointed out that the remarks Coronado made were not part of his
prepared speech but came in response to a question. While FBI agents
attended the speech and recorded part of it, and another person videotaped
it, the crucial passage is on neither tape.

The prosecution and defense disagree on the wording of the question from
the audience. Singleton said the government contends the question was how
to make a device “for an action,” but the defense says those three words
were not part of the question.

Singleton said the defense will call the person who asked the question,
who will back the defense. The issue is key, he said, because the phrase
could be used to support the prosecution's theory that Coronado intended
the demonstration to be used for a violent act.

Outside of court, Tony Serra, a veteran civil rights attorney from San
Francisco who is part of Coronado's defense team, assailed the
prosecution's arguments as an assault on free speech by the government and
an attempt to silence a vocal activist.

Coronado faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He has already
served a four-year sentence for the arson fires in Michigan, and recently
has said he no longer supports illegal direct action, such as arson, to
effect change.

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 Greg Moran: (619) 542-4586; greg.moran@uniontrib.com