More on Santa Cruz raid/arrest

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10345169

Article text:

Tenant of FBI-raided home arrested on fake ID warrant

SANTA CRUZ - A 24-year-old man whose home police and the FBI raided twice after UC Santa Cruz researchers' homes were targeted by animal rights activists was arrested in Southern California Friday on a warrant for felony perjury.

Cabrillo College student Nathan Pope, also known as Nathan Christopher Knoerl, was booked into Vista Jail in San Diego County on a felony charge of obtaining falsified identification, according Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.


Santa Cruz police said the arrest was for a separate issue that developed during the animal rights investigation. Santa Cruz police were working with a joint terrorism task force on the animal rights investigation that included an investigator from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Clark said. That investigator developed the case that led to Pope's arrest Friday.


"Our position is this is a separate violation," Clark said.


Clark said police still have no suspects in the animal rights incidents and no idea when it might be wrapped up.


"We are optimistic we will solve the case," Clark said, however.


FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler said that though the FBI helped serve the search warrant Friday, it was for a state charge and "unconnected with what we were searching for" in the animal rights case.


"Apparently we helped because we help with these things sometimes," he said.
The Riverside Avenue house in Santa Cruz was raided earlier this month after animal rights activists firebombed the home of a UCSC researcher and a car parked in the driveway of another researcher. The house also was raided after a Feb. 24 incident at a Westside researcher's house. In that attack, six animal rights activists - five wearing masks and one with a bullhorn - protested in front of the home. The demonstration turned violent when the masked protesters banged on the front door and were confronted by the researcher's husband.


He was struck on the hand by an unknown object, then chased the activists off his property while his wife hid their two children and two of their friends in the kitchen. The family had been hosting a birthday party.


The group ran to a waiting car and drove off. Later that day, police traced the car back to the house on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue and raided the home.


Several people connected to the house were considered "persons of interest" by police but none was ever arrested. Police seized computers, cameras and cell phones from the home. Police said last month that the hard drive on one of the computers had been erased several times, which was suspicious but not illegal.


No one has been arrested and no charges have been filed in connection with that attack. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the firebombs targeting UCSC biomedical researchers, the largest reward for a crime in city history.


UC Berkeley police seized 14 computers from a home on Shattuck Avenue that served as an activist co-op on Wednesday morning. UC Berkeley spokesman Bob Sanders wouldn't say if the home was raided in connection with any of the animal rights activities in Berkeley or Santa Cruz, but Schadler said there was no connection to the Santa Cruz cases.
Sanders said the raid was in response to e-mails sent to faculty and staff from those computers. Sanders said the e-mails were threatening in nature but wouldn't reveal any details.