Olympia man faces charges of vandalism

Olympian News Services • Published July 30, 2008

Bryan Rivera of Olympia and two others were indicted Tuesday in
Madison, Wis., for allegedly attacking a federal forestry research
station in northern Wisconsin in 2000.

The attack on the U.S. Forest Service facility in Rhinelander was on
a long-running research project aimed at improving the health of
trees and left numerous government vehicles vandalized. A recently
unsealed indictment says members of the Earth Liberation Front and
Earth First carried out the attack because they believed —
erroneously — that scientists were performing a genetic research
project on trees. Both groups, which have used arson and vandalism in
protests, view that research as damaging to the environment,
prosecutors said.

Rivera; Katherine Christianson of Santa Fe, N.M.; and Aaron Ellringer
of Eau Claire, Wis., were charged with conspiring to damage
government property and damaging government property. They face up to
15 years in prison each if convicted.

Prosecutors said Rivera, Christianson and two others used saws to cut
down trees and spray paint and etching cream to vandalize Forest
Service vehicles with ELF references.

Ellringer was their driver, prosecutors said.

Tom Schmidt, a Forest Service official in St. Paul, Minn., who
oversees the Rhinelander station, said the effects went far beyond
the $500,000 in physical damage in the indictment.

He said the attack was a blow to a research project designed to make
certain species of trees grow faster and healthier to improve their
efficiency as an energy source.

Rivera worked at Fish Tale Brew Pub in Olympia as a server. The
manager there said Rivera was well-liked by co-workers and was a
reliable worker, so they were surprised by his arrest, although they
did know him as Bryan LeFey. The owner of the property where he lived
also said he was a man of integrity. Guns were confiscated during the
arrest, but the property owner has said they were his.

The project, which since has resumed, does not involve genetic
research and instead uses traditional plant-breeding techniques,
Schmidt said.

Rivera and Christianson met at an Earth First conference in Tennessee
and started planning the attack.

The FBI arrested Rivera, a 31-year-old man also known as "Brian
Lefey" and "Rat Dog," last week in Olympia. He is expected to be
transferred to Madison to make his initial appearance in federal
court next month.

Christianson, 27, and Ellringer, 35, made their initial court
appearances Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker ordered
their release pending trial, scheduled for Dec. 1.

Lawyers for the three did not return phone messages Tuesday.

Schmidt said the attack prompted the Forest Service to improve
security at Rhinelander. He said the research there is at the
forefront of helping solve the U.S. energy crisis.

"We took a blow to the belly and kept on going forward," Schmidt
said. "We're just pleased that it appears justice will be served."