Oregon’s Historic Case of Eco-sabotage

Beginning in October 1996 and continuing through October 2001, a series of arsons or attempted arsons were conducted by members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The October 1998 destruction of a ski resort near Vail, Colorado, received the most national attention due to the $12 million in damage that it caused. In Oregon, there were thirteen arsons that occurred on federal and private property, as well as the toppling of a high-voltage energy tower near Bend, Oregon, in December 1999. In December 2005, eight suspects were arrested, and by January 2006, indictments were made against eleven: ten in custody and one suspect still at large.

The ALF/ELF arson conspiracy was jointly investigated over a nine-year period (1996-2005) by the FBI, ATF, Oregon Department of Justice, Eugene Police Department, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon State Police and Lane County Sheriff’s Office. The government’s case, known as Operation Backfire, is the largest prosecution of eco-sabotage in U.S. history.

In recent years, the USA Patriot Act and other legislation have broadened the application of antiterrorism laws and punishment to include radical environmental and animal-welfare activists. In calculating each defendant’s sentence, the government argued an application of the “terrorism enhancement” set forth in § 3A1.4 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. As amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, § 3A1.4 provides an upward departure “if the offense is a felony that involved, or was intended to promote, a federal crime of terrorism.” At the sentencing hearing, the government likened the nighttime arsons committed by the ELF and ALF to similar acts by the Ku Klux Klan. Defense lawyers countered that their clients were nothing like the violent members of the Klan, and the defendants took extraordinary precautions to ensure that their arsons did no physical harm to humans.

In a May 21, 2007 memorandum opinion, Judge Ann Aiken held that the court would apply the terrorism enhancement if the defendants’ “offense of conviction involved or was intended to promote an enumerated offense intended to influence, affect, or retaliate against government conduct.” (Mem Op at 15). Placing her decision in context, Judge Aiken wrote:

[I]t is important to clarify the court’s role in this proceeding. The issue the court must decide is not whether the defendants are “terrorists” as the word commonly is used and understood in today’s political and cultural climate. Nor is it appropriate to speculate whether the government seeks to promote a particular political agenda or to punish a particular form of activism in requesting the terrorism enhancement. Those questions are beyond the jurisdiction or purview of this court. The only issue before the court is whether defendants' admitted conduct and offenses of conviction render the terrorism enhancement applicable when imposing sentence. (Id. at 2).

In Eugene on June 4, 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken sentenced the ninth of ten defendants in the conspiracy case involving twenty acts of arson committed by members of ALF and ELF.

Ultimately, Judge Aiken applied the terrorism enhancement individually in sentencing defendants Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff (156 months); Kevin Tubbs (151 months); Chelsea Dawn Gerlach (108 months); Suzanne Nichole Savoie (51 months); Nathan Fraser Block (92 months); Joyanna L. Zacher (92 months); and Daniel Gerard McGowan (84 months). Judge Aiken declined to apply the terrorism enhancement to defendants Kendall Tankersley (46 months) and Darren Todd Thurston (37 months). At the time this article went to press, the tenth defendant, Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, had yet to be sentenced.

This article appeared in the summer 2007 issue of Oregon Benchmarks, the newsletter of the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society.