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ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARRESTED

Many environmentalists have been arrested on diverse civil disobedience or civil disorder charges. Some have been arrested on felony charges. All arrests listed below were gathered from public sources such as newspaper reports and have appeared previously in other publications. No privacy rights were violated in obtaining this information. Most of the misdemeanor charges were dismissed or perpetrators were sentenced to short jail terms or small fines. This page lists only arrests. All suspects are innocent until convicted in a court of law. For convictions, see ENVIRONMENTALIST CONVICTIONS.

October 16, 1997. Eureka, California. Approximately 60 Earth Firsters, including two advance men wearing black ski masks, black gloves and black clothing, attacked the field office of Congressman Frank Riggs (R-1st), terrorizing female staff members and causing serious vandalism damage from a tree stump dumped on the floor along with a six-inch deep litter of wood chips, sawdust and tree debris. Office computers were covered with fine sawdust. The female staff members choked on the sawdust for several days thereafter. A female Earth Firster also urinated on the floor. Supporters of the attackers described the action as a "non-violent civil disobedience protest" against logging of privately owned commercial redwood trees belonging to Pacific Lumber Company. Environmentalists are seeking to confiscate the company's timberlands through legislation. The company is negotiating to sell a portion of the timberlands to the government for use as a park.

Staff members of Rep. Riggs's Eureka office described the incident: A loud boom sounded, shaking the building and rattling windows. A female staff member said, "I thought a bomb had gone off and we were going to experience Oklahoma City all over again." The sound was the tree stump being dumped from a handtruck. Another female staff member said, "I saw figures with black ski masks covering their faces, black hoods, black gloves. I remember the blood draining from my head and feeling dizzy. Thoughts of my two children came into my head, as if they would be my last thoughts on this earth." A female staff member said, "I went around the corner of the building to witness a white male reach up to his face and pull something off his head. I concluded it to be a ski mask. The white male held a walkie-talkie and said, 'It's a green light. It's a go, it's a go. Let's go.'"

Law enforcement officers responded to the scene and attempted to dislodge the Earth Firsters, but they refused to leave peacefully. Police applied pepper spray with swabs to their eyelids following county and city guidelines and removed the protesters under arrest.

Four Earth Firsters were arrested: 1) Jennifer Beth Schneider, 28, of Carmel Valley; 2) Terri Lee Slanetz, 34, of Oakland; 3) Lisa Marie Sanderson-Fox, 30, of Oakland; 4) Maya Portugal, 16, hometown unknown.

Humboldt County and the city of Eureka have been sued in a civil rights complaint by nine anti-logging Earth Firsters whose eyelids were swabbed with pepper spray at three separate demonstrations, including at Rep Riggs's office. The civil suit seeks a restraining order against the county and city use of pepper spray, but U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declined to hear arguments on their motion for a restraining order because attorneys for the plaintiffs neglected to serve the county and city properly with copies of the complaint and a summons to a court hearing, which would violate constitutionally mandated due process rights. Macon Cowles, an attorney for the Earth Firsters, apologized for the error: "It is a matter of some distress to us that we have started this case out stumbling on this very important issue."

The female staff members of Rep. Rigg's office experienced disabling panic attacks for months.

July 17, 1997. Olympia, Washington. Earth Firster Brette L. Clubbe was charged with damaging a $380,000 mechanized tree cutter belonging to Herbrand Logging of Eatonville, Washington, and pointing a rifle at Keith Herbrand, the owner-operator. A police report said Clubbe and an accomplice were protesting the cutting of timber along the 4100 block of Cooper Point Road near Evergreen State College. Clubbe allegedly stood in front of the machine to stop its logging, then attempted to cut hydraulic hoses with an ax, then threw cement blocks and a metal box into the machine's cutting blades, causing about $2,000 damage. Herbrand had all the required permits to log the trees. Clubbe was booked into the Thurston County jail and released on bail. Another example of ecoterror attacks against a small family-owned logging company rather than the multinational giants denounced in environmentalist rhetoric.
 

June 29, 1997. 200 animal rights activists attacked a McDonald’s restaurant Sunday crowd in Crystal City near Arlington, Virginia. Activists alleging cruelty to animals harassed employees and customers including terrified children. Three activists threw condiments and a container of ketchup in the crowded family restaurant. The mob of activists blocked driveway access to the McDonalds in the 2600 block of Jefferson Davis Highway for more than 2 hours.
Police arrived in full riot gear. Activists threatened and spit on police. Police used pepper spray to subdue the activists when they refused to leave.
18 animal rights activists were arrested on criminal trespass charges.
Three of the 18 were charged with vandalism for throwing food.
Animal rights activist Miyun Park led the mob in chants. Brian Bowers, of San Diego, showed a list of grievances against McDonalds.
 

June 16 1997. Shelburne, New Hampshire. Native Forest Network activist Paul Daniel White, 22, of 126 Mt. Agassiz Road, Bethlehem, N.H., was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and conspiracy after allegedly wrecking equipment and then chaining himself to a wood chipper at the R & J chipping plant on U.S. Route 2, about 2 miles from the Maine border. State Police Cpl. Timothy Hayes said White and four unidentified activists who left the scene allegedly did more than $1,000 in vandalism damage, deflating tires on trucks, tearing out electrical conduits and destroying telephone lines. The motive was a protest against the federal government, which plans to sell U.S. Agriculture Department Forest Service timber in Bartlett, Jackson and Chatham. Manchester Union Leader, Tuesday, June 17, 1997, by Lorna Colquhoun, p. A1.
 

June 2 1997. Eugene, Oregon. Earth Firsters, Cascadia Forest Defenders, Cultural Defense Leaguers and other protesters blockading the downtown building site of Broadway Place, a residential complex and parking garage, to protest the cutting of 40 trees, created a riot when ordered by police to allow workers to proceed with the job. 22 protesters were arrested.
For second degree criminal trespass: Lacey Phillabaum, 22, Eugene; Lyndy Worsham, 26, Eugene; Michael Turaski, 20, Eugene; James J. Bowler, 25, transient; Jeffrey Hogg, 23, Eugene; Sarah Heaton, 19, Eugene; Benajmin Darwin, 18, Eugene; Jeremiah Guske, 21, transient; Joshua Laughlin, 22, Eugene; Brett Cole, 25, Eugene; James P. Flynn, 36, Eugene; Aleece Nelson, 21, Eugene; Christopher B. Allen, 27, Eugene; Cynthia Noblitt, 33, Eugene; Michelle Dunlap, 29, Eugene; Michael J. Garvin, 38, Eugene; and a female juvenile, Eugene.
For disorderly conduct: Arlo Waterbury, 20, Eugene; and Camilo Stevenson, 23, transient.
For assaulting a police officer: Brian Garrison, 20, transient; and Andrew Cottrell, 20, Eugene.
For obstructing justice: Lori Ann Chadwick, 19, Eugene.

Each April's World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week has typically been observed with protest rallies, graffitied sidewalks and buildings, acts of civil disobedience, and vandalized campus vehicles.
In 1987, there was a $4.6 million arson fire at the campus's John E. Thurman Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Although the letters ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were found painted inside that burned laboratory, no one was ever prosecuted for the fire, due to the lack of evidence. The building was eventually completed and now provides diagnostic services and information to help control animal diseases.
The ALF also claimed responsibility for a March 18 arson fire on campus at the site of the partially constructed Center for Comparative Medicine, west of the main Davis campus. Damage, estimated at under $1,000, was confined to an area about 10 feet square.

April 3 1997. Paul Watson, executive director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was arrested in the Netherlands by Dutch police acting on a Norwegian warrant issued by Interpol. Norway wants Watson to serve a prison sentence handed down in absentia for the scuttling of a whaling vessel at dockside in Norway's Lofoten Islands in December 1992. Watson did not appear in court to answer charges. Norway also wants to charge Watson with ramming a Norwegian coast guard vessel in July 1994.

March 31, 1997. Five Michigan residents were arrested and later appeared in court for a bail hearing on charges of breaking, entering and mischief after 1,500 minks were released from Ebert's Fur Farm, 60 miles east of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Arrested were:
1) Pat Dodson, 48, a founder and president of the Royal Oak, Michigan-based Humanitarians for Animal Rights Education (HARE);
2) Hilma Ruby, 59, of Rochester Hills, an early member of HARE;
3) Gary Yourofsky, 26, of West Bloomfield, HARE member and organizer of Animals Deserve Adequate Protection Too (ADAPT);
4) Robyn Weiner, 25, of Farmington Hills, another HARE member and organizer of ADAPT;
5) Alan Hoffman, 47, of Roseville, Yourofsky's uncle, also was arrested.
Each was charged with breaking and entering and criminal mischief. Dodson also was charged with possession of break-in tools; Weiner and Hoffman were charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000.
All were freed on $10,000 cash bail.
Two have been branded traitors to the animal rights movement, agreeing to testify against the other three. Alan Hoffman made statements to the police which were read in court, giving a blow by blow account of everyone's alleged activities that night. Encouraged by her family, Robyn Weiner has also made statements AND implicated one of the other defendants in a previous raid.
The Earth Liberation Front raided Ebert's Fur Farm, the same Chatham-area mink farm, two weeks earlier. No one was arrested in that raid, said Tom McLellan, who owns the farm with his father, Bill.
About 1,500 mink were released, 100 were never found and about 400 died from infighting, exposure or being hit by cars. McClellan puts his losses at $500,000.
The five were also served with a civil suit by Eberts Fur Farms Inc. They are seeking: $2,000,000 in general damages; $1,000,000 in specific damages; $500,000 in punitive damages; plus legal costs.
Other details included in the suit are: 20 years of breeding information lost; 1542 minks released - 1500 female, 42 male; 95% females were pregnant with an average expected litter of 6 kits per; 1500 females would have produced 7125 pelts @ $70/male pelt & $50/female pelt.
 

October 23 1996. Canyon City, Oregon. The Grant County sheriff arrested Dr. Patrick Shipsey, a John Day, Oregon, physician and chief sponsor of a grazing reform ballot measure, for killing 11 cows belonging to Robert Sproul, 85, by shooting them behind the head, using a Finnish 6 mm Sako target rifle. Shipsey was arraigned on 11 felony counts of criminal mischief. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $100,000 fine. “11 Cows Slain, Range Reformer Held,” Portland Oregonian, Wednesday, October 23, 1996, by Hal Bernton and Richard Cockle, p. A1.

January 13 1996. Eureka, California. 35 Earth Firsters arrested for obstructing Sierra Pacific second-growth logging on the Elk River reached a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s office in court for criminal trespass under a “little bit more serious” penal code section than simple trespass, resulting in stiffer fines. “Earth First members reach plea agreement,” Eureka Times-Standard, January 13, 1996, p. 1.

September and October, 1995. Williams, Oregon. 219 Earth Firsters and allied protesters arrested for criminal trespass in forcible work stoppage of Sugarloaf Timber Sale operated by Boise Cacade crews. 30 tree spikes were discovered after a logger broke his chainsaw on a 16-inch spike. “15 arrested in Sugarloaf timber sale protest,” Portland Oregonian, Tuesday, September 12, 1995, by Eric Gorski, p. A1. See also “Guerrilla war looms in woods,” Portland Oregonian, Wednesday, February 7, 1996, by Dana Tims and Peter D. Sleeth, p. B1.

9/17/95. Carlotta, California. 264 Earth First protesters arrested at demonstration against Sierra Pacific Industries proposed logging of second-growth trees in the Elk River area, adjacent to Headwater Forest owned by Pacific Lumber Company. Humboldt County Sheriff Dennis Lewis said one officer was knocked down and pepper sprayed his assailants. Eight Earth Firsters were arrested at the site the day before. 125 officers were called to the scene, including California Highway Patrol and deputies from other counties, funded by mutual aid agreements. Humboldt County provided food and lodging for officers from outside the area. Two Earth Firsters were charged with criminal trespass. “Anti-logging demonstrations end, Earth First curbs protests; sheriff arrests 2 on trespassing counts,” Eureka Times-Standard, Tuesday, September 19, 1995, by Mary Lane, p. A6.

10/20/92. Long Beach, California. Six environmental activists, including Earth Firsters Jim Flynn of Portland, Ore., and Jake Kreilick (using his alias Jake Jagoff) of Missoula, Montana, protesting logging of rain forests, handcuffed themselves to cranes on the Sammi Superstars, a South Korean freighter docked in Long Beach and for several hours kept longshoremen from unloading plywood from Indonesia. The six were from Greenpeace, Earth First and the Rainforest Action Network (founded and led by Earth Firsters) and boarded the ship at about 7 a.m. They were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The maximum penalty is a six-month jail sentence and $500 fine. Two others dangled from ropes on the side of the ship beside a banner that read, “Stop tropical timber imports.” Illustrated cooperation between Earth First and Greenpeace. “Environmental Activists Chain Selves to Cranes of Lumber Ship Protest: Unloading of plywood from Indonesian rain forests is blocked temporarily. Demonstrators agree to leave ship and be cited for misdemeanor trespassing.,” Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, October 21, 1992, by Rick Holguin and Maria L. La Ganga, p. B1.

8/24/92. Winooski, Vermont. Tom Carney, an Earth Firster from Schenectady, New York was arrested for criminal trespass after trying to disrupt a hydroelectric dam construction project. “Schenectady Man Arrested At Protest,” Albany Times Union, Tuesday, August 25, 1992, by The Associated Press, p. B6. See also “Timber war brews - Shawnee forest management plan becomes question of use or abuse,” Chicago Tribune, Sunday, August 30, 1992, by Hugh Dellios, Section 2, p. 1.

8/27/91. Shawnee National Forest, Illinois. Twenty-five Earth Firsters protesting the Fairview timber sale were arrested. A protester, Jan Wilder-Thomas, faced assault charges for slapping a deputy. One of those arrested, Chris van Daalan, co-director of Save America’s Forests, claimed his hand was broken when he was run over by a logging truck belonging to East Perry Lumber Company. Authorities at the scene said van Daalan was hit by a small log he threw in the path of an oncoming pickup truck. “Forest protest leads to arrests - Man injured trying to stop logging work,” Southeast Missourian (Cape Girardeau, Missouri), Thursday, August 27, 1991, by Mark Bliss, p. 1.