Chief
05-24-2007, 08:51 PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1180052945212370.xml&storylist=orlocal&thispage=1
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge Thursday sentenced Animal Liberation Front arsonist Kevin Tubbs to prison for more than 12 years, rejecting arguments that he was a minor player just trying to save animals and protect the earth.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken declared that four of the nine fires Tubbs was involved in — a forest ranger station, a police substation, a dealership selling SUVs and a tree farm — were acts of terrorism intended to influence the conduct of the government or retaliate for government acts.
"Fear and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," Aiken told Tubbs twice over for emphasis before sentencing him to 12 years seven months in federal prison.
Tubbs is the second of 10 members of The Family, a Eugene-based cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, to face sentencing in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson charges connected to a string of 20 arsons in five states that did a total of $40 million in damage.
Tubbs and his fiancee, Michelle Pace, made emotional pleas for mercy, but Aiken rejected them, saying Tubbs was trying to minimize his responsibility and could have been much more effective in helping save wild horses from slaughter by starting a fund to buy them and using them in programs with children.
Aiken said it was "profoundly and palpably sad" that she had eight more people to sentence who wasted their lives by choosing violence rather than "random acts of kindness" to raise public awareness about threats to animals and the environment.
Aiken noted that the torching of SUVs in the Portland area this week was evidence that the misguided motives of radicals like Tubbs lived on. Portland police arrested three people in the fires and said they were not connected to the sentencing of Tubbs and others this week.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdahl said Tubbs first met his family of radical environmentalists bent on saving the earth through arson in 1995 as they joined an encampment dedicated to stopping the U.S. Forest Service from logging trees burned by a fire.
Engdahl said Tubbs was not a leader of The Family, but regularly picked targets, recruited others and built incendiary devices. When it came time to set the fires, he usually left that to others, serving as a lookout or driver, Engdahl said.
Tubbs' targets included a U.S. Forest Service ranger station, a horse slaughterhouse, corrals used in roundups of wild horses, lumber mill offices, an SUV dealership, a police substation, a tree farm and a government laboratory. Damages were $11 million, Engdahl said.
Aiken found that the Oakridge Ranger District in 1996, the Joe Romania Chevrolet Truck Center in Eugene in 2001, the Eugene police substation in 2000, and Jefferson Poplar Farms near Clatskanie in 2001 were all acts of terrorism because they were either retribution for past government acts or intended to influence future government action.
Ironically, the Oakridge fire angered legitimate environmentalists, who had just won a court ruling stopping logging of the Warner Creek fire, where Tubbs had joined the encampment of protesters, Engdahl said.
Marcia Ledbetter, support services supervisor at the ranger station, said the handwritten history of work on the district was lost, and she had trouble sleeping long afterward out of fear of further attacks.
Dennis Sullivan was assistant fire management officer at the time and had lost his home to fire as a child. He said his fiancee told him she was afraid to go alone into the woods.
"I felt my home had been destroyed again," he told the court.
Defense attorney Marc Friedman characterized Tubbs as a gentle young man from Nebraska who once worked for PETA organizing demonstrations against killing livestock and came to Eugene with his girlfriend to work for the Earth First! Journal, but soon found himself living in his car and "Dumpster diving" for food.
Tubbs met Jacob Ferguson, who set the Oakridge fire, at a Eugene park where Ferguson was helping hand out food to street people, and they became friends, Friedman said.
Tubbs went into a depression when his girlfriend began an affair with another environmental activist, and felt he needed to get involved in violent acts to win her back, Friedman added. After falling in love again in 2001, he told his fellow arsonists he was through and was living a productive life, looking forward to having a family.
Friedman acknowledged that Tubbs identified the Cavel West, Inc., horse slaughterhouse as a target after reading a news story saying wild horses were killed there for meat, but said Tubbs had no idea when he drove Ferguson and his girlfriend to Oakridge that they would set the ranger station on fire. He took part in the other fires out of loyalty to Ferguson, his only friend in Eugene.
His voice choked with emotion, Tubbs read from a statement saying he was deeply sorry for causing harm to others, particularly after hearing from the two Oakridge Ranger District employees about the fear and pain he caused them.
Acknowledging that it was no excuse, Tubbs said he was motivated by hopelessness and desperation over the cruelty to animals and destruction of the earth he saw all around him.
"I am disgusted, sickened, saddened, and totally ashamed that I played any part in any of the incidents," he said.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge Thursday sentenced Animal Liberation Front arsonist Kevin Tubbs to prison for more than 12 years, rejecting arguments that he was a minor player just trying to save animals and protect the earth.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken declared that four of the nine fires Tubbs was involved in — a forest ranger station, a police substation, a dealership selling SUVs and a tree farm — were acts of terrorism intended to influence the conduct of the government or retaliate for government acts.
"Fear and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," Aiken told Tubbs twice over for emphasis before sentencing him to 12 years seven months in federal prison.
Tubbs is the second of 10 members of The Family, a Eugene-based cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, to face sentencing in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson charges connected to a string of 20 arsons in five states that did a total of $40 million in damage.
Tubbs and his fiancee, Michelle Pace, made emotional pleas for mercy, but Aiken rejected them, saying Tubbs was trying to minimize his responsibility and could have been much more effective in helping save wild horses from slaughter by starting a fund to buy them and using them in programs with children.
Aiken said it was "profoundly and palpably sad" that she had eight more people to sentence who wasted their lives by choosing violence rather than "random acts of kindness" to raise public awareness about threats to animals and the environment.
Aiken noted that the torching of SUVs in the Portland area this week was evidence that the misguided motives of radicals like Tubbs lived on. Portland police arrested three people in the fires and said they were not connected to the sentencing of Tubbs and others this week.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdahl said Tubbs first met his family of radical environmentalists bent on saving the earth through arson in 1995 as they joined an encampment dedicated to stopping the U.S. Forest Service from logging trees burned by a fire.
Engdahl said Tubbs was not a leader of The Family, but regularly picked targets, recruited others and built incendiary devices. When it came time to set the fires, he usually left that to others, serving as a lookout or driver, Engdahl said.
Tubbs' targets included a U.S. Forest Service ranger station, a horse slaughterhouse, corrals used in roundups of wild horses, lumber mill offices, an SUV dealership, a police substation, a tree farm and a government laboratory. Damages were $11 million, Engdahl said.
Aiken found that the Oakridge Ranger District in 1996, the Joe Romania Chevrolet Truck Center in Eugene in 2001, the Eugene police substation in 2000, and Jefferson Poplar Farms near Clatskanie in 2001 were all acts of terrorism because they were either retribution for past government acts or intended to influence future government action.
Ironically, the Oakridge fire angered legitimate environmentalists, who had just won a court ruling stopping logging of the Warner Creek fire, where Tubbs had joined the encampment of protesters, Engdahl said.
Marcia Ledbetter, support services supervisor at the ranger station, said the handwritten history of work on the district was lost, and she had trouble sleeping long afterward out of fear of further attacks.
Dennis Sullivan was assistant fire management officer at the time and had lost his home to fire as a child. He said his fiancee told him she was afraid to go alone into the woods.
"I felt my home had been destroyed again," he told the court.
Defense attorney Marc Friedman characterized Tubbs as a gentle young man from Nebraska who once worked for PETA organizing demonstrations against killing livestock and came to Eugene with his girlfriend to work for the Earth First! Journal, but soon found himself living in his car and "Dumpster diving" for food.
Tubbs met Jacob Ferguson, who set the Oakridge fire, at a Eugene park where Ferguson was helping hand out food to street people, and they became friends, Friedman said.
Tubbs went into a depression when his girlfriend began an affair with another environmental activist, and felt he needed to get involved in violent acts to win her back, Friedman added. After falling in love again in 2001, he told his fellow arsonists he was through and was living a productive life, looking forward to having a family.
Friedman acknowledged that Tubbs identified the Cavel West, Inc., horse slaughterhouse as a target after reading a news story saying wild horses were killed there for meat, but said Tubbs had no idea when he drove Ferguson and his girlfriend to Oakridge that they would set the ranger station on fire. He took part in the other fires out of loyalty to Ferguson, his only friend in Eugene.
His voice choked with emotion, Tubbs read from a statement saying he was deeply sorry for causing harm to others, particularly after hearing from the two Oakridge Ranger District employees about the fear and pain he caused them.
Acknowledging that it was no excuse, Tubbs said he was motivated by hopelessness and desperation over the cruelty to animals and destruction of the earth he saw all around him.
"I am disgusted, sickened, saddened, and totally ashamed that I played any part in any of the incidents," he said.