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Not-So-Confidential Informants

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FBI Targets Activists For Terrorism
12/22/2005 By JEFF BARNARD / Associated Press

One of the six people arrested this month on federal charges they were part of an eco-terrorism campaign has agreed to testify against others charged in the case, according to court papers. A defense motion filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene says Stanislas "Jack" Meyerhoff, 28, a former Eugene resident who has lately been attending Piedmont Community College in Charlottesville, Va., is one of the unnamed informants the federal government has relied on for evidence in the investigation.

Public defender Craig Weinerman named Meyerhoff and another man, Jacob Ferguson, as informants in a motion for the release of Chelsea Gerlach, who is being held without bail. The motion is to be argued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Eugene. Gerlach, 28, who grew up in the Eugene area and worked as a disc jockey in Portland, faces trial on indictments she and Meyerhoff helped topple a high tension power line outside Bend in 1999 and that she served as a lookout while others were setting fire to the Childers Meat Co. plant in Eugene in 2001.

No group took responsibility for the toppling the electric tower, but the Animal Liberation Front took credit for the meat plant fire to protest the treatment of livestock. Authorities have also named Gerlach as a suspect in the 1998 arson of a ski resort in Vail, Colo., that caused $12 million in damages, though she has not been charged. The Earth Liberation Front took credit for that, saying it was fighting ski resort expansion into lynx habitat.

Meyerhoff also was indicted on charges he firebombed the office of Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, now known as Swanson Group, in 2001, as well as offices and a truck shop at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie the same year. Earth Liberation Front took credit for both those.

In a status hearing Tuesday, Meyerhoff asked the court to show mercy. "I pray that the court is merciful with those who have renounced these crimes and have moved on to be students and professionals," he said. Weinerman characterized Meyerhoff and Ferguson as "serial arsonists" whose credibility was undermined by the fact that they face life in prison without parole if convicted on charges of being in possession of a firebomb. He argued that the weakness of the government's case and Gerlach's strong ties to the community — her mother lives in Eugene and her father lives in Sweet Home — should qualify her for release on bail.

Weinerman wrote in the motion that following his arrest Dec. 7, Meyerhoff admitted he was involved in the Childers Meat fire and claimed Gerlach also was involved, but could not recall her specific role. He has not been charged in that fire. Ferguson, who told authorities he also took part in the meat plant fire, characterized Gerlach's role as a lookout with a hand-held radio, the motion said. The motion gave no age or hometown for Ferguson, but noted that he has not been charged in any of the cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Sheldahl said the prosecution would respond to the motion in court. Ferguson also admitted taking part in the firebombing of a U.S. Department of Agriculture plant research lab in Olympia, Wash., in 1998, the Superior Lumber Co. fire in 2001 and the tree farm fire the same year, the motion said. "Ferguson has admitted to actually setting the fires in these arsons according to an affidavit filed in connection with the issuance of search warrants in these cases," the motion said. That affidavit also says that the informant, not named, went with an investigator to the tree farm in December 2004, and described how the firebombing was carried out.

In 2005 he wore a hidden microphone and obtained tape recordings of conversations with defendants Meyerhoff, Kevin Tubbs of Eugene, Daniel McGowan of New York City, and William C. Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz. The affidavit includes a transcript of McGowan saying two of the firebombs from the tree farm fire did not go off, and a notation that investigators found a bucket of fuel at the scene with a fanny pack, typically used to hold the bomb timer, immersed in it. McGowan was indicted on charges he joined Meyerhoff in the arsons of the lumber mill and the tree farm.

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Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar

Briana Waters was just convicted on two counts of arson stemming from an eco-terror fire that destroyed the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001.  But the jury deadlocked on three other counts, including the big one, using a destructive device during a crime of violence.  That carried a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

In an agreement signed Thursday, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle said it won't hold a new trial on the deadlocked counts, and moved to dismiss those charges.  In exchange, Waters agreed that if a federal appeals court overturns her conviction, the government can re-file the charges even if the statute of limitations has run out.

Two women who pleaded guilty testified against Waters, and rental car records suggested she obtained a vehicle used in the crime.  Her lawyer, Robert Bloom, insisted during closing arguments that the women, Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar, lied on the witness stand in an attempt to frame her and win lighter sentences.

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