By Jeff Barnard
The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Four people intend to plead guilty to causing $20 million in damages from firebombings around the Northwest, according to lawyers in the case.
Attorneys for the defendants and the prosecution refused to comment on terms of plea agreements that were to be submitted Thursday to Judge Ann Aiken in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
The Oregon indictments covered arsons from 1996 to 2001 that were claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Colorado.
Authorities said an Oregon-based group calling itself The Family set firebombs around the Northwest to stop logging, wild horse roundups, genetic engineering of plants, sport utility vehicle sales and the expansion of a Vail, Colo., ski resort into endangered lynx habitat.
The firebombings stopped in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The four were among 13 people indicted as part of an investigation known as Operation Backfire. Six have pleaded guilty to arson charges, agreeing to testify against the others, and three are fugitives. An unindicted coconspirator, Arizona bookstore owner William C. Rodgers, described as the group’s leader, committed suicide in jail just before he was to be sent to Oregon to face charges.
Related cases are being prosecuted in Washington and California.
For years, investigators came up with little more than the remains of five-gallon plastic buckets that had been filled with diesel and ignited with homemade timing devices. A special taskforce then used an informant to infiltrate The Family with a hidden recording device.
Those facing the arson charges are: Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, 40, a firefighter and animal rights activist from Ashland; Daniel McGowan, 32, of New York City, who was working for a nonprofit law firm helping abused women when he was arrested; Nathan Frazer Block, 25, and Joyanna L. Zacher, 28, both of Olympia, Wash.