Home Milwaukee Press Releases 2009 Defendants Sentenced to Prison in Earth Liberation Front (ELF) Action from 2000
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Defendants Sentenced to Prison in Earth Liberation Front (ELF) Action from 2000

U.S. Attorney’s Office February 26, 2009
  • Eastern District of Wisconsin (414) 297-1700

Madison, Wisconsin—Erik C. Peterson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Bryan Lefay, formerly Bryan Rivera, 27, Olympia, Wash., was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb to three years in prison for his role in the July 20, 2000 Earth Liberation Front attack on the U.S. Forest Service research facility in Rhinelander, Wis. He pleaded guilty to the offense of willful injury to property belonging to the government on November 14, 2008.

Co-defendant Katherine Christianson, 27, Santa Fe, N.M., was sentenced to two years in prison on February 19, 2009, for her role in the same offense. She pleaded guilty on December 4, 2008.

The defendants participated in the attack with three other individuals. Ian Wallace, 27, originally of Eau Claire, Wis., has recently pleaded guilty in the Western District of Michigan for his role in the 2001 attempted firebombing by the Earth Liberation Front of a U.S. Forest Service facility on the campus of Michigan Tech University, and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Daniel McGowan, 34, New York, pleaded guilty in 2006 in the District of Oregon to his role in a conspiracy that resulted in numerous arsons committed in the name of the Earth Liberation Front. One of the fires resulted in $12 million in damage to a ski resort in Colorado. McGowan was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2007.

Aaron Ellringer, 35, Eau Claire, Wis., was permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor given his limited role in this offense, and sentenced to four days in jail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker on December 30, 2008.

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is a loosely organized movement of individuals committed to the eradication of activities these individuals believe to be harmful to the natural environment, including commercial activities, land development, and genetic research. Individuals who affiliate themselves with the Earth Liberation Front movement believe in the necessity of "direct actions" to further their cause and promote their ideas. Direct actions are illegal acts of vandalism or arson designed to intimidate businesses, government, and the general civilian population into ceasing activities that individuals in this movement believe are harmful to the natural environment. Individuals associating themselves with the Earth Liberation Front are responsible nationwide for countless acts of arson and vandalism, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in damages.

In this case, the defendants targeted the U.S. Forest Service facility because it was the location of a genetic research experiment designed to make trees more disease resistant. The attack damaged or destroyed approximately 500 trees that were part of the research experiment, and defaced Forest Service vehicles with references to ELF.

 

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