Ecoterror suspect held without bail

EUGENE, Ore. – A 28-year-old Virginia college student was ordered held without bail Friday on federal charges he was part of a group of radical environmentalists who toppled a high- tension electric line and firebombed a lumber mill office and a tree farm.

Dressed in jail fatigues and shackled around the ankles, Stanislas “Jack” Meyerhoff, a student at Piedmont Community College in Charlottesville, Va., responded in a quiet voice, “Yes, your honor,” when asked if he understood the 17 counts of arson, conspiracy and destruction of property that could send him to prison for life.

Meyerhoff was one of six people arrested Wednesday in five states on federal charges they took part in a series of attacks in Oregon and Washington dating back from 1998 to 2001. The Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, shadowy radical environmental groups, took responsibility for some of the attacks, but authorities have not said that any of the people arrested were directly connected with either group. A seventh person has been indicted but not yet arrested.

Besides the lumber mill, high-tension tower and tree farm in Oregon that Meyerhoff is accused of vandalizing, another lumber mill in Medford and a plant research facility in Olympia were hit. No one took responsibility for toppling the power tower, but the Earth Liberation Front issued a statement saying it had done the firebombings of the tree farm and the plant-research facility, which took place the same day.

The indictment read in court accused Meyerhoff of planning and carrying out an attack on a Bonneville Power Administration tower about 25 miles east of Bend on Dec. 30, 1999. The two women named were Chelsea D. Gerlach, 28, who was arrested Wednesday in Portland, and Josephine Overaker, who remains at large.

Meyerhoff was also indicted on charges he helped firebomb the office of Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale on Jan. 2, 2001, and offices and a truck shop at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie on May 21, 2001.