Four charged in arson of corral
RENO, Nev. – Four people were accused in federal indictments announced Thursday in the 2001 firebombing of a federal corral near Susanville, Calif., that housed wild horses and burros rounded up from public rangeland.
Three of the four suspects in the firebombing at the Bureau of Land Management facility about 80 miles northwest of Reno already have been indicted on federal charges mostly in Oregon in connection with a string of cases of alleged eco-terrorism across several Western states.
One of them, Canadian Darren Thurston, 36, remains in custody in Oregon. Two others previously indicted, Rebecca Rubin, 32, and Joseph Dibee, 38, are listed as fugitives, as is the fourth suspect named for the first time in Thursday’s indictment, Justin Solondz, 26.
U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott and FBI Special Agent Drew Parenti announced the new three-count indictment on Thursday in Sacramento charging the four with conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building and use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence.
They said the charges were the product of an extensive investigation by the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“Those who would commit acts of terror, such as arson, in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, and the Animal Liberation Front, should be on notice: Federal law enforcement will do everything in its capacity to track you down and hold you accountable for your dangerous behavior,” Scott said in a statement issued by his office in Sacramento.
“Today’s indictments of these four eco-terrorists bring to 11 the total number of ELF or ELF-ALF related defendants charged in three separate cases brought by this office over the past year.”
Dibee is among three suspects earlier charged with torching the Cavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore., in July 1997. Rubin, also a fugitive, is among three suspects charged in an arson fire at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore., in December 1998.
Four firebombs had been rigged to ignite at the BLM’s Litchfield corral along U.S. Highway 395 about 20 miles northeast of Susanville, Calif., but only one went off, destroying the hay-filled barn on Oct. 16, 2001. A military bomb squad disarmed the others. No one was injured.
About two weeks after the firebombing, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front said that another group, the Earth Liberation Front, appeared to be taking credit for the attack as a form of protest against the federal roundup of wild horses.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham, who is prosecuting the case, said Thursday that in addition to the bomb that went off, a second device was found in the hay barn adjacent to the one that burned.
A third device was found on the front porch of the BLM office, and a fourth was under the car of a BLM horse wrangler.
“Although this incident occurred more than four years ago, the FBI and its JTTF partners continued to investigate these acts of extremism, and are pleased charges have been filed against those responsible,” Parenti said Thursday.
If convicted, the penalties under federal law for conspiracy to commit arson and arson are 20 years maximum, a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, and a three-year term of supervised release.
The penalty for use of a destructive device during a crime of violence is 30 years to be served consecutively to the underlying crime, and a five-year term of supervised release.