Two ecoterrorism suspects denied bail

MEDFORD, Ore. – A millionaire wildland firefighter and a caregiver in a home for the developmentally disabled appeared in court Thursday on federal arson charges alleging they firebombed two targets in acts claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front.

Smiling to friends and family who jammed the courtroom, Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, 39, of the Ashland area and Suzanne Nicole “India” Savoie, 28, of Applegate, were both ordered held without bail pending further hearings.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene as part of the investigation of a series of Northwest arsons between 1996 and 2001 accused Paul, the firefighter, of setting firebombs that burned down the Cavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond on July 21, 1997. The ALF claimed responsibility for that fire, which caused an estimated $1 million in damage.

Savoie, who works in a group home for the developmentally disabled in Ashland, is accused of serving as a lookout for the Jan. 2, 2001 fire that destroyed offices of Superior Lumber Co., a lumber mill in Glendale now known as the Swanson Group. The ELF claimed responsibility for that fire.

Both face five to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Preliminary hearings for both were set for Jan. 30 in Eugene, unless a grand jury indicts them first.

The FBI arrested Paul on Tuesday outside Ashland at the Green Springs Inn, said FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele. Savoie turned herself in to the FBI on Thursday.

The two new defendants bring to nine the number of people charged in a series of arsons from 1996 to 2001 in Oregon and Washington. They include two lumber mill offices, a tree farm, an SUV dealer, and two research labs.

Authorities have also linked two of the earlier suspects to a fire at a Vail, Colo., ski resort, but no one has been charged in that case. Of the seven defendants named earlier, four are held without bail, one is free on bail, one committed suicide in jail, and one remains a fugitive.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Fong argued that Paul presented a high flight risk and a danger to society due to the nature of the charges and the fact that he had a trust fund and other assets worth $1.7 million, which would allow him to post a $400,000 bond and still have plenty of cash to flee.

Defense attorney Stu Sugarman countered that Paul has lived openly in southern Oregon for nine years, had a wife and family, and demonstrated in the past that he was willing to surrender to authorities rather than hide.

In 1993, Paul spent five months in jail for contempt of court in Spokane for refusing to testify in the investigation of another ALF case, a 1991 raid that caused $100,000 in damages to U.S. Department of Agriculture offices at Washington State University in Pullman. He was released after a judge concluded imprisonment would not persuade him to talk.