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Play with matches and you might get burned. #950822
10/25/08 05:00 PM
10/25/08 05:00 PM
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
Mira Trapper Offline OP
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Mira Trapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
ELF arsonist/informant gets 9 years (AP)

Michigan Live

Michigan State arsonist sentenced to 9 years

By JAMES PRICHARD

The Associated Press

10/20/2008, 3:11 p.m. EDT

http://www.mlive.com:80/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-58/122451804798250.xml&storylist=newsmichigan



KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — A former environmental activist who committed arson at Michigan State University but later became an undercover FBI informant was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison.



Frank Ambrose, 33, told a federal judge he was sorry for what he did and accepted full responsibility. He was freed until he is ordered to report to prison authorities, which could take months.



Chief Judge Paul L. Maloney of U.S. District Court also sentenced Ambrose to a lifetime of supervisory release after prison and ordered him to pay $3.7 million in restitution to the university and to other sabotaged entities.



Ambrose apologized to officials at the school "and all the other people who I hurt by my actions."



He also said he was sorry to his relatives, about a dozen of whom attended the sentencing hearing. Some wept as Maloney issued the sentence.



"I want to apologize to my family," Ambrose said. "They raised me well. I should have resisted the people who helped lead me astray."



"I wish I could take all I did back. I've changed significantly from all those years where I did the bad things," he added.



An explosion and fire caused more than $1 million in damage at Michigan State's Agriculture Hall nearly nine years ago. It was a protest against genetically modified crops taken by Ambrose, who at the time belonged to the Earth Liberation Front, a radical band of environmentalists.



Ambrose pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit arson at Michigan State on Dec. 31, 1999, and to logging equipment the next day in Wexford County. While the charge is conspiracy, Ambrose admitted that he set the fires.



In his plea agreement, he also took responsibility for 11 other acts from 1999 to 2003, including tree spikings in Indiana and the arson of four homes under construction in Macomb and Washtenaw counties.



Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said Ambrose's undercover work with the government went well beyond what most defendants do when seeking leniency in sentencing. Ambrose originally faced a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but Frank asked Maloney for a term in the range of 100 to 125 months.



"I think it's an appropriate sentence," Frank said of the 108-month term Maloney handed down.



The judge said while he was impressed by the amount of help Ambrose provided to investigators and that he seemed genuinely remorseful, "only a prison sentence is appropriate in this case."



Members of Ambrose's family cried and consoled each other in the courtroom after the hearing. They declined to comment about the sentence, as did Ambrose himself and defense lawyer Michael Brady.



During the court session, Brady tried to get Maloney not to sentence his client to prison because of his undercover work and his repentance.



"I think there is no utility in incarceration, in terms of rehabilitating the defendant," the attorney said.



Ambrose became an informant in 2007, a few months after making a critical mistake: He dumped personal records, writings, a gas mask, an M-80 explosive and other possessions in a Detroit-area trash bin.



A man foraging for scrap cardboard called police, and the FBI subsequently raided Ambrose's home.



He turned on a co-defendant, his ex-wife, Marie Mason, but his cooperation with the government goes beyond Michigan.



Ambrose traveled outside the state seven times to gather intelligence and record conversations, Frank wrote in a court document. His assistance "enabled the FBI to significantly enhance its intelligence base concerning not only extremist activity in the upper Midwest but also concerning the methodology, the security culture and the psychology of ELF and related movements."



Mason, 46, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in September to three charges of conspiracy and arson, and is to be sentenced in February


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Mac Leod Motto
Re: Play with matches and you might get burned. [Re: Mira Trapper] #951693
10/26/08 07:58 AM
10/26/08 07:58 AM
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
Mira Trapper Offline OP
trapper
Mira Trapper  Offline OP
trapper

Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
The Law is catching up to these folks. Neat think is;;;Once they catch one they usually catch them all because they are most likely to rat out on the others in a plea bargain.


Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (WI)

Eau Claire man pleads to reduced federal charge

By Kevin Murphy

Leader-Telegram correspondent

Updated: 10/24/2008

http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-ros.asp?id=BI4QTAM4G61



MADISON - An Eau Claire man indicted for conspiring to destroy federal tree research and equipment near Rhinelander valued at $500,000 pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to a misdemeanor trespass charge.



Aaron Ellringer, 35, admitted to Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker that in July 2000 he knew the four people he drove in the back of a pickup truck from Eau Claire to a forest road near Rhinelander were "doing something secret," but he didn't know exactly what.



After Crocker said that statement wasn't a sufficient confession to a trespass charge, Ellringer admitted to knowing that one of the passengers who asked for a ride, Ian Wallace, was involved in some environmental-related activity. Ellringer also admitted to being in a controlled area without permission.



Ellringer didn't appear in court Thursday but testified by phone from Eau Claire, where he is a co-owner of Just Local Food Co-op.



He told Crocker he waited in the truck while his passengers disappeared into the night and then radioed him to pick them up. That same night he drove them at least partly back to Eau Claire, Ellringer said.



Ellringer had faced maximum penalties of 10 years in prison after being indicted in July for conspiring to destroy government property with Katherine Christianson of Santa Fe, N.M., and Bryan Rivera and Bryan "Rat Dog" Lefey, both of Washington state.



Crocker continued Ellringer's release on conditions until his Dec. 9 sentencing, when he faces maximum penalties of six months in jail and a $10,000 fine.



Christianson and Rivera's trial is set for Dec. 1.



Ellringer's attorney, federal defender Michael Lieberman, said his client never took part in destruction of government property and even a conspiracy charge didn't reflect his participation.



"Everyone agreed that this (misdemeanor) was an appropriate resolution, given his involvement in the case," Lieberman said after court.



A call to Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin regarding the government's decision to substitute a misdemeanor for a felony charge wasn't returned before deadline.



According to the indictment:



Two of the indicted co-conspirators and others planned the attack on the U.S. Forest Service facility in Rhinelander after attending a conference in Tennessee. They believed the facility was an appropriate target because it was performing genetic research on trees, which the group believed was harmful to the natural environment.



The conspirators planned the attack in combination with planned protests at the International Society of Animal Geneticists in late July 2000 in Minneapolis.



They recruited Ellringer to drive them to Rhinelander the night of July 19, 2000, where they destroyed about 500 research trees using spray paint and etching cream. The group also permanently defaced numerous Forest Service vehicles with references to the Earth Liberation Front.



Christianson and an unindicted conspirator later sent a message on behalf of ELF claiming responsibility for the attack on the Rhinelander facility.



Murphy is a freelance writer from Madison.


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Mac Leod Motto
Re: Play with matches and you might get burned. [Re: Mira Trapper] #951724
10/26/08 08:31 AM
10/26/08 08:31 AM
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,992
SE Iowa 21 years old
Trapper Knox Offline
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Trapper Knox  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,992
SE Iowa 21 years old
... Good Lord... now they've really lost it.
I have name for these guys: Tree rights activist!
Save the trees, trees are living things, they have rights!
I hope when one is trying to bring a dead tree back to life, the wind picks up and lands on top of 'em! If he lives hopefully that will knock some sense back into him!


God is awesome
Re: Play with matches and you might get burned. [Re: Trapper Knox] #951739
10/26/08 08:43 AM
10/26/08 08:43 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 397
South Dakota
S
Staner Offline
trapper
Staner  Offline
trapper
S

Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 397
South Dakota
Save the trees...catch a beaver!


Badges?? We don't need no stinkin' badges!!!

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