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Harassment of UC researchers brings four arrests
This article from the Chronicle includes much more useful information about the FBI investigation.
(02-20) 17:45 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Four people have been arrested for allegedly harassing and threatening scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz for their use of animals in research, the FBI reported today.
According to a criminal complaint filed in San Francisco on Thursday, the four are part of a larger group of protesters who targeted researchers at their homes. The complaint asserts that the protesters wore masks and chanted slogans such as "You're a murderer" and "What goes around comes around" in hours-long protests at nine researchers' homes.
Federal agents identified the four as Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach; Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside; Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley; and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole.
Among the more serious allegations in the complain is an event from February 2008, in which protesters at a researcher's home in Santa Cruz banged on doors and shook the front door handle. When the researcher's husband opened the door to confront the protesters, he was struck by an object, according to the complaint, after which the group fled in a vehicle.
The car the protesters used to leave that incident belonged to Khajavi's mother, according to the federal agents. That led police to search Khavaji's home on Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz, where they also found Pope and Stumpo. The searchers found several bandanas carrying DNA from Khajavi, Pope and Stumpo, a bullhorn and notes with researchers' personal information, according to the complaint.
In July, the complaint claims, Buddenberg and Pope were part of a group videotaped at a cafe leaving flyers containing researchers' home addresses and the message: "Animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live."
The researchers' information in the flyers had been downloaded two days earlier from a Santa Cruz Kinko's, according to the complaint, and Pope and Stumpo were videotaped using the rented terminal used to access that information.
In a press release, the FBI noted that a few days after the flyers were distributed, two UC Santa Cruz researchers' homes were firebombed. Those attacks remain under investigation. The four arrested Thursday are not currently charged in connection with them, and investigators declined to discuss any possible link between the cases.
Contact information for the defendants, their family or attorneys was not immediately available.
In a July article for the Berkeley Daily Planet, Buddenberg described himself as an activist who had participated in protests by Stop Cal Vivisection, a group that had maintained a Web site listing the home addresses of several researchers. The site has since been removed and replaced with a message opposing "intimidatory home demonstrations" as a tactic in the animal rights movement.
Stumpo also appears to be involved in animal rights activism, with a posting on a Web site opposed to the research company Huntingdon Life Sciences , calling the company "the modern day Holocaust for animals."
Pope, who reportedly uses the surname Knoerl, was arrested once before during the harassment investigation, and charged with perjury. He later pleaded no contest to providing false information to the DMV, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper.
Although Buddenberg described his activism as legal, the FBI alleges he and the others arrested violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. That federal statute criminalizes interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise through force, violence or threats while placing a person in a "reasonable fear" of death or serious bodily injury. The act carries a possible penalty of up to five years in prison.
According to the complaint, the targeted researchers told investigators they were "terrified" by the incidents.
"We had a family that was attacked in their home. That's the key here," said Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry. "That's a case that no matter how long it takes, we'll stay with."
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said, "We hope that the arrest of these suspects will send a clear and powerful signal to extremists who continue to engage in dangerous and illegal actions against university researchers who seek only to advance knowledge and understanding. "
E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at mstannard [at] sfchronicle.com
According to a criminal complaint filed in San Francisco on Thursday, the four are part of a larger group of protesters who targeted researchers at their homes. The complaint asserts that the protesters wore masks and chanted slogans such as "You're a murderer" and "What goes around comes around" in hours-long protests at nine researchers' homes.
Federal agents identified the four as Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach; Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside; Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley; and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole.
Among the more serious allegations in the complain is an event from February 2008, in which protesters at a researcher's home in Santa Cruz banged on doors and shook the front door handle. When the researcher's husband opened the door to confront the protesters, he was struck by an object, according to the complaint, after which the group fled in a vehicle.
The car the protesters used to leave that incident belonged to Khajavi's mother, according to the federal agents. That led police to search Khavaji's home on Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz, where they also found Pope and Stumpo. The searchers found several bandanas carrying DNA from Khajavi, Pope and Stumpo, a bullhorn and notes with researchers' personal information, according to the complaint.
In July, the complaint claims, Buddenberg and Pope were part of a group videotaped at a cafe leaving flyers containing researchers' home addresses and the message: "Animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live."
The researchers' information in the flyers had been downloaded two days earlier from a Santa Cruz Kinko's, according to the complaint, and Pope and Stumpo were videotaped using the rented terminal used to access that information.
In a press release, the FBI noted that a few days after the flyers were distributed, two UC Santa Cruz researchers' homes were firebombed. Those attacks remain under investigation. The four arrested Thursday are not currently charged in connection with them, and investigators declined to discuss any possible link between the cases.
Contact information for the defendants, their family or attorneys was not immediately available.
In a July article for the Berkeley Daily Planet, Buddenberg described himself as an activist who had participated in protests by Stop Cal Vivisection, a group that had maintained a Web site listing the home addresses of several researchers. The site has since been removed and replaced with a message opposing "intimidatory home demonstrations" as a tactic in the animal rights movement.
Stumpo also appears to be involved in animal rights activism, with a posting on a Web site opposed to the research company Huntingdon Life Sciences , calling the company "the modern day Holocaust for animals."
Pope, who reportedly uses the surname Knoerl, was arrested once before during the harassment investigation, and charged with perjury. He later pleaded no contest to providing false information to the DMV, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper.
Although Buddenberg described his activism as legal, the FBI alleges he and the others arrested violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. That federal statute criminalizes interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise through force, violence or threats while placing a person in a "reasonable fear" of death or serious bodily injury. The act carries a possible penalty of up to five years in prison.
According to the complaint, the targeted researchers told investigators they were "terrified" by the incidents.
"We had a family that was attacked in their home. That's the key here," said Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry. "That's a case that no matter how long it takes, we'll stay with."
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said, "We hope that the arrest of these suspects will send a clear and powerful signal to extremists who continue to engage in dangerous and illegal actions against university researchers who seek only to advance knowledge and understanding. "
E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at mstannard [at] sfchronicle.com
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"In July, the complaint claims, Buddenberg and Pope were part of a group videotaped at a cafe leaving flyers containing researchers' home addresses and the message: "Animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live."
The researchers' information in the flyers had been downloaded two days earlier from a Santa Cruz Kinko's, according to the complaint, and Pope and Stumpo were videotaped using the rented terminal used to access that information."
Obviously Kinko's has surveillance cameras, but, does Caffe Perg's also have them? The only other plausible idea I can come up is that these folks were already under investigation and being watched pretty closely by the FBI...