Mattole Activists Assaulted, Arrested After Serving Subpoena for Pepper Spray Trial

Humboldt County, CA - Five Mattole Forest Defense activists were arrested early Wednesday morning after serving a subpoena to Pacific Lumber’s head of Security. Carl Anderson, an ex-sheriff’s deputy, who has lead the timber corporation’s face to face opposition to activists in the woods for over a decade, was served a subpoena to appear at the infamous pepper spray trial in San Francisco, which starts September 7. The case dates back to 1997, when non-violent forest activists were subjected to torture, in the form of pepper spray swabbed in their eyes. The pepper spray victims, who are the plaintiffs in the case, subpoenaed Anderson to testify at trial.

Both the service of the subpoena, and the subsequent assault, took place on state park land near the entrance to PL property. The activists documented proper service of the subpoena with a video camera, as they have learned the hard way that PL representatives have ignored legal subpoenas in the past. Activists have been threatened and unlawfully detained during previous attempts to serve legal documents in another pending case involving PL.

Shortly after the subpoena was served, activists were met by a truck from Columbia Helicopters, who are contracted by PL to stack logs from clear-cuts. Activists reported the truck driver was aggressive with his driving, and pushing into activists’ bodies to get through them. When another truck appeared on the scene, this one a personal red pick-up truck, the driver jumped out and assaulted the woman with the camera, which was held around her neck by a strap. After he wrestled with the woman, reportedly throwing her to the ground, he began choking her with the strap as he attempted the take the camera from her. She tried to protect the camera by wrapping her body around it, but he was determined to take it from her. He pulled out a knife and eventually cut the strap, but not without cutting the woman in the process.

The sheriffs arrived sometime thereafter, but refused to take reports from activists. They did, however, take notes on the report offered by Carl Anderson. The activists attempted to notify the deputies that they had been assaulted, to which Anderson reportedly joked to the Officer Carla Bolton, “What are you going to do, arrest me?” Given the number of times activists have witnessed Anderson giving orders to the sheriffs’, opening the doors to their trucks and helping himself to their vehicle phones and equipment, the answer wasn’t hard to guess. Five activists were arrested, and the videotape and mangled camera confiscated along with the proof of service of the subpoena.

The five activists were released from jail Friday afternoon. Trial has been set for September 20, 2004 at 8:30 at the Humboldt County Courthouse in Eureka.