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semiotic_pirateAnimal rights activists convicted in New Jersey
Thu Mar 2, 2006 6:40 PM ET
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal jury using an anti-terrorism law for the first time convicted six animal rights activists on Thursday for a campaign to drive a company out of business.
The jury in Trenton, New Jersey, found the defendants and their organization guilty of violating the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a federal law that was amended in 2002 to equate its offenses with terrorism. This marked the first trial and conviction under that law, federal officials said.
The members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were also found guilty of conspiracy and interstate stalking in their campaign against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British company that tests consumer products on animals and has operations in East Millstone, New Jersey.
"SHAC and all six individual defendants have been found guilty on all counts against them," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey.
During the three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson, jurors heard that defendants urged sympathizers to harass Huntingdon employees, vandalize their cars and publish the names, addresses and phone numbers of their families on a Web site.
SHAC members also used their Web site in an attempt to stop other companies from doing business with Huntingdon in the hope that if they succeeded, Huntingdon itself would be unable to operate.
Their tactics included sending thousands of e-mails to the targeted companies to disrupt their computers, and sending "black faxes" to prevent fax machines from operating.
Some companies ended their relationship with Huntingdon as a result of SHAC's campaign, prosecutors said.
"We'll be at their offices, at their doorsteps, on their phones, or in their computers. There will be no rest for the wicked," the SHAC Web site said, according to prosecutors.
Defense attorneys argued that the defendants were exercising their constitutional rights of free speech and had not themselves committed the acts advocated by their Web site. SHAC said it was the victim of a government crackdown on dissent.
Convicted were Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer.
You would think that regular stalkers and anti-abortionists, actually anyone who used the above described tactics to disrupt business and personal lives would be similarly answerable to the law... However, this is not the case. People will only be prosecuted for the same activities in certain circumstances. Fascinating.
Edit: second, more detailed article below...
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Animal_Extremists.html
Thursday, March 2, 2006 ยท Last updated 4:44 p.m. PT
Jury convicts animal welfare activists
By JEFFREY GOLD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TRENTON, N.J. -- An animal rights group and six members were convicted Thursday of using their Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that tests drugs and household products on animals.
The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment.
The federal government charged that SHAC waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting on its Web site information about the lab's employees and those who do business with Huntingdon, including their home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school.
Many of those people saw their homes vandalized, and they and their families received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls. Many were also besieged by protesters parading with photos of mutilated animals and screaming "Puppy killer!" through megaphones at all hours outside their homes.
One woman said she received an e-mail threatening to cut her 7-year-old son open and stuff him with poison. A man said he was showered with glass as people smashed all the windows of his home and overturned his wife's car.
The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. Instead, they were charged with inciting the harassment with their Internet postings.
SHAC, based in Philadelphia, and six of its members were charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses. The charges carry two to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.
Mike Caulfield, Huntingdon's general manager, said the verdict was "a victory for democracy, research and patients."
"The government and this jury have sent a strong message to those who would ignore the democratic process and resort to criminal activity to advance their political views," Caulfield said in a statement.
The jury deliberated over three days after a three-week trial.
The defense rested after just one day, and used testimony from the group's president, Pamelyn Ferdin, a former child star who was the voice of Lucy in the "Peanuts" movies and played Felix Unger's daughter Edna on TV's "The Odd Couple." She was not charged.
"For the government to say you can't say this and you can't say that is going down a very scary path of going toward fascism," she told the jury.
Ferdin became leader of the group in 2004 after its former president, Kevin Kjonaas and the others were indicted.
Also testifying was one of the defendants, Joshua Harper, who said that he opposes injuring any life form, including humans. But he also said it is all right to throw rocks through someone's window as long as the person isn't home.
Federal Judge Anne E. Thompson ordered five of the defendants held without bail and told the group to remove victims' names and home addresses from its Web site by March 13.
Many of the targets of the harassment testified that they started looking over their shoulders when walking or driving, changed their phone numbers or even moved. Some kept their children from playing outdoors, and several bought guns.
Sally Dillenback said her young son would often crouch by the door brandishing a 5-inch kitchen knife when the doorbell rang, promising to protect his mommy.
"He told me not to worry," she testified. "He said he was going to get the animal people. Once I found him at the garage door with a knife. That was his state of mind. He was a 7-year-old boy."
Dillenback broke into tears as she recounted an anonymous e-mail that threatened to cut open her son and fill him with poison "the way Huntingdon does with the animals."
Marian Harlos testified she got late-night calls in which someone asked: "Are you scared? Do you think the puppies should be scared?"
She said masked protesters parked down the street from her house, videotaping her comings and goings. They barged into her office, screaming and tossing leaflets, and others ruined the rear door with glue and animal stickers, she said.
---
On the Net:
SHAC: http://www.shac.net
Huntingdon Life Sciences: http://www.huntingdon.com
This of course, goes along with the recent article, based on an alarming study that claims only 1 in 1000 knows the terms covered in the 1st amendment while about 1 in 5 could name all the characters of The Simpsons.
Thu Mar 2, 2006 6:40 PM ET
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal jury using an anti-terrorism law for the first time convicted six animal rights activists on Thursday for a campaign to drive a company out of business.
The jury in Trenton, New Jersey, found the defendants and their organization guilty of violating the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a federal law that was amended in 2002 to equate its offenses with terrorism. This marked the first trial and conviction under that law, federal officials said.
The members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were also found guilty of conspiracy and interstate stalking in their campaign against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British company that tests consumer products on animals and has operations in East Millstone, New Jersey.
"SHAC and all six individual defendants have been found guilty on all counts against them," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey.
During the three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson, jurors heard that defendants urged sympathizers to harass Huntingdon employees, vandalize their cars and publish the names, addresses and phone numbers of their families on a Web site.
SHAC members also used their Web site in an attempt to stop other companies from doing business with Huntingdon in the hope that if they succeeded, Huntingdon itself would be unable to operate.
Their tactics included sending thousands of e-mails to the targeted companies to disrupt their computers, and sending "black faxes" to prevent fax machines from operating.
Some companies ended their relationship with Huntingdon as a result of SHAC's campaign, prosecutors said.
"We'll be at their offices, at their doorsteps, on their phones, or in their computers. There will be no rest for the wicked," the SHAC Web site said, according to prosecutors.
Defense attorneys argued that the defendants were exercising their constitutional rights of free speech and had not themselves committed the acts advocated by their Web site. SHAC said it was the victim of a government crackdown on dissent.
Convicted were Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer.
You would think that regular stalkers and anti-abortionists, actually anyone who used the above described tactics to disrupt business and personal lives would be similarly answerable to the law... However, this is not the case. People will only be prosecuted for the same activities in certain circumstances. Fascinating.
Edit: second, more detailed article below...
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Animal_Extremists.html
Thursday, March 2, 2006 ยท Last updated 4:44 p.m. PT
Jury convicts animal welfare activists
By JEFFREY GOLD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TRENTON, N.J. -- An animal rights group and six members were convicted Thursday of using their Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that tests drugs and household products on animals.
The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment.
The federal government charged that SHAC waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting on its Web site information about the lab's employees and those who do business with Huntingdon, including their home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school.
Many of those people saw their homes vandalized, and they and their families received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls. Many were also besieged by protesters parading with photos of mutilated animals and screaming "Puppy killer!" through megaphones at all hours outside their homes.
One woman said she received an e-mail threatening to cut her 7-year-old son open and stuff him with poison. A man said he was showered with glass as people smashed all the windows of his home and overturned his wife's car.
The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. Instead, they were charged with inciting the harassment with their Internet postings.
SHAC, based in Philadelphia, and six of its members were charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses. The charges carry two to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.
Mike Caulfield, Huntingdon's general manager, said the verdict was "a victory for democracy, research and patients."
"The government and this jury have sent a strong message to those who would ignore the democratic process and resort to criminal activity to advance their political views," Caulfield said in a statement.
The jury deliberated over three days after a three-week trial.
The defense rested after just one day, and used testimony from the group's president, Pamelyn Ferdin, a former child star who was the voice of Lucy in the "Peanuts" movies and played Felix Unger's daughter Edna on TV's "The Odd Couple." She was not charged.
"For the government to say you can't say this and you can't say that is going down a very scary path of going toward fascism," she told the jury.
Ferdin became leader of the group in 2004 after its former president, Kevin Kjonaas and the others were indicted.
Also testifying was one of the defendants, Joshua Harper, who said that he opposes injuring any life form, including humans. But he also said it is all right to throw rocks through someone's window as long as the person isn't home.
Federal Judge Anne E. Thompson ordered five of the defendants held without bail and told the group to remove victims' names and home addresses from its Web site by March 13.
Many of the targets of the harassment testified that they started looking over their shoulders when walking or driving, changed their phone numbers or even moved. Some kept their children from playing outdoors, and several bought guns.
Sally Dillenback said her young son would often crouch by the door brandishing a 5-inch kitchen knife when the doorbell rang, promising to protect his mommy.
"He told me not to worry," she testified. "He said he was going to get the animal people. Once I found him at the garage door with a knife. That was his state of mind. He was a 7-year-old boy."
Dillenback broke into tears as she recounted an anonymous e-mail that threatened to cut open her son and fill him with poison "the way Huntingdon does with the animals."
Marian Harlos testified she got late-night calls in which someone asked: "Are you scared? Do you think the puppies should be scared?"
She said masked protesters parked down the street from her house, videotaping her comings and goings. They barged into her office, screaming and tossing leaflets, and others ruined the rear door with glue and animal stickers, she said.
---
On the Net:
SHAC: http://www.shac.net
Huntingdon Life Sciences: http://www.huntingdon.com
This of course, goes along with the recent article, based on an alarming study that claims only 1 in 1000 knows the terms covered in the 1st amendment while about 1 in 5 could name all the characters of The Simpsons.
