The feds [RE-wrenches]

[William Korthof]

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Here's an update on that situation where the feds suspected one of
my employees in a car dealer "situation" a few months back. It looks
like they are winding to a close, finally. Amazing how long it takes to
review the lack of evidence or even [stretching imagination] probable
cause. And of course, along the way, not a single hint of apology to
anyone so far.

The Daily Bulletin is a local paper which right after the FBI search
printed some rather inflammatory, presumptuous content. Needless
to say, even their tone changed. But Josh was so irritated, he
declined all interviews with them since.

/wk

<http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203%257E21481%257E1769903,00.html>Pomona 
man once accused of 'eco-terrorist' firebombing wants apology

Authorities mum on evidence

By <mailto:w_matthews at dailybulletin.com>w_matthews at dailybulletin.com
By WILL MATTHEWS, STAFF WRITER
Saturday, November 15, 2003 - POMONA - More than two months after federal 
agents raided the Pomona home of an environmental activist and implicated 
him in the August firebombing of four San Gabriel Valley auto dealerships, 
authorities are refusing to discuss the evidence they say warranted his 
arrest.

Josh Connole, 25, and the lawyer representing him have said since he was 
taken into custody Sept. 12 that his arrest was unwarranted and nothing 
more than an abuse of police authority.

Now, with nine weeks having passed and no formal charges having been filed 
against him, Connole wants to be publicly exonerated and an apology from 
authorities for the way he was treated.

"The responsible thing for the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office 
to do would be to admit they made a mistake and apologize to Josh and the 
residents of the co-op with whom he lived," Connole's Pasadena-based lawyer 
William Paparian said this week. "This could have been handled in a 
completely different way, in a way that would not have been a wholesale 
violation of Josh's constitutional rights."

Connole spent the weekend giving a series of lectures about his arrest and 
detainment at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and was unavailable for 
comment.

In the four days Connole was jailed and subjected to near round-the-clock 
interrogation, both federal and local prosecutors deemed the evidence 
compiled by investigators too thin to warrant a criminal case, and Connole 
was released.

But federal officials this week continued to defend their arrest of 
Connole, saying there was probable cause that warranted their action.

"I'm not about to second guess agents or law enforcement officers acting on 
facts they had compiled and try to put myself in their place," said FBI 
spokesman Matt McLaughlin. "It is inappropriate for anyone else to try and 
place themselves as protectors of the constitution and enforcers of the law 
when they don't have a complete set of facts. There is much more 
information that, for investigative reasons, we cannot share at this 
moment. Based on that, I certainly would not seek to second guess those 
agents with the information that I am privy to."

Evidence obtained by investigators during a search of Connole's home after 
his arrest -- including articles of his clothing stained with paint and 
pieces of his hair -- is being analyzed by forensic experts at the FBI's 
crime lab in Quantico, Va.

Some of the evidence has already been processed, McLaughlin said last week, 
while other pieces of evidence have yet to be analyzed.

On Aug. 22, a building and about 40 vehicles, mostly high- priced Hummer 
SUVs, were torched on the lot of Clippinger Chevrolet-Hummer in West 
Covina, causing more than $1 million in damage at that dealership alone.

About 60 other vehicles at dealerships in Duarte and Arcadia were also 
vandalized the same night.

The radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front has taken 
responsibility for the attacks.

Connole, who has denied any in volvement with ELF, was arrested after an 
informant alerted the FBI to suspicious activity at the environ mental 
co-op he shares with a handful of other young adults the night of the at 
tacks.

But the search warrant affidavit that identifies the informant, and which 
provides in formation about what led investiga tors to focus on Connole, 
remains under federal seal.

Paparian said this week he will soon be asking a judge to unseal the war rant.

Connole believes he was targeted by investigators because of his po litical 
activism.

Among other things, he was the organizer of weekly anti-war protests in his 
conservative Or ange County hometown of Brea held in the months leading up 
to the United States' com mencement of military action in Iraq.

But McLaughlin said last week that Connole's political beliefs had no 
bearing on his be ing tabbed a sus pect in the SUV attacks.

"I have not heard of Josh's involve ment in anti-war protests having any 
role relative to the FBI having interest in him," he said. "Most of us in 
the FBI would find some thing like that reprehensible."

Yet a classified memo sent in April by the Cali fornia Anti-Terror ism 
Information Center -- a state agency staffed by FBI agents and other state 
and lo cal law enforce ment officials -- to law enforcement agencies across 
the state warns police of the po tential violent ten dencies of anti- war 
protesters.

The memo high lights violent and anti-war state ments made by people 
claiming to be ELF spokes people, and warns that protesters at anti-war 
demon strations with causes similar to those expressed by ELF had com 
mitted violent crimes to further their beliefs.

"Law enforcement authorities en countering anti war protesters should be 
aware there may be en vironmental or animal rights members and an archists 
willing to commit acts of vi olence regarding the antiwar move ment due to 
the ELF spokesper son's statements," the memo reads.

Paparian said Connole deserves to be provided with the informa tion 
investigators used to justify his arrest.

The refusal by au thorities to do so only highlights the questionable 
nature of their ac tions, Paparian said.

"The most frus trating thing about all of this is that wherever he goes 
now, people know him as be ing the person who was arrested for the Hummer 
fires," Paparian said. "That is what he is known for and that is very 
damaging to his reputation. He will be forever known as some one who was ar 
rested for an act of domestic ter rorism. It is in cumbent upon the FBI to 
make this right."

Will Mat thews can be reached by e-mail at 
<mailto:w_matthews at dailybulletin.com>w_matthews at dailybulletin.com or by 
phone at (909) 483-9333.


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