[ENER] Environmental group denies role in Eugene arson

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[b]Environmental group denies role in Eugene arson[/b]

04/02/2001

Associated Press

A communiqué released Sunday by the Earth Liberation Front has linked a fire that destroyed at least 30 SUVs parked at a car dealership last week with a fire at the same lot last summer.

The faxed message sent to The Associated Press said there was no sign that the fire was set by the ELF, but rather by an anonymous group of individuals.

The statement was distributed to media through the Portland-based North American Earth Liberation Front press office, which has released other anonymous communiqués from those taking responsibility other acts of eco-terrorism.

"We can no longer allow the rich to parade around in their armored existence, leaving a wasteland behind in their tracks," the statement read.

Friday's arson at Joe Romania Chevrolet, which gutted several Suburban and Tahoe model vehicles, melted upholstery, electrical wiring harnesses and engine parts and burned tires off their rims, caused about $1 million damage.

The fire came just days before one of two men with ties to the anarchist movement was to go on trial for fire that caused $400,000 damage last June.

Lane County Circuit Court Judge Lyle Velure declared a mistrial in the case of Jeffery Michael Luers after his defense attorney, Ken Morrow, died unexpectedly in November.

Luers, who is charged on several counts including first-degree arson, is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday.

Craig Andrew Marshall, pleaded guilty last November to conspiracy to commit arson and possession of a destructive device.

"Romania Chevrolet is the same location that was targeted last June, for which two earth warriors, Free and Critters, are being persecuted," the statement read. "The fire that burns within Free and Critter burns within all of us and cannot be extinguished by locking them up."

Luers' street name is "Free"; Marshall is known as "Critter."

Luers is well known to Eugene's activists. In April 1998, he and other radical environmentalists built platforms high in ancient trees to prevent logging of the Willamette National Forest's Clark timber sale. Less than a year later, Luers was sentenced to 30 days in federal prison for resisting arrest by a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001


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