Eugene OR. Police Informant for Eco Arrests?

like a trip to B. C. -- that's evidence of arson and terrorism ????

"characterized as hiding out" ????

It's a WITCH HUNT!

Back to the 50's!

This was posted on the Seattle times website:  link to archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com



Undercover informant aids arson investigation

By JEFF BARNARD

The Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — An undercover informant helped investigators tape a conversation with one of the seven alleged radical environmentalists accused in a series of arsons and other crimes in the Pacific Northwest between 1998 and 2001, including one at the University of Washington Horticulture Center.

Existence of the informant was disclosed last week by an investigator in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., during a bail hearing for Daniel McGowan, 31, who faces indictments that he and another man firebombed the office of a wood-products mill in Glendale, Ore., and the office and truck shop of a tree farm in Clatskanie, Ore., in 2001. The UW arson, which destroyed the center, occurred May 21, 2001.

The Earth Liberation Front, an underground group that advocates economic sabotage to stop environmental destruction, took responsibility for the two fires. The FBI describes the group as one of the nation's leading domestic-terrorist organizations.

Though his family offered to put up their homes and stocks worth about $850,000, McGowan was ordered held without bail pending transport by U.S. marshals to Oregon, said defense attorney Martin Stolar. No date has been set for McGowan's arraignment in Eugene.

Tape made in April

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer, who attended the hearing, said Eugene police Detective Greg Harvey testified that he made the tape from a body wire worn by an informant who talked to McGowan at a convention in New York in April 2005. On the tape, McGowan talks about going to British Columbia in 2001. The tape was not played in court, but the judge listened to excerpts before deciding against granting bail.

Peifer characterized the trip as hiding out after the arsons, both of which occurred earlier that year.

Stolar and McGowan's sister, Lisa McGowan, the vice president of a packaging company in New York, characterized the trip as a visit to a couple of friends and their new baby outside Vancouver, B.C. Daniel McGowan crossed the border using his own passport and his family knew where he was, his sister said. He later went back to Eugene for a while before moving to New York in 2001.

Sister speaks out

"If anybody was looking for him, Danny was not a hard person to find," Lisa McGowan said.

He took part in protests during the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, was included, under an assumed name, in a Rolling Stone article on those protests, and was working for the Women's Law Initiative in Brooklyn, which helps abused women, at the time of his arrest, his sister said.

Lisa McGowan said her brother knew the person wearing the hidden microphone from his days as a political activist in Eugene, where he had lived a few years before moving back to New York four years ago. "From what I understand, my brother states the atmosphere in Eugene was very tough to live in at that time," for political activists, she said.

In late 1999, a number of anarchists from Eugene had taken part in riots against the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle, and authorities were clamping down. Anarchists and police also clashed in Eugene.

"My brother does not state he was involved in any of these things. He did not state he was running from anybody. Just that he was laying low because the atmosphere was very tough in Eugene at that time," Lisa McGowan said. "They wanted Danny to say he was involved. Danny didn't say that."

Lisa McGowan said her brother worked in a cafe frequented by political activists while living in Eugene, and was regularly confronted by police who knew him by name, often while he was riding his bicycle.

"Being an activist doesn't mean you are a criminal," Lisa McGowan said. "My brother has his beliefs. We are proud of the things he fights for.

"The weird thing was if Danny was asked to come in for questions he would have shown up and answered any questions," she said. "But he wasn't. They burst into his job. He works for a law firm — not for profit — that helps abused women. They kind of burst open the door, cuffed him and took him."

The youngest of five children of a retired New York City transit police patrolman and a housewife, McGowan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but grew up in Rockaway Beach, Queens.

He graduated from State University of New York at Buffalo with degrees in history and business, and traveled after college to Thailand. Later he lived in San Francisco, then Eugene, before moving back to New York City.

Author states: "A Eugene person wore a body wire at Republican Convention in 2004 to tape Daniel." This is factually incorrect based on the article you yourself cite. The article reads:

"Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer, who attended the hearing, said Eugene police Detective Greg Harvey testified that he made the tape from a body wire worn by an informant who talked to McGowan at a convention in New York in April 2005"

You then change the date you cite in your excerpt to April 2004. Not sure if this was an accident or on purpose.

The RNC in NYC was in August 2004, neither April 2004 or April 2005.

Does anyone know who this person is? It would be nice if the rest of us could avoid "conversations"
with this idiot!

Issue of informants 14.Dec.2005 14:55
anon link

Many of the posts concerning the arrests over a number of activists and the issuance of grand jury subpoenas lately have been mentioning the possibility that people who have been involved the activist community and have turned into "informants."
It is worthwhile for people to keep in mind as they see postings about informant testimony or, moreover, subpoenas and police testimony about informants is that lawyers who study criminal procedure have found that informants often do not actually exist. Since prosecutors often are allowed to support affidavits with the testimony of anonymous informants, and the only test given in Federal courts (this is different in some state courts, who have their own interpretations of state constitutions) is a "totality of the circumstances" showing that there is some indicia of reliability. It is often suspected that the "informants" are actually police who were engaged in illegal searches or surveillance (aka information from a illicit wiretap could be alleged to be information gotten from an informant).
The assertion that the prosecutor seems to have made, that the informant who provided information had admitted to a crime is part of the establishment of the reliability under the theory that people rarely make admissions that go against their "venial interests," in the case of an anonymous informant this is not supposed to be a factor, since the anonymity would protect the informant's interests.
The defense attorney who was pressing for the informers name was trying to establish whether or not this person actually exists, not necessarily trying to get their name. The establishment of the actual identity of anonymous informants, at its best, is usually in camera, or in the judge's chambers.
There may well be informants; there certainly have been in the past. However, the assertions of the prosecutor that anonymous informants have given testimony (supporting, it seems the entire indictment), may either a cover for police misconduct or an attempt to keep the case from being thrown out for a lack of probably cause to support the charges.
I have seen what fear of informants has done to activist communities in the past. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has held that we never have an expectation of privacy in our conversations (attorney-client, etc. are sort of exceptions) and anyone can inform on anyone, alleging true of false things at anytime. Going around with this much suspicion is enough to make anyone crazy.
Make sure you have real proof before accusing anyone of anything. The feds do enough witch-hunting without the activist community doing the same.
One last bit of information: people can be subpoenaed for grand juries with out any proof proffered by the prosecutor that they are involved in anything. The only limitation on the subpoena power is that it is not supposed to be used to "harass," which is why you see so much literature about Grand Juries "harassing" activists. It is unlikely, however, that anyone would be able to present evidence sufficient to convince a judge (or magistrate) that subpoenas were only being used to harass.

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This from SWIM:

...This is Special Agent John L. Ferreira with the FBI. Today=s date is November 13, 2004. The time is approximately 8:09 p.m.. The CW has agreed to the recording of CW=s conversation with Kevin TUBBS at Kevin=s house on 71st Street in Springfield.

CW, Do you agree to the, um, consensual recording of this, your conversation?

Yes.

Your social security number please.

569-37-8052.

Thank you.

Okay, only one light just went on . . .(UI)

How does it look?

Looks . . . (UI)

(UI)

You okay?

Yeah.

Good luck.

See you guys later.

(CW is on foot walking to TUBBS= house)

(Dog barking)

Shh. Good doggie. Good doggie.

(Dog barking)

Crap!

Where the fuck is it? Crap!

Okay. This is Special Agent John FERREIRA with the FBI. Today=s date is October 26, 2004. The time is approximately 2:25 p.m.. The CW is going to go in and meet Kevin TUBBS at Castle Super Stores on Gateway. Do you consent to your recording of your conversation with Kevin TUBBS?

Yes, I do.

Okay, What=s your social security number?

569-37-8052

Thank you. I=m going to place it (UI) down.

Okay.

Alright

It=s good. (Gets into car and SPINNEY starts the engine.)

So, you know where you=re going?

Yep.

See what bus, would I take. Do you know what buses go out to Gateway? How=s this look, like, with the hood on?

Looks fine either way.

Let=s see. Gateway, Semantec?

Are you going right by the place?

No, I=m going to go left and make a big circle.

Okay.

Okay, the number 12.

Do you know where that Target is? That I was talking about.

***I=m nervous. More nervous than, all that shit I use to do.

See that bus station over there?***

Dog got it and so did country girl and country boy, etc..! Fuckin' watch you assis' Tubbs knowing the knark but they will knark, beshure, your ass on it! I wish I could protec yours asses but this site is a magenet fer shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am an investigator with the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon. Our office represents Chelsea Gerlach. Please contact me directly and confidentially at  chelsea_lawyer@fd.org if you have any information that may assist Chelsea's defense. Please do not respond on this website, but to  chelsea_lawyer@fd.org.

Paul Brown

In whose best interest is it for the narc's name to be public? If they are real, they are a sleaze. If they are a sleaze, they probably won't appear wholesome to the jury.

Consider this: The feds might want a narc outed. They are the only ones that have access to the transcripts. If the narc isn't even real and then becomes real in the press, it seems more real to a jury.

Cop, xxx and Narco Dude, What the hell do your notes mean??? Very confusing!

Eco-sabotage suspect pleads for mercy
By Bill Bishop
The Register-Guard
Published: Wednesday, December 21, 2005

In a rare statement to a federal judge during a routine hearing Tuesday, a man accused of eco-sabotage sought mercy for himself and others who he said have renounced their past deeds and are leading law-abiding lives.

"I pray that the court is merciful with those who have renounced these crimes and have moved on to be students and professionals," Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff said, after asking U.S. Magistrate Tom Coffin for permission to speak in court.

Meyerhoff, 28, formerly of Eugene, is one of seven people indicted in connection with arsons and vandalism by environmental and animal activists. Coffin did not respond to Meyerhoff's statement. He set tentative trial dates in February for Meyerhoff.

Defense lawyer Richard Fredericks of Eugene said he is not able to comment about when or how Meyerhoff may have renounced any of his prior alleged activities.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall said Meyerhoff made a similar statement in court after his arrest in Charlottesville, Va., where he was attending Piedmont Community College. "He was very contrite also when he made his appearance in Virginia. He asked the judge there to show him some mercy," he said.

Meyerhoff faces a life prison term if convicted on all counts in indictments charging him with damaging a high-voltage power transmission tower near Bend in 1999, and the 2001 arsons at Superior Lumber Co. in Medford and at Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie.

Also charged in the power tower case is Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, 28, who is in custody awaiting trial with Meyerhoff, and Josephine Sunshine Overaker, who has not been arrested and is believed to be living in Germany, according to Engdall. Gerlach also is charged with Meyerhoff in the arson at Jefferson Poplar Farm.

Engdall indicated more arrests are likely as the investigation, which has gone on for nine years, wraps up in the next six months.

Meyerhoff remains in federal custody without the possibility for release on bail.