Thurston, Tubbs and Tankersly Cop a Plea - More Pleas Tomorrow

I don't know Kendall Tankersly, but I do know Kevin and Darren, and I will continue to support them in conversation and I will continue to write them letters. They are both very good, gentle people. They don't deserve to be publicly scorn by this community of activists. They both have put their lives on the line in defense of animals and the earth and have been faced with some very difficult, heart-wrenching decisions. My heart goes out to both of them.

www.freedarren.org
www.supportkevintubbs.org

Kevin Tubbs is facing 14 years after pleading guilty to 55 counts of arson.

Daniel McGowan is facing life plus 335, pleading not guilty to 16 counts of arson.

Sentencing for Tubbs is December 14, which happens to be when the trial for Daniel, Jonathan, Joyanna and Nathan is set to end. So Tubbs will be sentenced based upon his performance as a "good witness".

Check the Oregon Live link to read more.

Tankserley's recommended sentence is 51 months.
Thurston's is 37 months.

The sentencing for all of the defendants will be scheduled around the same time, after any trial has occurred. It has less to do with who will be required to testify and more to do with the judge wanting to sentence everyone in these cases at the same time.

Folks can plead guilty and agree to only incriminate themselves but not others. From what I understand Darren Thurston is not incriminating anyone else but himself by pleading guilty. Meaning he is not agreeing to testify against anyone else. Folks should wait to read the plea agreements before they banish anyone to the nether worlds of snitchdom. If some prisoners plead guilty but done talk, they still will need support, moral and otherwise, throughout there sentences.

Part of everone's plea deal includes TESTIFYING AGAINST OTHERS AT TRIAL. Let's get real here folks. I know Kevin and Darren are good people (Kevin was a friend of mine), but they have lost my support by agreeing to testify against others... YES THEY DID! Those people who plea tomorrow will have the same requirements.

The actual plea agreements are sealed (with the terms of their cooperation).

the informations listed for darren thurston are for kendall tankersly - so the tankersly pdf is there twice.

please upload darren's gumby. thanks.

3 plead guilty to string of arsons across West
By Bill Bishop
The Register-Guard
Published: Friday, July 21, 2006

Three defendants in a multi-state investigation of environmentally motivated arson took plea deals in federal court in Eugene on Thursday and pledged to continue cooperating with prosecutors.

Their recommended sentences will range from three years to 14 years, substantially less than they could have faced had they gone to trial. At their sentencing hearings, scheduled for Dec. 14, the government will argue their crimes violate the federal anti-terrorism law.

Three more defendants are scheduled to appear for similar hearings today. Four others are awaiting trial and three are fugitives believed to have fled the country.

Thursday's court action is a landmark in Operation Backfire, the name federal investigators adopted for their effort to unravel what they described as a highly secretive cell of radical activists. Almost all their crimes had been claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front - leaderless groups that provide a face for anonymous, often illegal acts aimed at drawing attention to environmental issues.

By pleading guilty to conspiracy, the three defendants provide strong evidence against their 10 co-defendants. The three said all 13 co-defendants were involved in a group they called "The Family," in which they studied targets, built firebombs and pledged secrecy in 18 separate attacks.
Lawyers for the defendants asked U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken to seal documents containing the specific terms of cooperation by their clients.
In court Thursday, Springfield resident Kevin Tubbs, 37, pleaded guilty to 56 counts - including two of conspiracy and 54 of arson - involving nine separate attacks. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall said he will recommend a 14-year sentence if Tubbs follows through on his pledge to cooperate with the government.

His crimes include the destruction of the Oakridge Ranger Station in 1996, a fire-bomb attack on the Eugene Police substation near the University of Oregon in 2000, and the $1 million arson of 35 SUVs at the former Romania truck dealership in Eugene in 2001. In most cases, Tubbs served as driver and lookout, according to court records.

Tubbs also admitted to arson at the Cavel West horse meat packing plant in Redmond in 1997, a plot Tubbs admitted hatching after reading an article about the plant.

He also pleaded guilty to arson or attempted arson at: a Bureau of Land Management horse and burro facility in Burns in 1997; a U.S. Forest Industries plant in Medford in 1998; Childers Meat Co. in Eugene in 1999; Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale in 2001; and the Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie in 2001.

As part of his deal, Tubbs will not be charged for his role in arsons in four other states - including the 1998 firebombing of a Vail ski resort that caused $12 million in damage and focused nationwide attention on radical environmental activism.

Federal charges for arson to wild horse facilities in Wyoming and California and arson at the National Wildlife Research Facility in Olympia also will be dropped, according to court records.

Tubbs, wearing jail clothing and ankle shackles, answered questions as required in court but made no further statement. At one point, Aiken paused to note that Tubbs appeared distressed and asked if he was falling ill.

It's a scary situation," Tubbs replied. "I'm fine."

Kendall Tankersley, 29, currently free on $250,000 bail pending trial, choked back tears as she pleaded guilty to conspiracy, attempted arson and arson in a plea deal for no more than a 51-month sentence.

Tankersley admitted being the lookout for an arson at the U.S. Forest Industries plant in Medford in 1998. She was allowed to remain free to attend school in Arizona pending sentencing.

A third defendant, Darren Todd Thurston, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit arson to destroy a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line in Deschutes County in 1999. He also will plead guilty to a federal charge pending in California for arson at a BLM wild horse corral near Susanville in 2001.

Engdall said he will dismiss other charges and recommend a 37-month prison sentence for Thurston. He remains in custody.

Under federal law, judges are not required to follow plea deals, although they generally do. Defense lawyers are free to argue for shorter terms. All three defendants can earn a sentence reduction of up to 54 days per year for good behavior.

Scheduled to appear in federal court in Eugene today are: Stanislas Meyerhoff, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Suzanne Nicole Savoie, all 29.
Like Tubbs, Meyerhoff and Gerlach face potential prison terms of more than 100 years. Savoie is free on bail.

Its called snitch jacketing, come one people read a bloody book.

as for cointelpro bullshit, perhaps YOU need to re-read some history. the famous "snitch-jacketing" people keep alluding to was done in active groups (such as the BPP or AIM) who were also actively in resistance against the state, and therefore subejct to intense repression. government provocateurs and informants already embedded in the groups (particularily groups that dealt with snitches in violent ways) would spread a rumor about someone the government wanted to eliminate was a "snitch", thereby throwing an active group in disarray as they dealt with the possibility of a snitch in their midst. this was done to throw the work of active resistance groups off track, as well as neutralizing clear threats to the state by having them focus on themselves.

sorry, dumbass, but at no time did the feds arrest people in a great big sweep, charge them with shit that would have them sit behind bars for the rest of their lives, have them plea out, and then, as a part of some kind of "government conspiracy" have the media report that they WERE in fact cooperating when they weren't, in order to divide a movement that is already fractured and ineffectual.

get
a
fucking
clue

Back this bus up a bit... "at no time did the feds arrest people in a great big sweep, charge them with shit that would have them sit behind bars for the rest of their lives" is not accurate. Last December 8 were arrested within 24 hours and faced life plus hundreds of years and whisked away to individual cells to contemplate who CI1 and CI2 were. YOU try keeping to the cause under those circumstances!

here's is darren's "information"

try this one. the other one is corrupted.

i don't know why its saying the file is damaged. its working fine on my computer. maybe someone else has a version the could post?

All these people are doing time. Their plea agreements are sealed which means that we really don't know what's going on but can only surmise. However, just to remind everyone, there is ONE person who is still out there, not serving time and who wore a wire and gathered evidence against is friends.
Jacob Ferguson.
May he rot in hell.
(and Jake--if you're reading this--one day your son will be ashamed of you).