Two men indicted in ELF arson attack

Saturday, October 19, 2002

By WILLIAM MCCALL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND -- Two logging protesters were indicted yesterday on a second set of arson charges in the first federal prosecution of alleged ecoterrorism by the Earth Liberation Front in Oregon, officials said.

Jacob Sherman, 20, and Michael Scarpitti, 28 -- also known as "Tre Arrow" -- were charged with four felonies in the fire that destroyed three Ross Island Sand and Gravel cement trucks on April 15, 2001.

Sherman and Scarpitti already face a four-count federal indictment in the June 1, 2001, firebombing of three Ray A. Schoppert Logging Inc. trucks near Estacada during last year's protests of the Eagle Creek timber sale.

Sherman is free pending trial in the Estacada arson, but Scarpitti remains a fugitive, said U.S. Attorney Michael Mosman.

"This is the first indictment related to an ELF-claimed event in Oregon," Mosman said in a release he issued with Charles Mathews, FBI special agent in charge for Oregon.

The Earth Liberation Front, an underground group linked to dozens of arsons and other crimes in the United States since 1996, claimed responsibility for the Ross Island blaze, which caused $210,000 in damage.

The most destructive fire the ELF has claimed setting so far is a $12 million blaze that destroyed a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998. The ELF took credit for the arson in May 2001 that destroyed the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Investigators found similarities between the Estacada log truck arson and the cement truck arson in Portland at the sand and gravel company.

But Mosman said in August that he was not ready to link Sherman and Scarpitti with the ELF.

The indictment announced yesterday included charges of obstructing, delaying and affecting the movement of commodities in interstate commerce by extortion and violence under the Hobbs Act.

It also specified that the incendiary devices used on the cement trucks were milk jugs containing gasoline, the same kind of firebombs used on the log trucks in Estacada.

If convicted on all counts, Sherman and Scarpitti could each face a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

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