[Shadow_Group] Prosecution Finishes in Ecoterrorism Trial

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Prosecution finishes in ecoterrorism trial 
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 
By Gene Maddaus , Staff Writer
Pasadena Star-News 
LOS ANGELES -- The prosecution rested Tuesday in the ecoterrorism trial of Caltech graduate student Billy Cottrell, closing with DNA evidence linking Cottrell to a headband found at the arson scene. 
Several hairs were found on the headband, which was discovered at the Clippinger Hummer dealership soon after the $2.5 million arson fire there on Aug. 22, 2003. 
Experts at the FBI forensic laboratory at Quantico, Va., found there was a 1-in-370 million chance Cottrell was not the one wearing the headband. 
But the defense has not disputed Cottrell was present at the scene. They claim Cottrell's friends, Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe, were the true arsonists and that Cottrell only spray- painted environmental slogans on sport-utility vehicles. 
After the prosecution rested, the defense moved for dismissal of all the charges. Judge Gary Klausner denied the motion. 
"The evidence in this case is essentially non-existent,' argued defense attorney Michael Mayock. "There is no showing that Billy Cottrell was involved in any way in aiding, abetting or the throwing of Molotov cocktails.' 
Mayock paid particular attention to the charge of conspiracy, arguing Cottrell may have been guilty of conspiring to commit vandalism, but not to commit arson. 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Beverly Reid-O'Connell argued that Cottrell's admissions to friends who testified for the government provided enough evidence to send all counts to the jury for a verdict. 
Klausner agreed, saying there was "more than enough circumstantial evidence to make inference of these charges.' 
The defense will begin today. The defense is expected to try to call Joshua Connole, a Pomona environmentalist who was arrested for the arsons in September 2003 and later released due to insufficient evidence. 
The defense hopes Connole's testimony will show that the FBI was desperate to solve the case, but prosecutors have asked Klausner to declare the testimony irrelevant and preclude Connole from taking the stand. 
Cottrell is also expected to testify. 
In court Tuesday, FBI Agent Richard Smith testified he had received third-hand information suggesting Johnson could be responsible for house fires in the San Diego area Sept. 19, 2003. Those fires, like the Aug. 22 SUV fires, were claimed by the Earth Liberation Front. 
Smith also testified that investigators discovered 80 matchbooks with the covers removed during a search of Oe's home earlier this year. Smith said such matchbooks could be used to create an arson device. 
Johnson, believed to be Oe's boyfriend, graduated from Caltech with a degree in physics in June 2003 and went to graduate school at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Johnson and Oe are both fugitives. 
In an anonymous e-mail to the Los Angeles Times dated Sept. 16, 2003, the writer references ELF attacks that occurred in New Mexico the previous week. The prosecution claims Cottrell wrote the e-mail, while the defense maintains that Johnson wrote it. 
On Sept. 5, 2003, a dozen SUVs were spray-painted with ELF slogans at a dealership in Santa Fe. The writer also claimed that bumper stickering attacks took place in New Mexico around the same time, but contemporary media accounts make no reference to bumper stickers. 





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