Posted on 05/23/2007 10:25:31 AM PDT by jazusamo
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The horrors facing a first offender locked up with hardened criminals in the nation's high-security federal prisons highlighted testimony Tuesday in the sentencing hearing of Stanislas Meyerhoff, the first of 10 defendants to be sentenced in the Operation Backfire prosecution of radical underground environmental activists.
The hearing is expected to conclude today in Eugene before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who will decide Meyerhoff's prison term and rule whether his crimes were acts of terrorism, a ruling that could bring a stiffer sentence.
Through the day, prosecution and defense lawyers dueled over whether Meyerhoff was an aggressive leader or a competent follower in the conspiracy, whether his crimes amount to terrorism, and how much danger the arsons posed to firefighters and others.
Meyerhoff, 29, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, 59 counts of arson and other charges related to seven separate incidents. In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall revealed that Meyerhoff also was involved in nine other incidents - including tree spiking, heavy equipment and road vandalism, and destruction of genetically engineered crops - for which he is not being charged.
With a series of slides and videotapes, Engdall focused on the destruction, the danger and the motives of the arsonists. He read public statements - written by the conspirators and released by the underground front groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front - about some of the incidents. Engdall said the statements clearly show that the group was trying to influence or retaliate against government actions, thus meeting the legal definition of "terrorism."
Their actions put people in grave danger, Engdall said, citing the arson of the Jefferson Poplar Farm near Clatskanie in May 2001. With photos and testimony, Engdall claimed Meyerhoff hoped to ignite a 500-gallon propane tank next to the building - a claim defense lawyers later disputed with testimony from an arson expert.
Altogether, Engdall said, Meyerhoff's crimes carry a maximum of 1,245 years in prison with a mandatory 230 years. Before offering him a plea deal for 15 years and eight months, prosecutors considered his personal history, his crimes and his cooperation with prosecutors. They consulted federal attorneys in seven states and a half-dozen police agencies. They weighed sentencing laws and policy issues, such as deterring other radical activists, Engdall told Aiken.
In court documents, Meyerhoff's defense lawyers are asking Aiken to consider the minimum sentence allowed, five years, and are trying to maneuver Meyerhoff into a lower security federal prison.
In court Tuesday, they focused on Meyerhoff's repudiation of radical activism in 2001 and his devotion since then to studying engineering as a new means of trying to better the world.
They presented videotaped statements and testimony from Meyerhoff's community college instructors, who described him as brilliant, insightful and committed.
They presented statistics on rape and sexual assaults in federal prisons, noting the rate of sexual assault is more than twice as common in maximum security prisons - with 23 percent of inmates reporting it - than in minimum security settings.
Because of his arson crimes and the potential to be labeled a terrorist, Meyerhoff faces the prospect of maximum security, said Harvey Cox, a consultant who wrote the U.S. Bureau of Prisons manual for classifying inmate security before he retired.
Because Meyerhoff also is widely known to have helped prosecutors, he will wear the label of "snitch" or "rat" in prison parlance, Cox said. As such, he will share the lowest place in the prison pecking order, along with child molesters, as a target for violence, Cox said.
Because Meyerhoff is small in stature, unconnected with gangs for protection and lacking in street savvy, he will be in peril, Cox said.
Cox said his experience and the information he has about Meyerhoff shows Meyerhoff should be held in minimum custody.
"When it comes down to him being a security risk, he isn't," Cox testified.
Meyerhoff, wearing green jail clothes and a chain locked to his ankles, displayed few outward reactions Tuesday.
He shook his head and whispered to defense lawyer Richard Fredericks when Engdall accused him of traveling the country to teach arson to radical activists. He smiled when his instructors lauded his intellect. With his head down, he dabbed his nose when his mother, France Meyerhoff, 63, spoke to Aiken for eight minutes about her son and her sorrow.
"Your honor, I beg you to show mercy to my son," she said.
Aiken is required by law to consult sentencing guidelines, but has broad discretion in sentencing. She has said negotiated plea deals "weigh heavily" in how judges decide sentences.
He likes nature? A simple punishment: He gets a cell with no toilet.
He’ll get all the nature he can stand.
And make him listen to Christina Aguilera music the whole time.
(worked at Gitmo...)
16 years out of a “mandatory” 230 sounds pretty soft to me. The good thing is that this is rat who sold out his buddies for a lenient sentence.
It WILL happen... mark these typed words.
What a nice way to start my day. There IS justice in this upside-down world. There have been so many times in the last 2 years where we have heard of heinous crimes committed and the perps get off with a wrist slap.
This one will definitely leave a mark.
Agreed...There is still some justice in our system. I would imagine the other nine are very nervous right now as well they should be.
Never mind.
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