Jury convicts animal welfare activists in harassment campaign
JEFFREY GOLD
Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. - An animal-rights group and six members were convicted Thursday of using their Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that tests drugs and household products on animals.
The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment, and its leader pledged to continue to "expose atrocities" at Huntingdon Life Sciences.
The federal government charged that SHAC waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting on its Web site information about the lab's employees and those who do business with Huntingdon, including home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school.
Many of those people saw their homes vandalized, and they and their families received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls. Many were also besieged by protesters parading with photos of mutilated animals and screaming "Puppy killer!" through megaphones at all hours outside their homes.
One woman said she received an e-mail threatening to cut her 7-year-old son open and stuff him with poison. A man said he was showered with glass as people smashed all the windows of his home and overturned his wife's car.
The defendants were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. Instead, they were charged with inciting the harassment with their Internet postings.
SHAC, based in Philadelphia, and six of its members were charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses.
All were convicted of conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, in what is believed to be the first trial on that statute since the law was enacted in 1992, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles B. McKenna.
"The United States is gratified by the jury's deliberations and verdict in this case on behalf of the people who've been victimized," McKenna said.
U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson ordered SHAC, which faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, to remove names of targets and their home addresses from its Web site by March 13.
SHAC lawyer Andrew Erba told her later, "I have great hopes that the Web site will be scrubbed clean in a short time.
The group's president, Pamelyn Ferdin, who was not charged, said the jury was fooled by the government's case and that the Web site order reeked of fascism.
"This is a scary path for all Americans," said Ferdin, a former child star who was the voice of Lucy in the "Peanuts" movies and played Felix Unger's daughter Edna on TV's "The Odd Couple."
"Here is a government, a feckless federal government, who spent millions of taxpayer dollars to wage an assault on all our constitutional rights," said Ferdin, who succeeded Kevin Kjonaas as president when he and the others were indicted in 2004.
Mike Caulfield, general manager of Huntingdon's facility in Franklin Township, Somerset County, said the verdict was "a victory for democracy, research and patients."
"The government and this jury have sent a strong message to those who would ignore the democratic process and resort to criminal activity to advance their political views," Caulfield said in a statement.
The federal jury deliberated over three days after a three-week trial before finding all defendants guilty on all charges they faced.
The six defendants, all who are in their late 20s or early 30s, showed little reaction as the jury's forewoman read "guilty" 28 times. One, Lauren Gazzola, later cried at the defense table while awaiting a bail hearing.
The six-count indictment charged SHAC with animal enterprise conspiracy, conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking, three counts of interstate stalking, and telephone harassment.
Convicted on all six charges was Kjonaas, who as a leader faces about five to seven years in prison, and Gazzola and Jacob Conroy, who face about four to six years. Not all defendants were charged with all six counts.
Facing about three years in prison are Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer, who were all convicted of the animal enterprise conspiracy count. Harper was also convicted of telephone harassment.
Thompson ordered five of the defendants held without bail after McKenna said the five posed a risk of flight and were a danger to the community. None has a permanent address, he said.
Their lawyers asked that they receive vegetarian meals; Thompson said she would sign such an order.
The remaining defendant, Fullmer, of Hamilton, remained free on bond.
Thompson set sentencing for SHAC and five of its members for June 7. Fullmer, whose lawyer had a conflict that day, is to be sentenced June 12.
Many of the targets of the harassment testified that they started looking over their shoulders when walking or driving, changed their phone numbers or even moved. Some kept their children from playing outdoors, and several bought guns.
Sally Dillenback said her young son would often crouch by the door brandishing a 5-inch kitchen knife when the doorbell rang, promising to protect his mommy.
"He told me not to worry," she testified. "He said he was going to get the animal people. Once I found him at the garage door with a knife. That was his state of mind. He was a 7-year-old boy."
Dillenback broke into tears as she recounted an anonymous e-mail that threatened to cut open her son and fill him with poison "the way Huntingdon does with the animals."
Marian Harlos testified she got late-night calls in which someone asked: "Are you scared? Do you think the puppies should be scared?"
She said masked protesters parked down the street from her house, videotaping her comings and goings. They barged into her office, screaming and tossing leaflets, and others ruined the rear door with glue and animal stickers, she said.