Olympia pair tied to ring of arsons

Olympia pair tied to ring of arsons

BY CHRISTIAN HILL AND SCOTT GUTTIEREZ

THE OLYMPIAN

To their landlord, Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher appeared to be the typical twenty-something couple.

He worked as a carpenter; she as a nanny.

Neighbors say they kept to themselves and lived quietly in the rental on a large wooded lot off Delphi Road outside Olympia. Their rent check arrived on time each month.

It appears no one in Olympia knew the couple’s other identities as “Exile” and “Sheba.”

That was until their landlord heard the federal agent on his answering machine Thursday saying his tenants were now in federal prison.

Block and Zacher were arrested Thursday for their alleged involvement in a 2001 Oregon arson that federal officials say is linked to a string of ecoterrorism attacks in five western states.

The arrests came eight days after a federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., indicted Block, 24, and Zacher, 28, in connection with the May 21, 2001, arson at Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, Ore., northwest of Portland.

They join four people already charged in the case.

One of the co-defendants, Kevin Tubbs, is charged with an arson at a federal research laboratory outside Olympia.

John Ray, supervisory assistant U.S. attorney in Eugene, said he expects the couple will be added as codefendants in the government’s conspiracy case covering numerous other arsons or attempted arsons involving members of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. Last month, 11 people, including the four allegedly involved in the Jefferson Poplar Farm arson, were indicted in connection with the conspiracy. The arsons took place between October 1996 and December 2005, according to the government.

Local and federal authorities who searched Block and Zacher’s home Thursday found a small marijuana-growing operation inside.

Each faces a 14-count indictment for involvement in the Jefferson Poplar Farm arson.

Twelve of the counts are for their role, directly or indirectly, in the arson of the farm’s vehicle shop, office building and 10 Ford and GMC trucks. There also is one count for the attempted arson of the main office building, and a count for using incendiary bombs to commit a violent crime.

If convicted on all counts, Block and Zacher each face a minimum sentence of 95 years in prison.

The two appeared briefly Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma before Magistrate Judge Karen Strombom.

Detention hearings for both were set for Tuesday, according to the court’s online docket. Typically, defendants arrested outside the district in which they were indicted are afforded a hearing to challenge whether they are the person named in the arrest warrant, said Emilie Langley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

They are scheduled to stand trial in Eugene.

“We will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those responsible for acts of ecoterrorism in Oregon,” U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut said in a statement announcing the indictments.

The couple joins Tubbs, Chelsea D. Gerlach, Daniel G. McGowan and Stanislas G. Meyerhoff as codefendants in the arson.

Tubbs was one of two men indicted in December for the June 21, 1998, arson at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Services facility near Littlerock. The other man, William C. Rodgers, later committed suicide in a jail cell in Arizona as he waited to return to Washington to stand trial.

All of the codefendants joined in a cell they called “The Family,” which worked “by means of force, violence, sabotage, mass destruction, intimidation and coercion, and by similar means to retaliate against the conduct of government, commerce and private business,” according to the indictment.

Other targets listed in the alleged conspiracy include Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, Ore., U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, energy transmission towers in Eastern Oregon, a meatpacking company in Eugene, wild horse and burro facilities in California, a Colorado ski resort and a sport utility vehicle dealership in Eugene.

All used aliases similar to those the government contends Block and Zacher used. Block also went by “Hasan” and Zacher’s other pseudonym was “Sabina,” according to the arson indictment.

In a 2000 Internet posting, a person claiming to be Zacher said she had been charged with malicious mischief and assault after a tussle with a Seattle police officer during the 1999 World Trade Organization riots. In the statement, she sought donations and support from the “anarchist/radical community” for help with her legal defense. It’s unclear whether she is the same person.

Internet court records show Zacher was charged in King County Superior Court, but it was unclear late Thursday what happened to her case. A criminal history check through a State Patrol database showed no criminal conviction in Washington state under her name.

Thursday’s arrests led detectives with the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force to seize 44 plants and five pounds of processed pot, estimated to be worth $3,000, from the house, task force Sgt. Fred Bjornberg said.

The two were not suspects in any ongoing drug investigations, he said. “It was kind of a surprise to us. But we’re always up for a good surprise.”

The arrests left their landlord, Glen Kilburg, stunned and a bit shaken. The couple signed a one-year lease Oct. 18, and Kilburg had thought the criminal background check would have uncovered any problems.

He met them once and talked on the phone with them several times.

“They came across as very nice people,” he said. “I talked more to Nathan than to Joyanna, and he seemed just fine.”

When he heard the message from the federal agent, he went out to check on the house. He found the home unkempt, with marijuana grow lights in the back.

His prior tenant had several dogs, and Kilburg said he spent time and money to repair the damage. He didn’t look forward to doing the same work again.

“I’m having bad luck with renters right now,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.