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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 20, 2006 Jonathan Paul walks away from the federal courthouse in Medford following his arraignment Thursday. Paul is accused of participating in the 1997 arson of a horsemeat packing plant in Redmond. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Ecoterror suspects arraigned Williams woman sought in 2001 Glendale arson surrenders to authorities By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune A Williams resident accused of participating in the 2001 arson at the Superior Lumber Co. headquarters in Glendale surrendered Thursday to the FBI. Suzanne Nicole "India" Savoie, 28, was charged with serving as a lookout in the Jan. 2, 2001, firebombing of the Superior building. The firm is now known as the Swanson Group. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland had announced Wednesday that it was seeking Savoie, a day after the arrest of Greensprings resident Jonathan Paul, 39, who is accused of participating in the 1997 arson at a horsemeat packing plant in Redmond. Both were arraigned Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate John P. Cooney in Medford. Affidavits of criminal complaints had been filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene. If convicted, each faces five to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Advertisement The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the Redmond fire; the Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for the Glendale blaze. Some two dozen friends of the defendants gathered in the federal courthouse to show support for Paul and Savoie during the arraignment. Paul’s attorney, Stuart Sugarman of Portland, asked Cooney to release Paul on bail. The defendant was a responsible citizen who served as a decorated volunteer firefighter in Williams, Sugarman said. He disagreed with local U.S. Attorney Douglas Fong that Paul was a flight risk at the recommended $400,000 bail. "He was living here openly — you can’t be rookie of the year while eluding the government," Sugarman said, referring to Paul’s volunteerism with the Williams Fire Department. Paul had moved to the Greensprings area about a year ago. Sugarman said a witness who testified in an affidavit against Paul was a "serial arsonist" who would testify to anything to avoid prosecution. Finally, Sugarman said Paul had spent five months in jail in 1993 for contempt of court in Spokane, Wash., for refusing to testify in the investigation of another ALF case. However, he kept his word with the court by showing up when called to court, Sugarman noted. The ALF case was a 1991 raid that caused $100,000 in damages to U.S. Department of Agriculture offices at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. Paul was released after a judge concluded that his imprisonment had ceased to be coercive (in trying to force Paul to testify) and had become punitive. Fong countered that Paul had assets of some $1.7 million, including a trust and property. Given the seriousness of the crime and how long Paul had been avoiding prosecution, he shouldn’t be released, Fong said. Moreover, Fong noted that U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall in Eugene would be handling the case when it is transferred there. Cooney suggested that Sugarman and Engdall get together to discuss what each would accept as a possible bail. The judge said he or U.S. Magistrate Thomas M. Coffin would then decide whether Paul would be released on bail. Paul, who told Cooney he had two years of college, works as an independent wildland firefighter, earning some $15,000 a year. Cooney set a Jan. 30 preliminary hearing for Paul in Eugene. That hearing would be canceled if Paul was indicted on the arson charge by a grand jury before then, he said. However, Cooney continued Savoie’s arraignment to this afternoon in Medford to allow her to meet with her attorney from Eugene. Whether she could be released on bail could be decided then or later in Eugene, the judge said. Tonia More, a local federal defender who represented Savoie in Thursday’s arraignment, called for Savoie’s immediate release. She noted that the government had known Savoie’s whereabouts since late last year and that she had turned herself into the FBI upon learning that she was wanted. Savoie works for Evergreen House, a group home for developmentally disabled children in Ashland. In an affidavit filed Wednesday in a Eugene district court, FBI special agent Paul E. Caldwell Jr. stated that a confidential source identified Savoie as one of two people who served as a lookout the night the arson fire was set in Glendale. The fire destroyed the firm’s headquarters, causing some $400,000 in damage. A similar complaint filed Tuesday with the Eugene court alleged that Paul helped firebomb the Cavel West horsemeat packing plant in Redmond on July 21, 1997, with an unnamed woman. The 25,000-square- foot plant was destroyed, causing some $1 million in damage. A longtime friend of Paul’s who called the Mail Tribune on Thursday said the charges were baseless. "He’s a very fine man," said the man, who did not identify himself. "He’s definitely no ecoterrorist. They are barking up the wrong tree." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at Ecoterror suspects arraigned ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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