EUGENE, Ore. – An ecoterrorism suspect was released on $1.6 million bail as he awaits a trial on charges that could put him behind bars for life.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ordered Daniel McGowan’s release Wednesday after a two-hour hearing. She imposed tight restrictions on McGowan’s activities when he returns to New York City, where he studies acupuncture and works in a shelter for battered women.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall asked Aiken to keep McGowan locked up, citing the 31-year-old as a flight risk and a threat to the community.
Engdall said McGowan was active in more than one secretive cell of radical environmentalists who focused on disrupting biotechnology research.
McGowan faces charges of conspiracy to commit arson, using a firebomb and 13 arsons in connection with the fires set at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, Ore., and Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, both in 2001.
Four co-conspirators have helped the government identify McGowan as a suspect, and Engdall said recorded conversations between McGowan and an informant revealed that McGowan threatened to encourage retaliation against a judge who had sentenced activist Jeffrey Luers to more than 22 years in prison for torching vehicles at a Eugene dealership in 2000.
Defense lawyer Jeffery Robinson of Seattle argued that informants are unreliable because they are trying to cut deals for themselves. He said McGowan never acted on his recorded threat against the judge in Luers’ case.
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