Environmentalists sentenced in ecoterror case
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 31, 2007
EUGENE, Ore. – A federal judge on Thursday sentenced two women to prison for their roles in a string of arsons around the West that caused more than $40 million in damage over a five-year period.
Suzanne Savoie and Kendall Tankersley were the fifth and sixth of 10 radical environmentalists to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Eugene after they pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy charges. All were members of an underground cell of the Earth Liberation Front known as “The Family.”
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Savoie to four years and three months in federal prison. In order to recognize Savoie’s cooperation with investigators, Aiken imposed a sentence that was eight months less than the proposed sentence in a plea bargain. Aiken also noted that Savoie left the conspiracy in 2001 and has committed no crimes since then.
Savoie was convicted of participating in two arsons, the first at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale in January 2001, and the second at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie in May 2001.
Tankersley’s three-year, 10-month sentence is five months less than she agreed to when she pleaded guilty for an arson at the U.S. Forest Industry’s office in Medford in 1998. Aiken said the less severe sentence was in recognition that Tankersley left the conspiracy immediately after the arson and cooperated fully when arrested.
