Federal authorities have arrested four suspected animal rights activists in connection with violent protests in Santa Cruz and Alameda counties, a federal terrorism task force reported Friday.
Three of the four were linked to the Riverside Avenue home police raided after the home invasion attack of a University of California-Santa Cruz researcher a year ago, according to Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend.
Nathan Pope, 26, of Ocean-side and Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach were arrested by the FBI and the Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force at an airport in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday when they returned to the U.S. from Costa Rica, police reported. They appeared in federal court in Charlotte on Friday.
The two other suspects — Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley and Maryam Khejavi, 20, of Pinole — were arrested by the FBI, the San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force and UC-Berkeley police Friday afternoon. Khejavi was arrested in Oakland and Buddenberg, the only one of the four not tied to the Riverside Avenue incident, was arrested at the Alameda County Courthouse, according to authorities.
Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry said the arrests came “due to the tenacity of investigators,” but declined to speak specifically about the probe, evidence collected or any future arrests. Santa Cruz police were involved in the investigation, but the FBI was the lead law enforcement agency handling the case.
Still, he said he was pleased with the progress made in the past year.
“A lot of cases are very complex,” Skerry said. “We don’t give up on the cases. If it takes years, it takes years.”
Pope, Stumpo, Buddenberg and Khejavi will be charged at least in part under the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, police said. The act carries a penalty of up to five years for each violation. It wasn’t immediately clear how many counts the suspected animal activists face. They are expected to appear in U.S. District Court later this month.
The four are accused of being involved in demonstrations in front of homes of UC-Berkeley researchers in October 2007 and January 2008, as well as carrying out a protest and home invasion attempt at the Westside house of a UC-Santa Cruz researcher in February 2008. In that attack, which occurred during a child’s birthday party, the scientist’s husband suffered minor injuries.
None of the suspects have been linked to the firebomb attacks of the homes of UC-Santa Cruz researchers last July. Police said they are still probing those attacks.
“It’s still an active investigation,” Skerry said. “This obviously isn’t the end of it.”
Skerry also declined to say if there had been any other threats against UC-Santa Cruz researchers since the July firebombings.
Santa Cruz police detectives on Friday notified the Santa Cruz family attacked in February of the arrests. Skerry said he didn’t know how the family reacted.
One of the four arrested this week has been in legal trouble recently. Pope was arrested and charged with perjury when evidence surfaced last summer that he had obtained a state Department of Motor Vehicles identification card under the name “Nathan Knoerl” without indicating he had a prior ID in a different name. In December, he pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of providing false information to the DMV and was sentenced to time served and probation.
However, during those court proceedings investigators never linked Pope to the animal rights protests. Pope and his attorney denied his involvement with the violent demonstrations.
PAST INCIDENTS
Oct. 21, 2007: A group of 20 protesters demonstrated outside of a UC-Berkeley professor”s home in El Cerrito. Some wore bandannas to hide their faces. They trespassed on his front yard, chanted slogans and accused him of being a murderer because of his use of animals in research.
Jan. 27, 2008: Demonstrations, including chalking, in front of the homes of several UC researchers.
Feb. 20, 2008: A group of five protesters tried to forcibly enter the home of a UC-Santa Cruz researcher during a child”s birthday party. The researcher”s husband was slightly injured during the demonstration.
July 29, 2008: Fliers containing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of several UC-Santa Cruz scientists were left at Caffe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz. The fliers said the researchers were “murders and torturers alive and well in Santa Cruz” and stated, “We know where you live. We know where you work. We will never back down until you end your abuse.”
