Animal Rights Activists Arrested For Terrorst Acts Against UC Scientists

February 20, 2009 by national  
Filed under Incident Reports



Federal authorities have arrested four suspected animal rights activists in connection with violent protests in Santa Cruz and Alameda County, police reported Friday.

Three of the four were linked to the Riverside Avenue home police raided after the home invasion attack of a UC Santa Cruz researcher a year ago, according to Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend.

Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside 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., 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 house, 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.

via Source

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Comments

5 Responses to “Animal Rights Activists Arrested For Terrorst Acts Against UC Scientists”
  1. Susan says:

    Your story has a pathetic lack of allegation against or action committed by these activists.
    Given how thinly our resources are stretched, American law enforcement and FBI agents would do well to discern between activism and terrorism.
    You are ridiculous. Rattling doors is not attack, much less terrorist attack.
    FBI agents & law enforcement used in arresting these four have been used as CLOWNS. America has greater priorities. America will awaken to widespread animal abuse and torture. And the children at that birthday party would agree.
    Get a clue!

  2. Alex says:

    Jail will be a good expierence for these terriorist.

  3. Jacob says:

    Susan – why don’t you go and read the source before commenting and making it sound like NTARC was making any allegations. This is an excerpt from the article itself, not some thing an NTARC admin wrote himself.

  4. Mia Animal Rights Activist says:

    How can activism be described as a terrorist activity? This is the most ridiculous thing, there are more important things for the police to deal with other then a group of people fighting something that should be illegal anyhow!

  5. Flu-Bird says:

    Animal rights activists who commit such crimes are terrorists and should get 30 years in prison upon conviction

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