Environmentalists Plan To Appeal Convictions Earth First! Activists Will Surrender To Begin Jail Sentences

Three Earth First! activists will go to jail today, but they plan to appeal to a judge who has overturned the convictions of a dozen other activists.

Zachary K. Griefen, Michael Bowersox and Sean Gale, all of Moscow, will voluntarily surrender to the U.S. marshal in Moscow to begin serving 15-day jail sentences handed down by federal Magistrate Mikel Williams of Boise.

The appeal will go before U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge. Gerald Smith, a federal public defender representing the activists, said he plans to bring up an earlier ruling by Lodge in a separate case in the appeal.

In January, Lodge overturned the convictions of 12 Earth First! activists who were charged with violating a federal forest closure. He ruled the Forest Service did not cite any specific standards that justified denying activists entry to the timber sale area.

After Lodge’s ruling, Williams delayed sentencing of Griefen, Bowersox and Gale. Williams, however, later determined Lodge’s ruling would not affect this case, Smith said. “That will be challenged,” he said.

While activists have said the closures violate their freedom of speech, Forest Service officials say closures are meant to ensure public safety.

Griefen and Gale were convicted of one count of being in a closed area in the Nez Perce National Forest and one count of maintaining an unauthorized pole structure there. Bowersox was convicted of being in a closed area. The maximum penalty for each of the crimes is six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Forest Service officials became aware of road damage and obstructions in the Cove-Mallard area southeast of Grangeville in midJuly, including ditches dug across the road and cut logs buried in the road, the U.S. attorney’s office said.