My suggestion for Mr. Cottrell's next place of residence.
Posted on 03/10/2004 8:27:31 AM PST by presidio9
A California Institute of Technology graduate student has been arrested in connection with an August arson and vandalism spree targeting 125 sports utility vehicles at four car dealerships, the FBI said.
William Cottrell, 23, used an alias when he e-mailed The Los Angeles Times, claiming to be a member of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front and offering specific details to prove his involvement in the firebombings, the FBI said.
“The FBI hasn't seemed to pick up on any of them (clues), which makes this whole ordeal rather boring for us, the true culprits,” one e-mail boasted, the FBI said in an affidavit.
Authorities searched Caltech classrooms and tracked the e-mails to Cottrell, a grad student in the physics department, according to the affidavit. They also seized six computers from the campus.
Cottrell was arrested for investigation of arson and vandalism. He was ordered held without bail at a court hearing. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, the U.S. attorney's office said.
“The charges are unfounded,” defense attorney Stephen Alexander said outside court.
Cottrell's father described his son as bright, hardworking and somewhat eccentric but incapable of the acts alleged by the government.
“We were hopeful he wouldn't be charged,” Dr. William Milnes Cottrell said from his Concord, N.C., home. “We are very unhappy about it. We are still reasonably sure he wasn't a primary agent in this deed.”
Prosecutors estimate the total damage was about $2.3 million.
“Those who set fires, like those at the Hummer dealership in West Covina, are misguided zealots,” FBI Assistant Director Richard Garcia said in a statement.
The firebombing spree hit four car dealerships and at least four privately owned vehicles in communities east of Pasadena, where Caltech is located and where Cottrell was arrested.
The West Covina attack destroyed or damaged 72 vehicles, mostly SUVs, and a parts warehouse.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the e-mails the newspaper received began several weeks after the attacks, when the FBI arrested an environmental activist named Josh Connole in connection with the fires.
"Hello, the police have the wrong man here — I was amongst those responsible for the SUV attacks," read the first e-mail sent to the Times.
Connole was released without charges four days after his arrest. Connole told the Times that he hoped Cottrell's arrest would end any doubts about his innocence.
My suggestion for Mr. Cottrell's next place of residence.
They relate the story about how his father spent $80,000 to fix Billy's behavior problems.
DESPERATE MEASURES - Parents of Troubled Youths Are Seeking Help at Any Cost
By Sara Rimer
The New York Times, September 10, 2001
< snip >
...Parents say that it is painful to turn their children over to strangers, but that they feel they have no choice. "All of a sudden I was rationing out his care to different service agencies," said William Cottrell, 52, an anesthesiologist in North Carolina, who hired escorts to fly his 14-year-old son, Billy, from a wilderness therapy program in Idaho, where he had run away, to the Provo Canyon School, a hospital-like school in Utah.
Dr. Cottrell was relying on the guidance of Ms. Price, the consultant. "It just boiled down to the point where I didn't have too many options," he said. "It was a brave new world. I was trusting Ann Carol Price."
Dr. Cottrell and his wife divorced when their son was 9. The boy moved to Florida to live with his mother and soon began to have behavioral problems. Though he was an exceptionally bright boy, he was eventually kicked out of two public high schools and a military academy, where he burned a dollar bill in front of a captain.
"I was getting mentally exhausted," said Dr. Cottrell, who said his son's problems probably stemmed in part from the family's instability. And while he was an involved father, he said, he was also distracted by his medical practice.
"I taught all my kids how to read when they were 4," he said. "At the same time I was working long, hard hours. I was probably alienated from them."
Billy Cottrell, now 21 and in his final year at the University of Chicago, blames the public schools, where he says he was bored in the classroom and beaten up by his peers, for his problems. Acting out was his way of fighting back. "I found that getting in trouble, and rebelling, all of a sudden instead of getting beat up, you're admired by people," he said. "You're also fighting the school system, which you despise."
As proud as he is of his son's success in college, Dr. Cottrell recalls the embarrassment he felt about sending him to the Utah school. "I heard other parents saying, my kid's going to this private school, or that big- shot school, and my kid was going to some place no one ever heard of in Provo."
During the program, however, his son's behavior began to improve. He is to graduate from the University of Chicago next year with degrees in math and physics. He hopes to attend graduate school in physics.
Dr. Cottrell said he had no doubt the program was worth it. "Spending $80,000 was a no-brainer," he said.
“We were hopeful he wouldn't be charged,” Dr. William Milnes Cottrell said from his Concord, N.C., home. “We are very unhappy about it. We are still reasonably sure he wasn't a primary agent in this deed.”
Funny how dear-old-dad is only "reasonably sure" his son wasn't the "primary agent in this deed". Even though just prior to that the same said parent said that the son was incapable of such illegal acts. I would say this doesn't bode well for this enviro-terrorist.
I hope that not only is this terrorist found guilty and receives the maximum penalty, I hope the dealerships sue him for every penny his daddy has put in his trust fund..... and a permanent lean on any future earnings.
Would be really cool if authorities found enough evidence to hold the other members of the same enviro-nazi group that this was supposedly also tied to. Find those who financially support these terrorists and charge them with terrorism.
Then again, maybe Homeland Security should step in and charge this creep with domestic terrorism and ship him off to Gitmo....
LOL. I was thinking the same thing.
What do you want to bet they target vehicles that look like they belong to suburban moms, and not trucks that look like they belong to gun-totin', fist-packin', good ol' boys?
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