Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore. – Radical environmentalist Tre Arrow on Tuesday pleaded guilty to arson charges as part of a deal with prosecutors that will keep him behind bars for more than two years. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, was charged with firebombing three cement trucks at Ross Island Sand & Gravel in Portland and setting fire to logging trucks and a tractor near Estacada. On his Web site, the 34-year-old said recently he did not want to risk receiving a life prison sentence and called the plea deal an offer he "couldn't refuse." On Tuesday, he entered...

Portland, Ore. (AP) -- An environmental activist who was serving time in a Canadian prison has been extradited to the United States to stand trial on ecoterrorism charges despite his arguments that he faced political persecution here. Tre Arrow, formerly Michael James Scarpitti, was indicted by a U.S. grand jury in April 2004 on charges of taking part in the destruction of concrete and logging trucks in Oregon. The indictment came after his arrest in British Columbia on local charges of shoplifting, assault and obstructing a police officer after a security guard caught him trying to steal a pair of...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An environmental activist was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to firebombing logging trucks and equipment at two Oregon companies in the spring of 2001. Jacob Sherman told Judge James Redden that he was "ashamed" of participating in the bombings. He has been linked to the Earth Liberation Front, a loose group of activists that the FBI has classified as an eco-terrorist group."There has not been a single day since (that) I have not thought about and regretted the role I played in those events," Sherman wrote in a letter...