Oregon woman is prime suspect in unsolved UW arson, feds say

A 28-year-old Portland woman is considered a prime suspect in two of the nation's most destructive acts of environmental sabotage, including the 2001 arson that destroyed the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture and a $12 million fire at a ski resort in Colorado, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Oregon.

Chelsea D. Gerlach, who also goes by the name "Country Girl," is in custody in Oregon following her arrest last week for allegedly helping to topple an electricity transmission tower and for acting as a lookout in a meat company arson.

During a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., she was ordered held without bail, pending the outcome of a federal grand jury hearing scheduled for today.

John Ray, a U.S. assistant attorney in Oregon, said Tuesday that Gerlach is a prime suspect in the May 21, 2001, UW fire, which caused more than $1.5 million damage, the Vail arson on Oct. 19, 1998, and three other acts of arson.

Gerlach's family, in a statement released Tuesday, said the accusations are "ludicrous" and that she will be vindicated in court.

The Oregon court proceedings are being monitored by the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle.

"We are working very closely with the District of Oregon," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the Seattle office. "The investigation remains active and ongoing. We look forward to the day when those responsible for the UW fire are brought to justice."

Gerlach is the first person to be publicly named as a suspect in the UW fire. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle believes it's unlikely that only one person was involved in organizing and carrying out the arson, according to Langlie.

Gerlach is one of six people taken into custody last week in arrests in Oregon, Virginia, New York and Arizona in what appear to be the biggest breaks yet in a decade-long investigation of arson and other crimes committed by members of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Among the most high-profile of these acts was the fire at the Two Elk Resort in Vail, Colo., which caused some $12 million in damage and drew international attention to the actions of eco-saboteurs.

Many of the eco-sabotage actions, including the UW and Vail arsons, were claimed by ELF and ALF, which in anonymous press releases have said they acted in the defense of the environment and animal rights.

The FBI has said groups like ELF and ALF represent the nation's top domestic terror threat, though the groups reject that label and say they are careful not to harm people.

The FBI estimates such groups were responsible for 1,200 crimes between 1990 and mid-2004, causing more than $110 million in damage. The costliest so far was an arson at a five-story condominium under construction in San Diego in August 2003 that caused $50 million in damage.

Federal officials have had a difficult time penetrating the small, secret cells believed to have committed these acts. But in recent court filings, they cite the assistance of confidential informants in building their cases.

One of those informants claimed to have been involved in a plot with Gerlach to set fire to the Childers Meat Co. plant on May 9, 1999, in Eugene, Ore.

U.S. attorneys in Eugene today will try to obtain a federal indictment against Gerlach for her alleged involvement in the Childers Meat Co. fire as well as the May 21, 2001, firebombing of a poplar tree farm in Clatskanie, Ore. that occurred within a few hours of the UW fire.

A federal grand jury in Oregon already has indicted Gerlach for allegedly helping topple a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line 25 miles east of Bend, Ore., on Dec. 30, 1999. She has pleaded not guilty to that charge.

It is still unclear when — or if — charges will be filed against Gerlach for the UW, Vail and other alleged acts of arson. But in court Tuesday, assistant U.S. attorney Kirk Engdahl accused Gerlach of involvement in the Vail and UW arsons, as well as the Oct. 11, 1998, attempted arson of a U.S. Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral in Rock Springs, Wyo., and the Dec. 25, 1999, arson of a Boise Cascade office in Oregon.

Gerlach is a native of Oregon, said her father, Harry Gerlach, who declined further comment. He referred a reporter to the statement released by the family.

"We are both disturbed and baffled by charges brought against her, as well as by the images presented in the press of a radical Chelsea Gerlach hardened by crimes and malfeasance," the statement read. "The person we know and love is incapable of such acts, and we have absolutely no reason to believe her criminal involvement in these cases."

Though she was arrested in Portland, public records indicate Gerlach briefly lived in Olympia in the mid-1990s. Gerlach also previously lived in Eugene, which during the past decade experienced a series of arsons and other acts with possible links to ELF.

The UW arson occurred at nearly the same time as the Oregon poplar farm arson. Federal investigators believe the two actions were probably linked, as they were both carried out with similar crude fire bombs consisting of jugs of fuel and cheap timers, as was the 1999 meat plant arson.

Two men have been indicted in connection with their involvement in the Oregon poplar farm fire. They are Stanislas "Jack" Meyerhoff, 28, an engineering student arrested in Virginia, and Daniel G. McGowan, 31, who was arrested in New York City.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Information from The Associated Press and Seattle Times researcher David Turim is included in this report.