{"id":15329,"date":"2025-01-29T08:23:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T16:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=15329"},"modified":"2025-02-06T08:34:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:34:50","slug":"convicted-eco-saboteur-joseph-dibee-appeals-82k-restitution-for-arson-on-blm-land-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2025\/01\/29\/convicted-eco-saboteur-joseph-dibee-appeals-82k-restitution-for-arson-on-blm-land-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Convicted eco saboteur Joseph Dibee appeals $82K restitution for arson on BLM land in California"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian\/OregonLive<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Convicted eco saboteur\u00a0Joseph Dibee<\/a> is contesting the $82,497 in restitution he was ordered to pay for a fire set at a wild horse corral in California owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Dibee\u2019s lawyer is set to challenge the restitution amount next week before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dibee,who was prosecuted in Portland for the crime, doesn\u2019t dispute that he damaged property and must pay restitution but contends the amount of loss calculated by the Bureau of Land Management is inaccurate, his lawyer, Matthew Schindler, wrote to the court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dibee targeted the wild horse corral near Litchfield, California, which was part of a BLM project to manage wild herds and prevent overpopulation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dibee recruited and picked up two Canadian accomplices who sneaked across the border into the United States in 2001. They planned the arson and built incendiary devices at Dibee\u2019s home in Seattle,drove in his truck to the site and near midnight on Oct. 15, 2001, cut fences to release the wild horses.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They also set incendiary devices around the property. Only one of the devices ignited, burning down a barn storing hay bales, according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Dibee, now 57, is contesting a BLM letter that broke down the damage and replacement costs. His lawyer argues that Dibee should be responsible only for the damage he caused, not the cost to replace any structures or material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems incredibly unlikely that the arson burned exactly 250 tons of hay,\u201d Schindler wrote in a brief to the appellate court. \u201cThis is an unsworn document where there is no supporting documentation for any of the numbers claimed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will ask the 9th Circuit to throw out the restitution amount and order a U.S. District Courtjudge to hold a new restitution hearing to establish the \u201camount of the actual loss.\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Miles, who is the criminal appellate chief in the Oregon U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, said the restitution should stand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prosecutors had sought a higher amount, $122,497.60, based on an itemized statement of losses prepared by a BLM field manager in April 2007, Miles responded in a brief filed with the appellate court.\u00a0The BLM statement cited $25,000 to replace 250 tons of hay destroyed in the fire, at $100 a ton; $2,099 for the fence panels used to repair fences cut; $3,155 for permanent fence repair and $92,243 for the hay storage pole barn construction. The court had previously ordered two of Dibee\u2019s co-defendants to pay the full amount of $122,497.60.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The BLM had to immediately repair the fences to avoid further risks to horses released and harming motorists at a nearby highway, replace lost hay and rebuild the hay storage barn, according to Miles. The government did concede that the BLM made a double-counting error for some of the repairs but the mistake was fixed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane then in November 2023 cut the amount of restitution by $40,000 because of \u201cuncertainty\u201d around the hay inventory in the barn and because Dibee had paid $40,000 directly to the victim in a related Oregon arson case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But McShane also noted at the restitution hearing that \u201cchallenging these figures after the fact – long, long after the fact – is somewhat of a product of the fact that Mr. Dibee did flee the country for over ten years.\u201d<\/div>\n
Dibee was accused of a string of attacks that damaged environmental targets across the West two decades ago. In the early 2000s,\u00a013 members of the Animal Liberation Front\u00a0<\/a>were convicted of crimes related to the group\u2019s arson campaign and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from just over three years to 13 years.<\/div>\n
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Dibee fled the country after learning of potential charges in 2005, moved to Syria and later fled to Russia in fall 2010. He lived there until 2018 and was arrested by Cuban authorities on his way back to Russia after a trip to South America. The FBI transported him from Havana to Portland in August 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Nov. 1, 2022, Dibee was sentenced to time served after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit the BLM arson in California in 2001 and to conspiracy to commit arson and arson in an Oregon fire he helped set at the Cavel West Inc. meatpacking plant in Redmond in July 1997. He had spent two years and five months in custodybefore he was sentenced. He was ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service over three years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dibee\u2019s lawyer said Dibee was involved only in damaging the fenceof the BLM horse corral property and should have to pay only for that. Dibee did not accompanythe othersto set fire to the barn, Schindler wrote.<\/div>\n
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Miles countered that Dibee pleaded guilty to \u201cknowingly and intentionally\u201d conspiring with his co-defendants to \u201cmaliciously damage and destroy by fire and explosives\u201d property owned by the BLM. She said the same argument was made in 2023to McShane, who rejected it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dibee\u2019s appeal is set to be argued on Feb. 5 before the 9th Circuit in the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian\/OregonLive Convicted eco saboteur\u00a0Joseph Dibee is contesting the $82,497 in restitution he was ordered to pay for a fire set at a wild horse corral in California owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Dibee\u2019s lawyer is set to challenge the restitution amount next week before the 9th U.S. … <\/p>\n

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