$50 Million Eco-Terror Arson Investigated
June 28, 2005 -- -- Nearly two years after a fire allegedly set by eco-terrorists did $50 million worth of damage to a San Diego luxury apartment complex construction site, a federal grand jury is investigating the case and several individuals questioned by the panel say they have been asked about an activist's lecture.
Rod Coronado, an environmental activist who served four years in prison for a 1992 fire at Michigan State University's mink research center, gave a lecture in San Diego the night after the Aug. 1, 2003, fire at the La Jolla Crossroads project.
Freelance journalist Michael Cardenas, one of the people subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, said he was asked last week about Coronado's lecture and who was there.
"They didn't even ask me about the fire. The questions were, 'Do you know this person or that person?' " Cardenas told ABC News affiliate KGTV-TV in San Diego. He said he believes he and at least eight others were called to testify not because they had anything to do with the fire, but because they attended Coronado's lecture.
Coronado told ABCNews.com that investigators have not contacted him about the talk he gave, and he heard about the subject of the questioning from the organizers of the lecture.
"It seems very interesting to me because the questions surrounding my lecture are questions concerning something I thought wasn't a criminal thing to do -- give a lecture," he said. "It looks to me like they're doing what they've always done, which is going after the people who speak out. Being two years without any leads or connections in this case, the attorney general in San Diego is probably breathing down somebody's back to get something on this."
Most of the other people subpoenaed described themselves as animal rights or environmental activists, though one told KGTV-TV he belongs to a voter reform group. They said they would stage a protest today in front of the federal building, when the grand jury reconvenes.
"Under [the] First Amendment, you're supposed to have a right to free association, supposed to be able to go wherever we want, talk to whoever we want to without fear of being called into a closed room with a bunch of government agents," Cardenas said.
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