Olympia man charged in attack on trees

An Olympia waiter and reported member of the Earth Liberation Front was being held Friday in the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac after being charged this week with causing $500,000 in damage to research trees at a U.S. Forest Service facility in Wisconsin in 2000.

Bryan Rivera, aka Bryan Lefey, aka "Rat Dog," 31, is charged in an unsealed indictment filed in the Western District of Wisconsin with one count each of depredation of government property in excess of $500 and depredation of government property in excess of $1,000.

FBI agents served Rivera with an arrest warrant at his home in the 500 block of East Bay Drive Wednesday, FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said. An official at the Federal Public Defender office in Tacoma confirmed Rivera was being held Thursday, but U.S. Marshals would not confirm it until Friday. Rivera's public defender could not be reached for comment.

During the arrest, four loaded weapons, including a shotgun, were recovered, court papers state.

The owner of the property, Shelton dentist Duane Stephen Moore, who also lives there, released a statement to prosecutors saying the firearms are his. The statement says Rivera had no knowledge of the guns.

"Bryan Lefey (Rivera) has not had access to any of they (sic) guns nor there location," Moore's statement reads. "From my knowings, he is an extremely honest, gentle man who hasn't, to my knowledge, even handled a gun, nor has talked about them."

In Moore's statement, he says that Rivera's "character is such, of being a very kind, gentle, sensitive man who has no interest in firearms or hurting anything. He is a man of integrity and his word."

Two other members of ELF also were charged in connection with the July 2000 vandalism at the Rhinelander, Wis., facility.

Katherine Christianson and Aaron Ellringer will appear in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wisconsin said.

Christianson and Ellringer also were charged with two counts of depredation of government property.

According to the indictment: Rivera and the others conspired to damage trees at Rhinelander using "etching cream, saws, scraping tools and other items."

The conspirators thought that the facility was performing genetic research on trees, the indictment says.

In addition to damaging 500 trees, the group also used spray paint and etching cream to damage Forest Service vehicles with references to ELF, the indictment states.

After the vandalism, Christianson and a man not named in the indictment allegedly sent a communique on behalf of ELF.

"The communique ended with the words: 'We are everywhere and we are nowhere and we are watching,' " the indictment says.

It was signed "ELF Earth Liberation Front."

Rivera worked at the Fish Tale Brew Pub in Olympia as a waiter, pub manager Max DeJarnatt said. DeJarnatt said he knows Bryan Rivera as Bryan LeFey.

"I'd call him a stand-up guy," DeJarnatt said. "He's very reliable, always did his job."

DeJarnatt said Rivera is a performance artist who incorporated music and dance in performances in Olympia and Seattle.

"We're all concerned for him," DeJarnatt added. "His roommates called and said he wasn't coming in for his shifts."

Rivera is well-liked by co-workers, DeJarnatt added.

"None of us were expecting it," he said of the arrest. "We were blindsided."

A neighbor of the East Bay Drive home where Rivera was arrested, Jim Crawford, said he had heard someone who lives there was arrested.

"They all wear black, seem friendly enough," Crawford said.

Rivera is not the first reported ELF member with ties to Olympia.

In June, former Olympia resident Briana Waters was sentenced to six years in prison for her role in an arson that destroyed a University of Washington research center in 2001. Waters lived in Olympia, attending The Evergreen State College around the time of the arson.

ELF is an underground movement that has a history of using illegal methods to stop what it calls the destruction of the environment.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.