A federal judge in Portland found eco-saboteur Rebecca Rubin guilty on Thursday of taking roles in a series of environmentally motivated firebombings and vandalism in Oregon, Colorado and California between 1998 and 2001.
Rubin, 40, a Canadian citizen who fled north of the U.S. border to live underground, tried to surrender to U.S. authorities in 2009, said her lawyer, Richard J. Troberman of Seattle. But there were holdups between Rubin’s lawyers and U.S. government prosecutors.
Prosecutors in California were adamant that Rubin must serve at least 30 years in prison unless she agreed to give up the names of her co-conspirators and offer other assistance to the government. But she steadfastly refused to turn over the names of any of her crime partners.
In a highly structured plea agreement, she offered to assist the government – and already has, according to Troberman – but will not turn over the identities of others involved in the crimes she committed on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.
Rubin’s plea agreement, hammered out for many months by Troberman and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen F. Peifer, in Portland, agrees that she will serve at least five years in prison, but no more than 7.5 years.
Aiken will have the final say. She set Rubin’s sentencing for Jan. 27, 2014.
