Vail fire suspect kills self

Accused eco-terror figure found dead in Arizona jail cell

Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 23, 2005 at midnight

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A man suspected in the 1998 Vail Mountain firebombings killed himself in his Arizona jail cell Thursday, while a federal judge in Oregon denied the release of a woman linked to the same eco-terrorism strike.

William C. Rodgers, 40, labeled the "mastermind" of radical environmentalists who left a nationwide swath of firebombings linked to the Environmental Liberation Front, was found dead early Thursday in his single cell at the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff, authorities said.

In response, the U.S. Marshal's Office in Eugene, Ore., ordered a suicide watch for Chelsea Gerlach, 28, in the Lane County Jail.

Craig Weinerman, Gerlach's federal public defender, said Rodgers' death "had ramifications on her."

"The way law enforcement thinks, they isolated my client and put her on suicide watch, although she's not suicidal."

A deputy sheriff rousing Rodgers about 6:15 a.m. found him with "multiple plastic bags, like grocery bags, wrapped around his head," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Brenda McLaughlin. She said prisoners who are not on suicide watch typically are given such bags to carry toiletries and other belongings.

Officers, who arrested Rodgers and Gerlach Dec. 7 in a nationwide roundup of six suspected eco-saboteurs, had no reason to think Rodgers might kill himself, said Coconino County Sheriff Bill Pribil.

Sarah Launius, 27, a friend of Rodgers and a spokeswoman for the bookstore he owned in Prescott, Ariz., was shocked to hear of his death.

"We have been talking a lot on the phone," she said. "I didn't have any concerns about him doing this. I was very surprised this morning to learn of this. I know that all of the friends in Prescott are equally kind of shocked."

Launius recalled Rodgers as "an extraordinarily gentle and loving human being."

"I think he is also one who took great strength in feeling free," she said. "He lived a life of great reverence of others and the world around him. I have no doubt he is doing that now."

Rodgers had been scheduled to be transported to Phoenix later Thursday en route to Washington state, where he was charged with setting fire to a U.S. Department of Agriculture building in 1998.

Neither he, nor Gerlach, has been formally charged in the seven simultaneous fires in 1998 on Vail Mountain. Federal prosecutors simply had named them as prime suspects, while proceeding against them on charges growing out of other alleged eco-sabotage.

In Flagstaff, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lodge, who argued at a Dec. 16 hearing that Rodgers should remain in custody, said he would have no comment on Rodgers' death. "No comment at all," Lodge said. "None."

Dr. Mark Fischione, the Coconino County medical examiner, ruled that Rodgers died of asphyxia - too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide in the blood - as a result of suffocation, McLaughlin said.

In apparent coordination between federal prosecutors in Oregon and Arizona, Rodgers and Gerlach were named prime suspects in the $12 million damage to the original Two Elk Lodge and other structures on the Vail ski mountain. The arson was the costliest attack attributed to the Animal Liberation Front or the Environmental Liberation Front until the ELF claimed responsibility for torching a condominium under construction in San Diego in 2003, causing more than $20 million in damage.

Renee Gerlach, Chelsea's stepmother, said she and her husband, Harry, had not attended Thursday's 30-minute detention hearing about 50 miles away in Eugene.

Judge Thomas Coffin refused bail for Chelsea Gerlach, who is charged with three eco-terrorism strikes in her native Oregon.

Weinerman, Gerlach's public defender, said he argued that his client has been abandoned by one-time boyfriend Stanislas Meyerhoff, who also was arrested Dec. 7 in the eco-terrorism sweep, and by "admitted serial arsonist" Jacob Ferguson. Weinerman said the men have turned against Gerlach because federal prosecutors offered them deals if they would testify against her.

"Needless to say, following his arrest, Meyerhoff felt tremendous pressure to shift blame to others in order to save himself from a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment," Weinerman said. "His motive is that he simply doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison."

Meyerhoff, also 28, and Gerlach attended South Eugene High School together a decade ago. She was photographed for the school yearbook wearing a T-shirt emblazoned "Resist" when they were members of the Student Coalition for Peace and Equality, which called itself a consciousness-raising group.

Gerlach wrote in the Eugenean yearbook that she was "born to save the Earth."

Weinerman said that, during the 30-minute hearing, "The word Vail never crossed anyone's lips. We just talked about the Oregon charges."

The public defender said he expects to be ready to go to court Feb. 28, when Gerlach's trial on the first of the three charges is scheduled. She also faces March trial dates on the other two charges.

Kirk Engdall, lead attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Gerlach's cases, said he "will not be making any more comments about Vail." He was the first to link her to the Vail arsons when she appeared in U.S. District Court in Eugene on Dec. 13.

Engdall referred questions about Gerlach's suspected role in the Vail fires and possible charges against her to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Rourke in Denver.

O'Rourke will have no comment because the Vail case is a continuing criminal investigation, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the Denver U.S. Attorney's Office.

garnerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5421

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