Frank Ambrose Says He’s Innocent

Steve Hinnefeld and Doug Wilson / Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN) 26jan01

Frank Ambrose said he didn't spike trees last June in Morgan-Monroe State Forest.

"They don't have the right person because I didn't do it," said Ambrose, who was charged Thursday with tree spiking in connection with the incident.

He blamed his arrest on overzealous police trying to stifle protest and to find someone responsible for actions by the Earth Liberation Front. "I think it's an attempt by the FBI and the state conservation officers to break up the activist community here in Bloomington," he said.

Ambrose, 26, moved to Bloomington three years ago after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in biology. At Purdue, the 190-pound six-footer was a varsity swimmer who was named academic all-Big Ten three straight years.

In Bloomington, he has worked for the Washington, D.C.-based American Lands Alliance, organizing environmental efforts in a five-state area. He has been active in protests against logging on public lands, a local PCB cleanup, extending I-69, U.S. air strikes against Iraq and a proposed IU golf course near Griffy Lake.

Ambrose frequently took a more vocal and confrontational approach than most area activists.

While others condemned the ELF actions, he pointedly refused to do so. "I do not condone, nor condemn the actions of the ELF," he wrote in a May 2000 message to an e-mail discussion list on environmental issues. But, he added, "These actions are things that I cannot do as an above-ground activist, and are not the tactics I would choose anyway."

After protesters damaged property in 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, Ambrose told The Herald-Times, "I personally didn't see any problem with it ... It's not something I would ever do, but it's not something I would ever denounce."

Thursday, in a statement and a telephone interview, he said his statements shouldn't make him a suspect. "Is it illegal to say that?" he said. "It may not be popular with some people, but it doesn't mean I was involved in it."

He said he knew police suspected him in the ELF actions because they questioned him as early as a year ago. In July, he said, they "raided" his house and "came away with family photo albums, address books and organizational files about the groups my wife and I have worked with in the past."

Ambrose said he did visit the Morgan-Monroe timber sale site in June, not to spike trees but to inspect the site and consider making plans for protests.

He said the evidence that police cited in arresting him could have been produced on almost anyone. "I've said this before and I'll say it again: The FBI's the best agency in the world at convicting innocent people," he said.

Other environmental activists were upset about the arrest and doubted Ambrose was involved in tree spiking.

"I've never known him to operate outside the law," said former Heartwood director Andy Mahler, whose group shares a downtown office with Ambrose's American Lands Alliance. "I will maintain the presumption of his innocence until I see strong evidence to the contrary," he said.

Mahler, of Paoli, met Ambrose several years ago when he gave a speech at Purdue, where Ambrose was a member of a campus group that tackled wetland issues.

He and other acquaintances said Ambrose is a bright, hard-working man who cares deeply about environmental causes and would be damaging these causes through the action of which he is accused.

"I think he is being singled out because he is one of the most vocal people," said Mike Englert, who worked with Ambrose as an Indiana Forest Alliance volunteer. "They are trying to suppress our free speech."

Englert said Ambrose's arrest is "very upsetting on several levels. Those who suffer the most from these actions are people who are trying to organize to change problems they see."

An ELF spokesman in Portland, Ore., was also skeptical.

"This sounds like typical harassment of an above-ground activist," said Leslie Pickering, who supports ELF but said he isn't a part of the organization.

Pickering said he has met Ambrose several times and considers him a public activist who would be unlikely to engage in underground activities, such as tree spiking.

"With the number of incidents there have been in Bloomington and the lack of progress in finding the people who actually did this, I'm not surprised the authorities would resort to something like this," Pickering said.

Reporter Steve Hinnefeld can be reached at 331-4374 or by e-mail at hinnefeld@heraldt.com. Reporter Doug Wilson can be reached at 331-4369 or by e-mail at dwilson@heraldt.com.

Activist charged in incident claimed by ELF

Marda Johnson / Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN) 26jan01

A local environmental activist was charged Thursday with spiking trees in a June incident claimed by the Earth Liberation Front.

Frank B. Ambrose, 26, of rural Spencer, was arrested about 10:30 a.m. at the Secret Sailor bookstore in Bloomington by Indiana Conservation Police officer Marlin Dodge, who signed the probable cause affidavit.

Timber spiking is a felony.

Law enforcement authorities said they believe the Ambrose arrest is the first anywhere in the country in connection with a series of vandalisms and arsons claimed by ELF over several years that has caused millions of dollars of damage nationwide.

Ambrose, who moved to Spencer from Bloomington about three months ago, was booked into the Monroe County Jail Thursday and released a few hours later on $2,000 cash bond. Ambrose does not have any prior arrests, police said.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in Monroe Circuit Court, state Division of Forestry employees on June 26 found a nail box on the ground and later saw a man walking near trees in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest in northern Monroe County that had been spiked with 10-inch nails with the heads removed.

The license plate number from a green Honda that blocked the workers' entrance to the area was for a car registered to Ambrose, the affidavit said.

Police found that the Lowe's store in Bloomington had sold four boxes of the same type of spikes three days before the damaged trees were discovered, according to the affidavit.

The store is the only one in the area that carried the type of spikes used in the incident, Dodge said in his report.

The store's videotape showed a person buying the spikes. Forestry employees identified the buyer as the man they saw at the tree-spiking location.

Then, several witnesses who were familiar with Ambrose said the person in the video looked like him, according to the affidavit.

On July 19, police served a search warrant on Ambrose's Smith Pike apartment.

According to the affidavit, police found hammering and metal cutting tools, several cans of spray paint and cotton gloves with a residue similar to that found on the spikes. All the items were shipped to an FBI laboratory for analysis.

The investigation was conducted by state conservation police and the FBI.

Official reaction to the arrest report was guarded Thursday afternoon.

"It saddens me. I'm sorry," Monroe County commissioners' president Brian O'Neill said on learning of Ambrose's arrest. But O'Neill said he didn't think the commissioners should be commenting on the case, as Ambrose has only been charged, not convicted.