Vandalism Suspects Say They're Part of ELF

Shannon Henson & James Ivey World-Herald (Omaha, NE) 20jul01

College students claiming connection with the Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized environmental group, were charged Thursday with damaging area golf courses.

James Martin Davis, an attorney for one of the students, said that there is no ELF in Omaha, but that the Blair teens learned of the group through the Internet.

How do the links fit into the plan?

"I don't know why golf courses are the target of choice for idealistic kids," Davis said.

Since 1997, the ELF movement has claimed responsibility for more than $30 million in damage to projects it says threaten the environment.

The group claimed responsibility for pouring turpentine on a green at a golf course in British Columbia in January, saying the course was a destruction of green space meant for animals and people.

According the Earth Liberation Front's Web site, one of the group's three guidelines is "To inflict economic damage on those profitting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment."

In the Omaha-area case, Jason L. Thiemann, Kraig A. Schjodt and Brian K. Hindley, all 19, were charged with multiple counts of fourth-class felony charges of criminal mischief in Douglas County Court on Thursday.

Each had bail set at $10,000 and must post 10 percent of that amount.

The Pines Country Club in Valley, hit Tuesday, was the fourth area golf course damaged since late June.

At the Knolls Golf Course and the Champions Club in northwest Omaha and Indian Creek golf course in Elkhorn, vandals spray-painted buildings and walks and dug up fairways and greens. The word "ELF" also was painted.

Mike TenEyck, manager at the Pines, estimated the damage there at $5,000 to $7,000.

Several holes were dug in greens, and fairways and buildings were spray-painted. "ELF" was written in one sand bunker.

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning said the arrests early Thursday came after a tip from a resident near the golf course.

Dunning said the witness saw an unfamiliar car and got its license number. The three were arrested after officials followed up on that number.

The men "indicated they were part of ELF," Dunning said.

ELF is a collection of largely autonomous small groups of individuals. The small groups work anonymously and independently of each other. In 1998, ELF claimed responsibility for a $12 million fire that destroyed part of a Vail, Colo., ski resort that ELF said threatened lynx habitat.

Studying civil engineering, Hindley has made the dean's list at University of Nebraska at Omaha. Schjodt attends Dana College in Blair; Thiemann attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The families of Schjodt and Thiemann declined to comment.

"Who knows why kids do anything?" said Davis, who is defending Hindley.

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