Feds, MSU arrest 4 in 1999 ‘domestic terror’ arson at university

EAST LANSING — Two Detroit men, a Detroit woman and a woman from Cincinnati have been indicted and arrested on charges relating to a 1999 arson at Michigan State University, campus and federal law enforcement officials announced Tuesday afternoon.

The arson, which occurred on Dec. 31, 1999, caused over $1 million in damage to Agricultural Hall. The Earth Liberation Front took credit for the fire. It was not clear if the four arrested were ever MSU students.

The target of the attack was the Agriculture Biotechnology Support Project, a federally funded program that works with private and public institutions to enhance the use, management and commercialization of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries.

According to a press release on the MSU website (http://special.newsr…), FBI agents and MSU officers combed the country, visiting 10 states in search of those responsible.

Marie Jeanette Mason, 46, of Cincinnati; Frank Brian Ambrose, 33, of Detroit; Aren Bernard Burthwick, 27, of Detroit; and Stephanie Lynne Fultz, 27, of Detroit have been charged with four counts each of conspiracy to commit arson, aggravated arson and arson in connection with the attack. The four also face the same charges in connection with a Jan. 1, 2000, arson at a commercial logging facility in Mesick in northern Michigan.

Little is known about the Earth Liberation Front. Its web site says the group is an underground movement with no official leadership, membership or spokesperson.

Continued -“This was a significant act of domestic terrorism which caused more than a million dollars in damage to facilities and loss of research records,” MSU Police Chief Jim Dunlap said. “As a result, the university dedicated an unprecedented amount of resources and personnel to investigate this crime, and the Michigan State University Police Department appreciates the cooperation of both the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office in the joint investigation of this case and the resulting federal indictment.”

“This was more than an attack on a building and the destruction of valuable property,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in a written statement. “This was an assault on the core value of free and open inquiry at a research university. We always must be open to ideas that challenge our own, but what we must never allow are disruptions meant to shut down the open marketplace of ideas.”

The 1999 attack was the second attack by radical environmentalists against MSU. The first occurred in February 1992 and caused $1.2 million in damage to Anthony Hall. Credit for the 1992 attack was claimed by the Animal Liberation Front. In 1993, Rodney Coronado was indicted by a federal grand jury for the 1992 attack. He plead guilty to the attack in 1995 and was sentenced to two consecutive 57-month prison sentences. He was also ordered to pay MSU $1.2 million in restitution.