FBI Reveals Few Clues on Suspect in Attacks on SUVs

Undercover FBI agents arrived about midnight at a home on a tree-lined street in Pomona, and with guns drawn they ordered a 25-year-old antiwar activist to his knees.

Josh Connole was handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of vandalism and arson that had caused $3.5 million in damages at four San Gabriel Valley auto dealerships. The destruction was allegedly done in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that signs its acts of destruction with the letters ELF.

The Sept. 12 arrest of Connole appeared to be a significant break for the FBI, which has been investigating ELF attacks across the country for the last 11 years. The group has claimed responsibility for millions of dollars in damage, including the burning of a Colorado ski lodge, an apartment building under construction in San Diego and new homes in Arizona and Long Island, N.Y. The San Gabriel Valley attacks damaged about 135 SUVs.

But four days after his arrest, Connole was released for lack of evidence. New details about the joint local and federal investigation, which is being led by the FBI, show there has been scant evidence made public so far linking Connole with the crimes. Federal agents have sent a pair of Connole’s pants to a lab in Quantico, Va., and are waiting to see whether paint stains match paint left at the crime scene.

Court records show that an unnamed informant pointed authorities toward Connole, who shares similar physical characteristics with a tall, dark-haired man seen on a security videotape recorded at one of the dealerships.

Connole’s lawyer, William Paparian, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging the FBI violated Connole’s civil rights. Paparian compared Connole’s arrest with the treatment of Richard Jewell, the security guard who was named a suspect but never charged in the 1996 bombing at the Summer Olympic games in Atlanta.

At the lawyer’s request, five of Connole’s friends have signed sworn statements that he was helping two new residents move from the evening of Aug. 21 until between 3 and 4:45 a.m. Aug. 22, the morning of the arson fires. Police reports said the dealerships were hit between 2 and 4:30 a.m.

Last month, a man claimed in e-mails and telephone calls to The Times that he participated in the attacks and that Connole was innocent. The man did not give his real name or say where he lived.

Authorities have yet to find the caller, or exonerate Connole.

“He is a person who was arrested based on a probable-cause suspicion,” said Agent Matthew McLaughlin, spokesman for the FBI’s Los Angeles division. “The United States attorney and the district attorney’s office decided not to file charges at the time. But the investigation continues and we can’t comment further other than to say we are making progress in the case.”

Arcadia Police Officer Jonathan Hudson was on early morning patrol Aug. 22 when he received a radio call at 3 a.m.: Monrovia police were investigating three vehicle fires.

At 3:40 a.m., Hudson drove past the Rusnak Motors dealership and noticed that several SUVs had been sprayed with red and blue paint. Sgt. Ken Harper found a security guard sleeping in one of the new vehicles, the police report said.

By sunrise, authorities began to tally the damage that stretched across four San Gabriel Valley cities.

Eight SUVs were damaged at Rusnak Motors in Arcadia. Four vehicles parked at private homes were spray-painted in Monrovia. Another 51 SUVS -- mostly Mitsubishi Monteros and Lincoln Aviators -- were damaged at two dealerships in Duarte.

A storage building at the Clippinger Chevrolet dealership in West Covina was set on fire. At least 72 SUVS -- including 39 new Hummers -- were burned or spray-painted. The attackers painted ELF and left messages accusing SUVs of ruining the environment.

Three security cameras at the Duarte dealership captured images of three suspects. The first was a thin white male with brown hair. The second was a white male with brown hair. A third person could be seen, but the images were fuzzy.

Within 48 hours, the FBI turned their attention to a Craftsman bungalow in Pomona, the home of several environmentalists and antiwar activists, including Connole.

Connole, who is thin, white and has brown hair, matched the general appearance of one of the men on the videotape. An affidavit filed in the case stated that authorities used an informant to find Connole. Another affidavit with details about the informant and what he or she said remains under seal.

If authorities were looking for a suspect with an interest in the environment and an anti-establishment point of view, Connole fit the bill.A self-described computer nerd, Connole graduated from a computer trade school in Anaheim in 1997. Since then, he has worked running credit checks for Experian, did computer work for Perot Systems, delivered pizzas, bused tables at Polly’s Pies and served as assistant manager for Earthbound Trading Co.

Earlier this year at an antiwar rally, Connole met Emily Lutz, 25, a member of the Regen V co-op in Pomona. The name Regen V is derived from the field of regenerative studies, and the people who live there share an interest in recycling and clean energy. They use a Gem electric car -- purchased at the Clippinger Dodge dealership.

The co-op occupies two properties, one on Bradford Street, and Connole moved into a garage there in June from Brea. He took a warehouse job with a solar panel firm, Energy Efficiency, co-owned by William Korthof, 24. Korthof is one of the owners of the Bradford Street co-op.

Connole said he protested the war in Iraq this year, carrying a sign that read “Bush is a Nazi Fascist Corporate Pig.” According to court records, Connole was cited last year for misdemeanor possession of marijuana in Santa Barbara County. He paid a $100 fine.

Pomona Police Chief James Lewis said the only police visits to the co-op in the last three years were for minor violations -- illegal parking, a refrigerator in the garage.

The task force focused on the Regen V co-op after an anonymous tip about suspicious activity there on the night of the fires, said a federal source. Investigators looked first at the house, the source said, then Connole.

Connole said he first suspected he was under surveillance after noticing that a black Mustang was following him. Undercover agents trailing Connole were taking photographs, according to an affidavit.

The agents blew their cover Sept. 11. At 11 p.m., Connole said he and his friend Katie McMillan, 22, drove to a Hollywood Video store. Shortly after leaving home, Connole and McMillan saw the black Mustang.

Connole tried snapping a photo, but the car sped away. Soon, four other cars joined the Mustang. Connole called 911 and was put on hold. “We made a U-turn,” Connole recalled, “and all five of these cars were doing three-point turns trying to follow.”

A dispatcher in the California Highway Patrol’s Los Angeles office answered, according to a tape-recording of the call.

Dispatcher: “9-1-1 emergency, can I help you?” Connole: “Yeah, I’m being followed around right now.”

On the advice of the dispatcher, the couple drove to the Pomona police station. They pulled into a rear lot at 11:36 p.m., police records show. The cars followed.

Connole spoke with Officer Tim McCrary and other officers in the lot. The police searched Connole and McMillan, and then walked over to the agents. McMillan also walked toward one of the vehicles to write down its license plate, she recalled, and “a huge voice came over a speaker that said, ‘Back away from the vehicle.’ ”

After 30 minutes, Pomona officers told Connole he could leave.

“I asked him, ‘Who are they and why are they following me?’ ” said Connole. “He said, ‘I can’t tell you why. But all I can say is they are agents of the federal government.’ ”

Connole said he asked the officer what to do, and the officer said to call 911 if he felt threatened. Connole said he drove home, and the cars followed. When he arrived, Connole said, he stood on the curb and watched the agents for 20 minutes.

Then, Connole said, an agent got out of one of the cars, drew a gun and approached. “Josh Connole, FBI. You’re under arrest. Put your hands in the air,” recalled Connole.

He was taken to an FBI office in the San Gabriel Valley. The next morning, a Friday, FBI Agent Stan Snock and another agent started asking questions, Connole said.

The agents had a tape recorder, Connole recalled. Before turning it on, they told Connole that he was a suspect in the arson fires. Connole said he recalled being relieved, that the arrest was a mistake that would be easily resolved. He was given a paper explaining his Miranda rights, but agreed to talk -- thinking he could convince the agents of his innocence.

The agents told him they had evidence linking him to the fires, including paint speckles on his clothes that matched the spray paint used to deface the Hummers, Connole recalled, as well as a surveillance tape.

The agents also told him they had found a lighter at the scene. The agents said an FBI bloodhound had matched the scent from the lighter with the scent Connole had left as he walked home from the grocery store, he recalled.

According to Connole, one of the FBI agents told him that he would face lesser charges if he confessed. Connole said one agent told him: “We’re going to catch your buddy and once we catch him he’s going to turn you in, so you better turn him in first.”

Meanwhile, investigators had secured both state and federal warrants to search Connole’s home. Agents hauled away two SUVs full of potential evidence.

Connole was transferred later that day to the West Covina jail. Agents there gave him a magnifying glass and asked him to look at the surveillance photos, Connole said.

He recalled being amused because the man in the photos did not resemble him.

Connole recalled Snock telling him that the man in the photo had a goatee. Connole, who has a goatee, said, “I couldn’t see the damn goatee, even with the magnifying glass.”

The next day, Saturday, Snock showed Connole a subpoena for Connole’s belt, pants and shoes. Snock said the FBI’s lab would be able to match spray paint samples from the crime scene to speckles of paint on Connole’s clothes.

On Monday, Connole said, FBI agents took strands of hair and a cheek swab for DNA testing. A few minutes later, at 4:30 p.m., Connole was released.

About an hour earlier, The Times had received an e-mail that said, “The police have the wrong man here.” The e-mail identified a math formula that had been painted on one of the cars, a fact known only to police at the time.

An examination of routing code showed the e-mails were sent from computers at Caltech and Pasadena City College. The Times notified the schools.

On Sept. 19, the same day the ELF claimed responsibility for burning four homes in San Diego, the FBI went to Caltech and Pasadena City College to examine computers. An FBI official said it was possible the e-mail sender was a friend of Connole’s who was trying to clear Connole. Connole denied that assertion.

The FBI over the past week has begun to return some property seized during the search of the Pomona co-op. Emily Lutz, who lives there, said the FBI still has her address book and has started calling numbers in it, asking her friends about their connection with the Regen V co-op and various environment groups.

Jim Marino, co-owner of Duarte Mitsubishi, said he is doubtful the arsonists will be caught. “The FBI has been after them for years. How do you catch them?”

The man who said he helped set the fires e-mailed The Times on Sept. 23. The e-mail appeared to come from a public library in Berkeley, but the message indicated it may have originated elsewhere.

“I hear that the FBI raided Caltech computer systems. Very predictable,” wrote the man. “Next e-mail will come from the Vatican.”

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Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.