Domsavsigelsen

According to those who were in court earlier, Josh is awaiting sentencing tomorrow, and Andy and Darius will be sentenced sometime next week.

3 animal-welfare activists sentenced to federal prison
BETH DeFALCO
Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. - Three animal-welfare activists whose Web site led to the harassment of employees of a company that tests products on animals were sentenced to between four and six years in federal prison on Tuesday.

They also were ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people they terrorized.

Three other members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty were expected to be sentenced within the next two weeks.

Along with the organization itself, the six activists were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a Britain-based company that tests drugs and household products on animals.

The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against the company, posting on the group's Web site information about the employees at Huntingdon's East Millstone lab and about those who do business with the company. The information included their home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school and church.

Many of those people saw their homes vandalized and received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls.

The group, based in Philadelphia, maintains its actions were protected under the First Amendment.

The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. Instead, they were charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses.

The three sentenced on Tuesday include the president of SHAC, Kevin Kjonaas of Minnesota; campaign coordinator Lauren Gazzola, of Connecticut; and Web site manager Jacob Conroy, of California. All three were given 30 days to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Office.

Kjonaas was sentenced to six years in prison, Gazzola to 52 months, and Conroy was sentenced to four years. Each must serve 85 percent of their sentence and, once they are released, three years of probation.

Those still awaiting sentencing include:

_ Joshua Harper, SHAC's West Coast coordinator.

_ Andrew Stepanian, SHAC's New York coordinator.

_ Darius Fullmer, an organizer who researched SHAC targets.