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.
