Biography
Joyanna "Sadie" Zacher is an environmentalist and a former Green Scare prisoner affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front who protested genetic experimentation. She, along with Nathan Block of Olympia, was indicted and arrested on February 23, 2006 for charges related to two arsons in 2001 as part of Operation Blackfire. One arson was on May 21, 2001 at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, Oregon where experimental genetically altered poplars are grown. The other was in March, 2001 at the Romania Chevrolet dealership in Eugene. Exile and Sadie accepted plea agreements that did not incriminate persons other than themselves. On June 1, 2007 they were each sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison, a particularly harsh sentence from Judge Ann Aiken who sought to make an example out of them.
Arrest and superseding indictment are separate events
Page5 names Joyanna Lynn Zacher and Nathan Fraser Block as arrested in Olympia on February23,2006, initially over the Jefferson Poplar Farm fire. It reports their inclusion in a March15 superseding indictment that also alleged involvement in the Romania Chevrolet action. Arrest, indictment and the eventual sentencing are distinct; this source does not supply an exact institutional intake or release day and does not establish uninterrupted custody through the later sentence.
The Warrior Wind, issue2, mid-April2006, an advocacy newsletter; source claims and completed custody events are distinguished.
June 1, 2007 joint sentencing
A contemporaneous courtroom report, bylined “flies on the wall,” dates the joint sentencing of Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher in Eugene federal court to June 1, 2007. Its opening summary and final account both say Judge Ann Aiken imposed 92 months on each defendant. It identifies Kirk Engdall as the prosecutor, Bill Sharp as Zacher’s defense lawyer and John Storkel as Block’s defense lawyer. It records their guilty pleas and distinguishes the government’s 92-month recommendation from the defense request for a shorter term; the final reported sentence was 92 months. The report says Aiken applied the terrorism enhancement to the Romania Chevrolet and Jefferson Poplar fires and ordered $1,953,412 restitution. These are the observer’s reports of the hearing, not a certified transcript independently inspected here.
The source’s account of the February 23, 2006 arrests corroborates the existing arrest day, but does not establish each defendant’s first physical jail-admission date, uninterrupted pretrial detention or final release. Aiken’s recommendations for Sheridan for Block and Dublin for Zacher are recommendations rather than completed prison transfers. The 92 months are an imposed term, not a newly calculated amount actually served. Existing admission, release and served-custody fields remain unchanged.
Report from Sentencing for Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher, June 1, 2007, original page 1; arrest chronology, original pages 3–4; defense arguments, original pages 5–8; reported imposed sentence and placement recommendations, original page 10.
Fire to the Prisons, issue 2, lists Joyanna Zacher as then confined at FCI Dublin, California. Its Operation Backfire roster distinguishes the guilty plea and imposed sentence from the fact of ongoing prison custody. This is a historical location listing; it does not establish the original reporting day, a transfer date or final discharge, and it does not replace the existing institution field for other phases.
The December 2011 ALF Supporters Group newsletter reports that Nathan Block, Daniel McGowan, Jonathan Paul and Joyanna Zacher entered non-cooperation plea agreements in November 2006: they accepted responsibility for their own actions but did not agree to provide information or testify against anyone. This dates the agreements to a month, not an independently verified plea-hearing day.
