Biography
Minneapolis anarchist, Dakota activist, and University of Minnesota anthropology graduate student prosecuted during the Green Scare. In November 2009 DeMuth was subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa investigating a 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid at the University of Iowa, and was jailed for civil contempt after refusing to testify. He was then indicted under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. In September 2010 he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act for a 2006 ferret release at a Minnesota fur farm, and was sentenced to six months in federal prison. He entered custody in February 2011 and was released on July 29, 2011. His prosecution became a cause celebre for grand jury resistance and academic freedom, as the government sought to use his graduate anthropology research against him.
Scott DeMuth is a Dakota activist and environmentalist. On November 17, 2009, Scott DeMuth was jailed for contempt of court, since he refused to answer questions posed to him by a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa. They were interested in questioning him about his knowledge of an unsolved Animal Liberation Front action in 2004 at the University of Iowa. When the prosecution failed to produce evidence of DeMuth’s involvement (he was 17 at the time of the raid and a resident of Minnesota), the charges were dismissed in exchange for DeMuth’s guilty plea in the 2006 Lakeside Ferrets action where dozens of ferrets were released from a farm.
Fire to the Prisons reported that DeMuth and Carrie Feldman were taken into custody immediately after refusing grand-jury testimony in Davenport on November 17, 2009. Judge John Jarvey acted at prosecutor Cliff Cronk's request. DeMuth's civil-contempt charge was dropped after a separate criminal charge was filed two days later; the report says he was released after about two weeks. This earlier pretrial detention is distinct from his documented 2011 imprisonment; its exact release date and total days remain unknown.
A Spring 2011 support statement identifies Cliff Cronk as prosecutor in DeMuth’s misdemeanor sentencing. It reports refusal to impose restitution omitted from the plea proceedings and subsequent 22-hour lockdown in a Leavenworth transitional facility.
