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# UCLA fights to restrain activists
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/ucla-fights-to-restrain-activists/
- Published: 2008-02-22T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T18:38:21.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Protesting restricted for animal activists*

*By NATALIE EDWARDS I Special to the Daily Press*

SM COURTHOUSE In a lawsuit that pits the right to privacy against freedom of speech, UCLA requested and won a temporary restraining order against five animal rights activists who targeted researchers involved in animal testing, including at least one Santa Monica resident.

The Regents of the University of California made their case Thursday morning at the Santa Monica Superior Court. The action for preliminary injunctive relief was made against a handful of individuals and three organizations — UCLA Primate Freedom, the Animal Liberation Brigade, and the Animal Liberation Front.

In the final moments of the hearing, the original order was judged too broad and was restricted to only those individuals explicitly mentioned.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg set another hearing for March 12 on whether a preliminary injunction should be issued.

The lawsuit comes one week after the Santa Monica City Council created a 50-foot buffer zone area around residences, restricting protesters. The ordinance was sponsored by the Santa Monica Police Department, which was called out to the home of UCLA vivisector Nelson Freimer several times last year after animal rights activists targeted his home north of Montana Avenue.

Attorney John Hueston, who represented UCLA, admitted that the original request for the restraining order was “very aggressive,” but was nonetheless satisfied that the judge’s ruling would make it “more difficult to engage in illegal protest” and “restore the (researchers’) Citing escalating tension and violence between researchers and activists since June 2006, the order creates a bubble zone outside the homes of UCLA-employed researchers. The five activists — Linda Faith Greene, Hillary Roney, Kevin Olliff, Ramin Saber, and Tim Rusmisel — are no longer allowed to picket, demonstrate, or protest within 50 feet of the homes owned by researchers during the day or within 150 feet at night. “This is the first in a series of steps,” Hueston said. “These are some of the ringleaders engaged in harassment, leading people to leave their chosen fields.”

The Web site for UCLA Primate Freedom, an organization not associated with the university, must also add a disclaimer to its home page citing the illegality of actions against researchers under the terms of the order, and also remove all of the researchers’ personal information. Currently, the organization maintains an online “Target List,” disseminating the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the researchers.

Animal Liberation Press Officer Jerry Vlasak, the liaison for both the Animal Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Brigade, said that “UCLA has not done their homework” in demanding the editing of the Web site. “(UCLA) has not identified who runs the Web sites,” Vlasak said. “They can’t abide by a restraining order if they don’t know about it. UCLA doesn’t understand the new age cyberspace issue very well.”

The lawsuit made reference to several incidences of intimidation and vandalism against University of California employees in the past two years.

In April 2006, demonstrators converged on UCLA faculty member Lynn Fairbanks’ home in Los Angeles and banged on her door while wearing ski masks. Two months later, a Molotov cocktail-type firebomb was mistakenly placed on the doorstep of Fairbank’s neighbor but did not detonate, according to the court complaint submitted by UCLA.

In April 2006, demonstrators upended trash bins and destroyed personal property at the home of researcher Dario Ringach in Culver City. Ringach’s home was targeted again in May, June, and July 2006\. Ringach has since quit animal research.

UCLA researchers have received hundreds of threatening e-mails, phone calls, and home visits.

As recently as two weeks ago, another firebomb was placed at the home of Edythe London, a professor who tests on vervet monkeys in a study of nicotine addiction funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris.

In court, Hueston argued that the issue was not about impinging on one’s right to free speech, but protecting privacy, the “only constitutional right infringed” by the activists.

“Setting off Molotov cocktails on doorsteps is not free speech,” Hueston said.

The defense argued that the lawsuit presupposes that the actions of the three organizations and five individuals are coordinated, stating that there is “no link between the illegal activities and these protesters,” even if those who committed them shared the same views.

In their respective rebuttals, Hueston argued that the protesters who engaged in the illegal activities “willingly affiliated themselves with the efforts,” while the defense argued that those protesters explicitly mentioned in the lawsuit have no criminal convictions and cannot be guilty by association.

“It’s the norm for these guys to drop temporary restraining orders at the drop of the hat even without any correlation and no imminent threat from the five individuals,” Vlasak said.

Evidence submitted by UCLA cited spoken affiliation by the individuals to the organizations but the aggressive wording of the original order was deemed too broad to be enforceable. The Animal Liberation Front, for example, publicly claims no members.

Vlasak called the suit “pointless,” stating that those most likely to commit acts of violence against researchers would not associate themselves with “above-ground organizations” like UCLA Primate Freedom.

The order is just another strategic lawsuit being made against public participation, Vlasak said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 22, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)