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Bombing suspect's parents retain S.F. attorney
Belvedere city manager urges son to surrender

Stacy Finz, Jaxon Van Derbeken, Pamela J. Podger,
Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, October 11, 2003

The parents of a 25-year-old animal rights activist wanted on
suspicion of bombing two Bay Area businesses have contacted a
prominent San Francisco attorney in hopes of persuading their son to
surrender to charges that, if proved, could put him in prison for up
to 30 years.

The family of Daniel Andreas San Diego of Schellville in Sonoma County
issued an appeal Friday urging him to contact attorney Jim Collins and
surrender immediately to federal authorities.

Collins is a criminal defense attorney who has been involved in a
number of high-profile cases, most recently one involving three
off-duty San Francisco police officers accused of assaulting two men
on Union Street when they refused to hand over a take-home bag of
fajitas.

FBI agents said Friday they were concentrating their search in the Bay
Area for San Diego, who is listed in an all-points bulletin as being
armed and dangerous.

A no-bail arrest warrant accuses him of detonating two pipe bombs on
Aug. 28 at Chiron Corp., a biotechnology company in Emeryville, and
exploding another bomb on Sept. 26 at Shaklee Inc., a Pleasanton firm
that makes health, beauty and household products. No one was hurt in
either blast.

An animal rights group calling itself Revolutionary Cells claimed
responsibility for the blasts in anonymous e-mails and said the two
companies were targeted because of their ties to Huntingdon Life
Sciences. The New Jersey company conducts drug and chemical
experiments on animals for other firms, including Shaklee's parent
company, Yamanouchi Consumer Inc., and Chiron.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives later discovered that Pleasanton police had stopped San
Diego for a traffic violation near the Shaklee offices an hour before
the predawn blast. The FBI has physical evidence linking San Diego to
all three bombings but has refused to say what it is.

"We're hoping he is still in the Bay Area, so he can hear the appeal
by his parents and his friends," said FBI Agent LaRae Quy, a
spokesperson for the Northern California office. "He needs to end this
before he enters into a lifetime of being a federal fugitive."

Authorities said San Diego, if convicted, faces up to 10 years in
prison on each of the three bombing charges -- or a maximum of 30
years.

The suspect's father, Edmund San Diego, is the city manager of the
wealthy Marin County town of the Belvedere.

In a statement e-mailed to The Chronicle, Edmund San Diego and his
wife, Heike, asked their son to contact Collins to pave the way for
his surrender.

"We continue to be bewildered by the situation as it unfolds and still
know little more than what we read or see in the press," the couple
said.

"Our position in urging our son to surrender to the authorities
without incident as soon as possible remains unchanged," they said.
"We only desire to have this matter properly addressed as soon as
possible without anyone feeling threatened or worse happening."

In a telephone interview Friday evening, Collins said, "I've been
retained by the parents, and I'm acting only as a facilitator. At this
point, I've not had contact with him."

He said the family has yet to arrange with him to be San Diego's
defense attorney.

The suspect worked for two years at In Defense of Animals, a nonprofit
in Mill Valley, when he was about 19 years old, said group founder
Elliot Katz, a veterinarian.

"He was a very gentle human being who cared very deeply about
animals," Katz said. "He seemed like he was totally nonviolent. He
wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone a human being."

Katz said he was alarmed that San Diego was "packaged" as a dangerous
person and was fearful for his safety, as well as skeptical that the
federal authorities had pinpointed the right man.

"We all know of instances where the FBI has picked the wrong person,
and it is a frightening situation," Katz said. "I don't have a great
deal of trust in the decisions they make."

Danielle Matthews, a spokesperson at Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty in
New Jersey, cast aspersions on the FBI probe, while distancing her
group from San Diego. "We've never heard of him, and those East Bay
bombings were carried out anonymously. Other than their repeated
failings in the past, we don't have any indication that the FBI are
more on target this time."

But the FBI's Quy alleged that there was solid information connecting
San Diego to the bombing, adding that several other people may be
involved. No other arrest warrants have been issued, she said Friday.

Quy said agents were surveilling San Diego last week but lost track of
him over the weekend. On Wednesday, agents searched his two-story home
on Acacia Lane in Schellville.

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©2003 San Francisco Chronicle