UCSF Calls in FBI to Stop ACT UP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 9, 2001

Contact: Todd Swindell (415) 637-HOMO

Michael Bellefountaine (415) 864-6686

UCSF Calls in FBI to Stop ACT UP

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UCSF HIV Researchers, San Francisco City Officials Met with FBI, File

Domestic Terrorist Charges

San Francisco - Local Gay leaders and staff of the University of California

at San Francisco (UCSF) met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

officials and urged the agency to take action against AIDS activists Michael

Petrelis and David Pasquarelli, according to evidence recently secured by

their attorneys. Petrelis and Pasquarelli are being held on an outrageously

high bail of 0,000 each, stemming from a series of phone calls allegedly

made by the two.

Papers obtained from prosecutors by defense attorneys Mark Vermeulen and

Stuart Blumstein show a meeting was held with officials from UCSF, the

Mayor's AIDS Office and the FBI on November 19, 2001 to discuss ACT UP San

Francisco. A week earlier, on November 13, an official complaint of domestic

terrorism was filed with the FBI by meeting attendee and UCSF AIDS researcher

Stephen Morin, former aide to Minority Whip Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca). Memos

from Morin outline a plan to apply the domestic terrorism clause of the

Anti-Terrorism Act to ACT UP SF as early as October 25, 2001, before it was

even signed into law.

A number of people attended the meeting including gay gadfly and UCSF media

representative Jeff Sheehy and the Mayor's AIDS Policy Advisor, Michael

Shriver, a former member of ACT UP San Francisco. Shriver was a member of

the group in the late eighties and was involved in a number of controversial

protests including shutting down the Golden Gate Bridge and the storming of

San Francisco's Opera House on opening night.

"What is more outrageous?" asked ACT UP member Karl Goldman, "That people who

shut down the Golden Gate Bridge and attacked people at the Opera would now

be calling other activists terrorists, or that the San Francisco gay

community and UCSF are actively working as informants for the FBI? This is a

dangerous precedent that will be used to stop all activists."

Activists are quick to point out that though there are records of meetings

and phone calls to the FBI, there was no evidence turned over to corroborate

allegations of stalking, harassing or threatening people, including children,

violating a restraining order, or most importantly, that there was a bomb

threat called into the San Francisco Chronicle. The activists maintain they

are innocent of all charges and look forward to proving their case in court.

ACT UP San Francisco members have long been targets of UCSF, and a few

prominent gay leaders, because of their stance that HIV cannot be the sole

cause of AIDS and that AIDS drugs are toxic. Petrelis, who believes HIV is

the cause of AIDS and is on AIDS medication, has been a sharp and vocal

critic of local AIDS agencies' lack of financial accountability to the gay

community they profess to serve. Petrelis' health has deteriorated since his

incarceration, including an alarming incident where he was rushed to the jail

medical ward for an AIDS related illness.

"It's frightening that the recent tragedy on September 11th is being

exploited by UCSF," stated ACT UP member Michael Bellefountaine. "Its

outrageous that UCSF experiments on the gay community, and then when gay

activists criticize those experiments, they have them arrested, call them

terrorists, and investigated by the FBI."

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ACT UP San Francisco

1884 Market Street * San Francisco, California 94102

Phone: (415) 864-6686 * Fax: (415) 864-6687 * www.actupsf.com