On the seventh day, Lane County Circuit Judge Edwin Allen said he would hear no more of it. The lengthy pretrial hearing failed to convince Allen that a seldom-used state law of evidence should apply to Troen's animal rights case. At a non-jury trial immediately after the ruling, Troen did not dispute the evidence presented by the prosecution and was found guilty of theft, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. Troen, to be sentenced March 10, faces up to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine on each count.
Research scientists around the country breathed a sigh of relief when Allen rejected Troen's argument that his crimes were justified by what he perceived as a continuous threat of harm to the university's lab animals. Oregon law permits otherwise illegal behavior under emergency circumstances "to avoid an imminent public or private injury." But the statues specifies that, "according to ordinary ...
