UC Berkeley

Casey Goonan indicted by grand jury in federal arson case

Prosecutors say Goonan tried to set the federal courthouse on fire in June. (Note: Goonan uses they/them pronouns. TBS will follow suit.)

Authorities say Casey Goonan lit a UC Berkeley police vehicle on fire in early June. U.S. Attorney's Office

Troubles appear to be mounting for Casey Goonan, the activist and academic accused of setting a UC Berkeley police car on fire last month in solidarity with Gaza.

This week, a grand jury indicted Goonan on several counts: two related to the June 1 firebombing of a police vehicle and one related to the alleged possession of an unregistered firearm, court papers obtained by The Scanner show.

Each of those counts carries a possible penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 in the case of conviction.

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The Berkeley Scanner was the first to report this story.

Goonan, 34, is next set to appear in court Friday and may enter a plea at that time, an attorney for Goonan said this week.

Jeff Wozniak, who is representing Goonan along with attorney Sarah Potter, maintained his client's innocence during a brief interview Wednesday and said Goonan intends to enter a not-guilty plea when the time comes.

Wozniak also cautioned that the federal case is just beginning and said he had seen "no direct link" between Goonan and online political writings that described the June 1 firebombing at UC Berkeley as a political statement.

"Trying to convict [Goonan] based on these writings make this a very political case," Wozniak said.

Casey Goonan initially faced criminal charges in Alameda County, but that case was dropped when the feds took over.

Now, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nikhil Bhagat is prosecuting the case, according to court records.

When the matter changed hands, Goonan was transferred from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin to San Francisco County Jail.

Goonan is now back at Santa Rita, according to booking records.

Feds say Casey Goonan tried to set courthouse on fire

The 12th Street side of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. *Google Street View*

Aside from this week's indictment, there have been no major filings in the arson case in recent weeks.

But a July 15 letter from the U.S. attorney's office contained startling allegations about Goonan's behavior in June.

According to the letter, Goonan showed up at the Oakland federal courthouse on June 11 carrying a bag of Molotov cocktails.

The prosecution wrote that Goonan initially "threw rocks at the glass facing the street, intending to break a window and toss one or more lit devices into an interior office" used by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board.

Goonan stopped throwing rocks when a security officer got involved, "but as he did so, he placed the bag with Molotov cocktails inside a planter that abuts the 12th Street side of the building and lit it on fire before fleeing," the U.S. attorney's office wrote.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Wozniak was quick to point out that Goonan faces no charges at this time in connection with the new allegations.

"Casey has not been charged with this," Wozniak said. "They are innocent."

Authorities say Casey Goonan lit a UC Berkeley police vehicle on fire in early June. *U.S. Attorney's Office*

Wozniak said the broader context of the letter had been the possible recusal from the case of Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu.

The prosecution had argued against recusal, writing that Goonan's alleged behavior on June 11 had not targeted the judge herself: "The government does not believe that Your Honor’s presiding over the detention hearing in this case would create an appearance of impropriety."

Ryu may take up the recusal question later, according to the letter.

The Berkeley Scanner will continue to follow the case.