Accused eco-saboteur Joseph Dibee has COVID-19 | Crime & Justice | bendbulletin.com

In January, accused eco-saboteur Joseph Dibee suffered a broken jaw during a jail attack from another inmate at Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail. A federal judge singled out the sheriff’s office for not taking appropriate measures to ensure Dibee’s safety.

On Tuesday, Dibee tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dibee, 53, was evaluated only after his defense lawyer sought a judge’s order that required the jail to have his client tested.

Dibee is the first inmate reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus at Inverness Jail. The county has reported seven positive cases among inmates at the Multnomah County Detention Center and this week two in Inverness Jail, which includes Dibee.

Dibee has unsuccessfully sought release from custody pending trial multiple times since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken’s release decision a year ago that had allowed Dibee briefly to live with his sister in Seattle.

Dibee suffers from asthma. The positive test came after the jail moved Dibee out of Inverness’ medical unit into a mental health unit over the objections of both his lawyer and the judge.

Matthew Schindler, Dibee’s lawyer, said he learned that his client lost his sense of taste and smell on Friday. Schindler contacted the jail’s medical unit and the judge. Schindler said he was told the jail would deal with it. Dibee was returned to the medical unit, but the jail would not test him for the virus, Schindler said.

“He was only tested after I demanded that the federal judge order the jail to test him,” Schindler said.

Schindler said he’s concerned that the jail is only quarantining inmates who have coronavirus symptoms and not testing them, pointing out that he wonders how Dibee, who had not left the jail and only was transported between units, got the virus.

Dibee was tested Monday and the results came back Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Multnomah County spokeswoman Julie Sullivan-Springhetti said those booked into jail are screened for symptoms and temperatures are checked. If someone has symptoms, plans are made to isolate, quarantine and test the inmate with input from the county health officer and a communicable disease investigations team, she said.

Sullivan-Springhetti said corrections health notified the sheriff’s office that an Inverness Jail inmate had tested positive for COVID-19 early in the week. As a result, his housing unit was put on quarantine, and all members were tested on Tuesday. A second inmate tested positive on Wednesday. The unit will be tested again next week, she said.

Since October, 32 of the sheriff’s office’s 800 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 across seven locations, according to the county.

In an email to the judge Tuesday, Schindler informed Aiken of Dibee’s positive COVID-19 test and urged his release.

“I am incredibly disappointed that the Court has allowed this to come to this point,” Schindler wrote. “Please release Mr. Dibee immediately so that we can finally get him the care necessary now on multiple fronts…If you want this case concluded without the defendant being killed by the negligence of the government, release him.”

The judge had last called the prosecutor and Dibee’s lawyer together for a status hearing in the case on Friday, before Dibee was tested.

At that time, she was disturbed the jail had moved Dibee out of the medical unit, where he’s been recovering from his broken jaw. The jail staff claimed they needed beds in medical, yet Schindler said there was space available for his client.

On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow submitted a status report to the judge, relaying that supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal Marc Nordquist learned that the inverness jail moved Dibee from his new cell back to the medical unit after he reported COVID-like symptoms to his lawyer, and that he was being evaluated.

Until Dibee was tested, there were no cases of COVID-19 at the jail, the deputy reported to the court, according to Barrow’s Monday status report.

Dibee was arrested in August 2018 after being a fugitive for those dozen years and remaining out of the United States. He’s accused of taking part in a string of environmental sabotage across the West.

Federal prosecutors say he fled the United States days after he and his lawyer met with prosecutors and an FBI agent in Seattle on Dec. 7, 2005, and learned of the evidence against him that allegedly linked him to arsons in Oregon and elsewhere. On that day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wanted to see if Dibee would accept responsibility for his alleged offenses and cooperate with authorities, Barrow said.

Instead, Dibee returned home, destroyed evidence in the case by setting it on fire in his fireplace and then had a friend drive him to Mexico City, Barrow said. From there, he flew to Beirut, Lebanon, and then set up residence in Syria. He moved to Russia in 2010, where he later married and adopted a son, according to Barrow.

He never surrendered though he knew he had been indicted in 2006 in Oregon on charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility. Dibee is accused of helping to destroy the Cavel West Inc. meatpacking plant in Redmond on July 1, 1997, and destroying a Bonneville Power Administration tower near Bend on Dec. 30, 1999, though his attorney said Dibee didn’t play a role in the tower vandalism and called that charge “bogus.”

He also faces charges of conspiracy to commit arson and possession of a destructive device in federal court in Washington and conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building and possession of a destructive device during a crime of violence in California.

In August 2018, Dibee was held in Cuba based on an Interpol notice on the U.S. arrest warrants. At the time, he had a Syrian passport in his Arab Syrian name, “Yousef Deba,’’ and was traveling to Russia from El Salvador, his lawyer said.

Aiken released Dibee from custody the night of Dec. 13, 2019, and allowed him to live with his sister in Seattle under home detention with GPS monitoring. Five days later, he turned himself back into authorities, after a three-member federal appeals court panel on Dec. 18 ordered that Dibee be returned to custody and directed Aiken to reconsider her ruling.

In January, Aiken kept Dibee in custody, ruling there are no assurances Dibee would return to court for trial based on his years as a fugitive, having fled the United States as soon as he learned he would face an indictment. His trial, which was set to start this week, has been pushed back to March 16.

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