Tree-sit Extractions: Rescue or Battery?

After Maxxam/Pacific Lumber fired "Climber Dan" in 1998 or 1999, they retained wife beater Eric Schatz, of Schatz Tree Service, to extract tree-sitters, providing him with side work to enhance his tree butchering business. Eric's debut on the tree-sitter extraction scene left a sitter atop of a tree with no harness, no ropes, and no way to safely get out of the tree on Gypsy mountain following David Chain's murder. Schatz Tree Service recieved roughly $60,000 dollars to evict the tree-sitters in the impaired Freshwater drainage March 17-21, 2003. Schatz Tree Service has recieved additional monies for the other extractions which took place in Freshwater during April and June of 2003.

The video illustrates a tree-sit eviction in the old growth redwood named Allah by those who attempted to defend it from being cut-down. Allah was more than 800 years old and about 125 yards from Jerry, the tree occupied by Remedy for 361 days before she was forcibly removed three weeks earlier. Much of the footage is taken from a hidden camera mounted on Eric Schatz's hardhat. An activist, Marcus, is locked into a lock-box around an outstretch branch. Another activist, Phoenix, attempts to climb to the top of the tree. Climber Eric and his fellow extractor, Micheal Oxman, pounce on Phoenix and an hour-long struggle takes place at 160 feet above the ground. After removing the forest activists, the tree was felled.

Phoenix was charged with assault with a deadily weapon with a strike enhancement(California Felony Three Strike's law) and misdemeanor trespass. Phoenix's case is scheduled for preliminary hearing in early March 2004. No charges have been filed against Micheal Oxman for jumping on Phoenix's chest/throat or for the strangulation Oxman perpetrated on this non-violent protester on April 10, 2003.

R. ERIC SCHATZ Has a History of Violence

Eric Schatz fractured the hyoid bone in his ex-wife’s throat on November 28, 1992. The hyoid is a U-shaped bone at the base of the tongue that supports the tongue muscles. Eric was initially charged with two counts, count one was Felony Infliction of Corporal Injury on spouse/co-habitant(PC273.5) and the other count was a misdemeanor equivalent to the felony charge. He pled no contest and a guilty plea was entered by the court to the lesser offense on Dec. 31, 1992. Eric recieved a one-year suspended sentence beginning on January 23, 1993 and ending on January 24, 1994. Eric spent a total of one night in jail for this occurance before being bailed out and given a sweet deal by the District Attorney's office. Additionally, court documents state that previous to the 1992 incident, Eric's ex-wife, Vicky Schatz, appeared with a split lip at the District Attorney's Office around Christmas time. That same year Eric's ex-wife and kids recieved a Sheriff's escort to the local woman's shelter. Court documents also state that Eric used a coat hanger to discipline his daughter. His daughter stated in the court documents that she can remember a time when Eric held a gun to her mother's head. Eric's daughter also remembers times when Vicky Schatz would appear from the bedroom after an argument with a bloody nose and that following the divorce his daughter quit speaking to him and couldn't stand to look at him. In 1994, R. Eric and Vicky Schatz' divorce was finalized. Eric has since remarried.