Associated Press: Jury gets case of defendant in 2001 University of Wash. arson

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080228-1918-wst-ecoterrortrial.html

Jury gets case of defendant in 2001 University of Wash. arson
By Gene Johnson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

7:18 p.m. February 28, 2008

TACOMA, Wash. – The three-week trial of a violin teacher charged in a
notorious 2001 fire-bombing at the University of Washington came to a
close Thursday.

Briana Waters, 32, of Oakland, Calif., faces a mandatory minimum of 35
years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, arson, and use and possession
of a destructive device.

The fire, which destroyed the university's Center for Urban Horticulture,
was one of at least 17 fires set by radical activists with the Earth
Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front from 1996 to 2001.

Waters maintained her innocence on the stand Wednesday, despite the
testimony of two women convicted in the fire and records suggesting she
obtained a rental car used in the crime. Her lawyer, Robert Bloom,
insisted during closing arguments Thursday that the women, Lacey
Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar, lied on the witness stand in an attempt to
frame her and win lighter sentences.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett urged jurors not to buy it.
Phillabaum and Kolar had no reason to identify Waters falsely.

“Her story is ridiculous,” Bartlett said. “It is a grasp at straws by
someone who is unable to take responsibility for her own actions.”

Bartlett portrayed Waters as an environmentally concerned student at The
Evergreen State College in Olympia who became convinced that “direct
action” was the best way to protect the Earth and change corporate
behavior. In 1998, The New York Times Magazine quoted her, then a senior,
as saying she supported politically motivated arsons as long as no one
gets hurt.

She was a close friend of William Rodgers, a leader of the arsonist cell
who committed suicide after being arrested in the UW fire. Prosecutors say
her boyfriend at the time, Justin Solondz, worked at a “clean room” behind
her Olympia home to fashion the incendiary bombs from timers, Tupperware
containers and bladders of gasoline.

Waters first came to the attention of investigators in early 2006, when
Kolar said she had found documents at her home with Waters' name and
remembered that Waters served as a lookout during the arson. In earlier
FBI interviews, Kolar did not mention her – something Bloom seized on in
arguing that Kolar was lying.

But Phillabaum also identified Waters, saying she had obtained the rental
car through a relative, so it would not be traceable. Records from Budget
Rental Car in Olympia later corroborated that: The wife of Waters' cousin
rented a car the weekend of the arson, and the cousin himself testified
that Waters borrowed it, bringing it back with 237 miles used – more than
enough to get to and from Seattle.

Just before the fire the night of May 20, 2001, Solondz withdrew $200 from
an ATM, his bank records showed. On May 29, Waters' cousin deposited $200
cash into his bank account – money to reimburse him for the car rental,
prosecutors said.

Bloom made much of records from a Ralph's Thriftway grocery store in
Olympia that showed Waters made a $13 purchase at 7:12 p.m. the night of
the arson.

“Briana Waters could not have been with them. She was at Ralph's Thriftway
at 12 minutes after 7 on that Sunday night,” Bloom insisted.

But Bartlett and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman argued that
leaving Olympia at 7:12 gave Waters plenty of time to meet up with other
conspirators at Seattle's Greenlake Bar and Grill between 8 and 9 p.m., as
Kolar and Phillabaum testified.

From there, the group went to the horticulture center – targeting it
because they mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically
engineering poplar trees. As Kolar, Solondz and Rodgers broke in and
planted two fire bombs, Waters crouched in nearby bushes with a radio, the
witnesses said.

Simultaneously, another group of activists was setting fire to a poplar
farm in Clatskanie, Ore.

In all, more than a dozen people were arrested in connection with the
arsons around the West. Waters was the only one who went to trial rather
than plead guilty.

The university rebuilt the horticulture center at a cost of $7 million.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberating Friday morning.