Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Ecoterror trial verdict expected Thursday

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353878_ecoterror06.html
Last updated March 5, 2008 6:41 p.m. PT

Ecoterror trial verdict expected Thursday

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

TACOMA -- After four days of deliberation, a verdict will likely be
delivered Thursday in the trial of a woman accused of an ecoterror fire at
a University of Washington research center.

The jury sent a note Wednesday afternoon to U.S. District Judge Franklin
Burgess, saying they could not reach a unanimous verdict on all five
federal counts, which include conspiracy, arson and use of a destructive
device.

But Burgess said, "They have made a unanimous decision on something."

Burgess sent jurors home for the day and asked them to return Thursday
morning.

Briana Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher from Oakland, Calif., faces a
minimum prison sentence of 35 years if found guilty of participating in
the May 2001 firebombing of the Center for Urban Horticulture. The Earth
Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for the blaze.

As jurors entered the courtroom to be addressed by Burgess, Waters stood
with her attorney, Robert Bloom, holding his hand.

None of the jurors made eye contact with the defendant.

Bloom and federal prosecutors declined to comment afterward.

Waters is accused of acting as the lookout while other radical
environmentalists broke into the center located near the University
Village mall and planted an incendiary device.

The blaze destroyed the building, irreplaceable botanical and ecological
research materials, and killed specimens of rare and endangered plants.
The UW spent $7 million to replace the building. No injuries were
reported.

Waters testified during the trial that she had nothing to do with the
arson, but two admitted ELF firebombers -- Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer
Kolar -- implicated her in their testimony.

Waters maintained that the government's star witnesses harbored biases
against her and couldn't be believed. Bloom said they have a motive to lie
-- sharply reduced prison time.

Prosecutors say phone records, rental car records and testimony indicate
Waters was in contact with at least some of the other alleged conspirators
around the time of the fire.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett produced a 10-year-old New
York Times Magazine article about radical environmentalists in which
Waters -- then a senior at The Evergreen State College in Olympia -- was
asked if she supported arsons and mink-farm releases. She replied, "As
long as people don't get hurt, I totally support it."

Of the five people accused of plotting the UW arson, one has since
committed suicide in jail, one is on the run, and Phillabaum and Kolar
have reached plea bargains and will be sentenced after Waters' trial.

The ELF cell that allegedly included Waters, dubbed "The Family," went on
a rampage of arsons in the Northwest beginning in the 1990s that targeted
everything from sport utility vehicles to genetic engineering labs.

As Waters' fate is decided, federal investigators search for clues in
another $7 million arson -- the torching of the Street of Dreams show
homes north of Woodinville before dawn Monday. ELF claimed responsibility
for the fires in a spray-painted banner left at the scene.

P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or
paulshukovsky@seattlepi.com.