Briana Waters's sentencing delayed as new questions raised

Sentencing delayed in ecoterror arson at U. of Washington
5/30/2008, 6:32 p.m. PT
By GENE JOHNSON
The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Sentencing has been indefinitely delayed for a woman
convicted in an ecoterror attack at the University of Washington,
following new developments about evidence that was presented at her trial.

Briana Waters was convicted this year of two counts of arson for her role
as a lookout in the 2001 Earth Liberation Front fire that destroyed the
university's Center for Urban Horticulture. Her sentencing was set for
Monday at U.S. District Court in Tacoma, with prosecutors requesting 10
years in prison.

But that sentencing was stricken from the court calendar on Friday after
the U.S. attorney's office learned new information about a small piece of
evidence used at the trial: anarchist articles that Waters supposedly gave
to Jennifer Kolar, a witness who had pleaded guilty to arson and related
charges in the UW fire and then testified against Waters.

Kolar identified Waters as a participant, and while on the stand she
testified that Waters had given her the anarchist articles in a folder —
supposed evidence of Waters' mindset around the time of the fire. Kolar
testified she never read the articles, and put them in a plastic tub that
she stored at her house until she turned them over to her lawyer.

Kolar's lawyer contacted the U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday to say her
testimony was misleading: In reality, after Kolar was contacted by the FBI
about the arson, she asked a friend to remove the tub from her home.
Eventually the tub was returned to Kolar and her lawyer, who turned it
over to investigators.

The identity of the friend was redacted in court papers, but defense
lawyers identified the person as someone Kolar used as a "secret
intermediary" when dealing with others in the radical environmentalist
movement. That another person had custody of the documents raised
questions about the integrity of the evidence.

Prosecutors called the development insignificant, and said much more
substantial evidence proved Waters' role, but they acknowledged defense
attorneys should have two or three weeks to investigate.

Waters' lawyers told U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess they planned to
ask for a new trial. They argued in a court filing that the materials in
the folder were a "centerpiece of the government's case."

"Had Ms. Kolar told the full story in her testimony ... the defense
challenge to Ms. Kolar's general credibility would have been stronger,"
they wrote. "Not only was it clear that Ms. Kolar was deceptive to the
government when talking about the tub, but the fact that she had secretive
communications with the third party to hide the tub, the fact that she
failed to disclose these communications for years, and the fact that she
had the ability to access the tub after her lawyer retrieved it would have
been quite useful to show her lack of credibility on other points."

They also asked that in light of the new developments Waters be released
pending sentencing; previous requests to that effect have all been
rejected.

The fire, which destroyed the plant research center, was one of at least
17 fires set from 1996 to 2001 by an Olympia, Wash., and Eugene, Ore.,
cell of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. In
all, more than a dozen people were arrested in connection with the 17-plus
arsons around the West, and four remain at large. Waters was the only one
of those arrested who went to trial rather than plead guilty.

Kolar was one of two convicts who testified against Waters, and rental car
records suggested Waters obtained a vehicle used in the crime.

In March, during Waters' trial, arsonists attacked a luxury home
development northeast of Seattle, causing $7 million in damage. Those
fires remain under investigation.

The university rebuilt the horticulture center at a cost of $7 million. It
was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers
there were genetically engineering poplar trees.