Tacoma jury finds Waters guilty on two counts of arson

By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Friday, March 7, 2008 2:50 PM CST

TACOMA, Wash. - A federal jury Thursday found Briana Waters guilty of two counts of arson in the 2001 burning of the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture by members of the Earth Liberation Front.

U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess declared the jury deadlocked on three other counts, including conspiracy, possessing an unregistered destructive device and, the most significant count, using a destructive device during a crime of violence. The final charge would have carried a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

Sentencing has been set for May 30. Waters faces at least 5 years and up to 20 years in prison.

Waters, 32, closed her eyes and bowed her head as the verdict was announced, and her mother sobbed quietly.

The fire, which destroyed the plant research center, 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, 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 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 argued that Phillabaum and Kolar had no reason to identify Waters falsely.

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 got 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.

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 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. It was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering poplar trees.

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