Trial in UW fire goes to jury

TACOMA — The three-week trial of a violin teacher charged in a notorious 2001 firebombing at the University of Washington went to the jury 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.

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.

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.

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.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberating this morning.