Ecoterrorism defendant denies involvement in fire

TACOMA – A 32-year-old violin teacher accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted a devastating fire bomb at the University of Washington in 2001 took the stand in her own defense Wednesday, telling jurors she had no part in the crime and never believed in setting fires to make political statements.

“It’s very dangerous to human lives,” Briana Waters, of Oakland, Calif., testified in U.S. District Court. “I’ve always been someone who feels very strongly about not hurting people in any way.”

Waters was one of five people indicted in the arson at the university’s Center for Urban Horticulture, and she faces a minimum of 35 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, possessing an unregistered destructive device, arson and use of a destructive device during a crime of violence.

The fire was one of the most notorious in a string of arsons perpetrated by Eugene, Ore.- and Olympia-based members of the Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized collection of radical environmentalists, from the mid-1990s to 2001. Eventually, more than a dozen people were indicted following a nine-year investigation into arsons around the West.

No one was hurt in the UW arson, but the center was destroyed and rebuilt at a cost of $7 million. It was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering poplar trees.

Two defendants, Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar, have pleaded guilty. They testified against Waters earlier in the trial. The other two alleged participants were William “Avalon” Rodgers, who committed suicide in jail, and Waters’ then-boyfriend, Justin Solondz, who remains at large.

Phone records, rental car records and testimony indicate Waters was in contact with at least some of the others around the time of the fire, and that she obtained a rental car used in the crime.