Briana Waters Free after Arraingment
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A young mother from California pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to charges that she helped torch the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, Briana Waters, 30, of Berkeley, Calif., was charged with arson and using or carrying a destructive device during a crime of violence.
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Mother, 30, charged in 2001 UW arson
Few details given in case against Briana Waters
By HECTOR CASTRO
P-I REPORTER
A young mother from California pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to charges that she helped torch the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, Briana Waters, 30, of Berkeley, Calif., was charged with arson and using or carrying a destructive device during a crime of violence.
The indictment gives few details of the case against Waters. Federal prosecutors wrote only that she is alleged to have destroyed and abetted in the destruction of the UW building.
Fire gutted the Center for Urban Horticulture after someone firebombed the office of a researcher there. Later, the Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for the fire, saying on a Web site that the researcher's office was targeted because of his genetic research.
The UW spent $7 million rebuilding the center.
Waters, a musician and violin teacher in California, where she lives with her husband and young daughter, has not been in custody.
She appeared in court with her lawyer, Nancy Tenney, upon receiving a summons. The petite, bespectacled Waters said little during the brief hearing.
At one point, she smiled to her daughter and husband.
Neither she nor Tenney would comment afterward.
John McKay, the U.S. attorney in Seattle, would not elaborate on the case against Waters, except to say that she is the first person to be charged for direct involvement in the UW fire.
"This is an important case," McKay said outside the federal courthouse. "The charges are serious."
The arson charge carries a sentence of five to 20 years. The second count against Waters carries a minimum 30-year sentence and a maximum of life imprisonment.
Still, despite the lengthy sentence Waters faces, and an investigation that has been going on for years, federal prosecutors did not seek to have her held in custody. Waters was simply ordered to surrender her passport.
But Magistrate Judge Monica Benton, commenting on the potential life sentence, said that at a minimum, electronic monitoring of Waters was appropriate. She ordered that when Waters returns to California, she be placed on what she called passive monitoring.
Trial was set for June 5.
The investigation into the UW fire is continuing, federal officials said.
In December, federal agents conducted a series of raids around the country aimed at arresting many of those believed involved in a series of fires in five states, many of them hitting such targets as research labs, car dealerships and timber firms.
Some of those arrested were indicted in January by a grand jury in Eugene, Ore. Of those, three -- two men and one woman -- were accused of being involved in the UW fire.
Two of them were Stanislas Meyerhoff, 28, of Charlottesville, Va., and Chelsea Gerlach, 28, of Portland. Gerlach is accused of having conducted reconnaissance of the center before the fire.
Meyerhoff and Gerlach are both in custody. One man, William Rodgers, of Arizona, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, committed suicide
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Email me at peter_pan(AT)riseup.net if you want to take part in the project.
here is some background info...
My project is a short film, tentatively called liberation, which will address the issue of the us government using fear as a means to throw the country furthur into fascism. I'm an anarchist who has lived in washington most of my life, I was falsely convicted of nearly blinding a police captain in seattle, my trial started september 13th 2001, a few days after 9-11, I never believed i could have a fair trial but after people became enraged with fear and the desire to lash out against anyone different than them i knew that i was going to go to jail. However, i got lucky. The police captain who was injured admitted after my conviction that he was actualy on a different street, with shopping mall between us and that it would have been impossible for me to have hurt him. so i was released.
I dont assume that the people who have been swept up in the green scare will be as lucky as i was. I also dont believe they are guilty as charged. Of course i cant know what has or has not happened in relation to the incidents, but i know in my heart that they never intended to cause "terror" and so are not guilty of that, and i will never be convinced otherwise.
I dont know how you feel about the arrests, or about being served papers, or what your politics are, but if you have become part of this story, i feel that your experience needs to be told. I hope i can help with that.
If you have any more questions feel free to email me, at peter_pan(AT)riseup.net