Be on the lookout at Obama rallies.
Posted on 02/28/2008 4:44:19 PM PST by jazusamo
Woman recalls confrontations with witnesses
TACOMA -- A 32-year-old violin teacher and mother accused of conspiring with members of an Earth Liberation Front eco-terrorist cell took the stand in her own defense Wednesday and flatly denied any involvement in the 2001 firebombing of a University of Washington research center.
Briana Waters and her attorneys sought to portray the main witnesses against her -- convicted eco-terrorists -- as liars, motivated by a desire to cut decades off their sentences and by sexually triggered anger.
Waters, of Oakland, Calif., wore a white blouse with long blond hair tumbling down to her shoulders.
"Did you commit any arson ever in your entire life?" Bloom asked her in U.S. District Court.
She responded without missing a beat: "No, I did not. Never have."
"Do you think its OK to burn down buildings?"
"No, I don't think it's OK at all," the witness replied. "And I never thought it was."
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett countered with a 10-year-old New York Times Magazine article about radical environmentalists in which Waters -- then a senior at The Evergreen State College in Olympia -- was asked if she supported arsons and mink-farm releases. She replied, "As long as people don't get hurt, I totally support it."
Waters said she didn't remember saying that, but assumed her comment was directed at freeing mink.
"I'm sure I wouldn't have been answering about arson," she told her lawyer, Robert Bloom. "It's very dangerous to human life. And I've always been someone who feels very strongly about not hurting people in any way. And just as a tactic ... I think it is very alienating and not very effective."
Waters was one of five people indicted in the arson at the Center for Urban Horticulture. She faces a minimum of 35 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, arson and other charges.
The ELF cell that allegedly included Waters, dubbed "The Family," went on a rampage of radical environmental arsons in the Northwest beginning in the 1990s that targeted everything from sport utility vehicles to genetic engineering labs. No one was hurt in the UW arson, but the center was destroyed. The cost to rebuild was $7 million.
Two defendants, Lacey Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar, have pleaded guilty and testified against Waters during the 2 1/2- week trial. But Waters told jurors that the witnesses are biased, saying she once had a furious confrontation with Phillabaum.
In 2000, Waters said she learned Phillabaum had an affair with her then-boyfriend Justin Solondz -- now a fugitive in the firebombing case -- and confronted her at a party at her Olympia home.
"I was very angry," Waters recalled. "I remember telling her that I thought it was just really wrong and disrespectful of her to have cheated in that way. As a feminist and activist, I thought it was really wrong. I told her she was really unprincipled, and I didn't want her at my house."
In her testimony, Phillabaum denied having sex with Solondz.
Waters went on to assert that she had once rejected a sexual overture from Kolar, prompting Bartlett to ask, incredulously, "It's your contention that she (testified against you) because she is a spurned lesbian lover?"
"I don't know what's inside her head," Waters said. "She was probably very scared of life in prison."
Waters was reduced to quietly answering "yes" over and over as Bartlett recited the names of "The Family" members -- and asked the witness if she knew them.
Perhaps the best moment for Waters was when her lawyer produced a receipt showing Waters was in Olympia at a Thriftway supermarket at the time Phillabaum said she was in Seattle with the other firebombers.
Prosecutors say phone records, rental car records and testimony indicate Waters was in contact with at least some of the other alleged conspirators around the time of the fire.
The defense rested after Waters left the stand. The case likely will be sent to the jury for deliberation by the end of the week.
Another genius writer.
Briana testified ping!
Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff - (5-23-07) - 13 years
Kevin Tubbs ----------------- (5-24-07) - 12 years, 7 months
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach ------- (5-25-07) - 9 years
Darren Todd Thurston---------(5-29-07) - 3 years, 1 month
Suzanne Nicole Savoie--------(5-31-07) - 4 years, 3 months
Sarah Kendall Tankersley-----(5-31-07) - 3 years, 10 months
Joyanna Lynn Zacher---------(6-01-07) - 7 years, 8 months
Nathan Fraser Block----------(6-01-07) - 7 years, 8 months
Daniel Gerard McGowan-----(6-04-07) - 7 years
Jonathan Paul-----------------(8-01-07) - 4 years, 3 months
An older article in the Eugene Weekly News with pics and some background.
This thread is worthless without pics. (But don’t show prematurely graying, armpit nonshaving 30 somethings pics).
Yep, like that has anything to do with it.
LOL! Check the pics at the link in post 4, you’ll not want to look at them long.
Makeup must be a federal offense.
Well it’s not so much including her description as it is someone composing the tortured phrase, “a white blouse with long blond hair.”
I spent a couple of decades as an editor!
“Waters, of Oakland, Calif., wore a white blouse with long blond hair tumbling down to her shoulders.”
Wow, she must be innocent then.
What kind of description did this writer give for the butch, earing covered, skinny “meat is murder” co conspirators?
bump for later read
Waters, of Oakland, Calif., wore a white blouse with long blond hair tumbling down to her shoulders.
She’s an alumnus of the same school as Rachel Pancake. Evergreen is ever-red.
Yes, she’s just another commie the professors turn out there.
“...wore a white blouse with long blond hair tumbling down to her shoulders, yet defiantly , the white blouse with long blond hair seemed less buoyant as the long blond hair wrapped around her chin held high above the dias, the two little feet dangling past the participle, swung like swings, as her toes tapped a machine-gun like staccato, which signaled to the blouse with long blond hair to stop tumbling down her damn shoulders, for the jury seemed to look askance at such an odd outfit.
“Tally-ho! Yoicks. The foxes,” she cried out, in a vain but valiant attempt to distract the jurors from the odd white blouse with hair. It did no good.
“Guilty!” they cried.
I agree. There hasn’t been much printed about the actual trial other than a lib outfit down in San Francisco called Bay Area Indymedia. Their reporting is so left wing it’s very hard to even try to read and it’s so slanted for the defense it’s pitiful.
From reading between the lines on this I don’t believe a conviction is a slam dunk, she may well walk depending on the jury. We’ll see pretty soon.
LOL! You may be right.
I believe Briana cleaned up her act since the group was busted and they started ratting each other out and she is probably genuinely sorry she was involved. I still think she did it.
Be on the lookout at Obama rallies.
One defendant, Lacey Phillabaum, who has pleaded guilty in the case, told federal investigators that Waters had obtained a rental car from a relative for use in the arson...
Phillabaum and Jennifer Kolar... Waters claimed on the witness stand that the two are trying to frame her: Phillabaum because she had a relationship with Waters' boyfriend at the time, and Kolar because Waters spurned her sexual advances.
The former boyfriend, Justin Solondz, is a fugitive in the case...
Closing arguments are expected by the end of the week.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.