California woman indicted in burning of UW building

SEATTLE – A federal grand jury has indicted a Berkeley, Calif., woman in an arson that destroyed a horticulture center at the University of Washington five years ago.

Briana Waters, 30, is the 14th person to be charged in Oregon and Washington in a series of ecoterrorist attacks in the West in recent years.

Waters pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday to one count of arson and one count of using or carrying a destructive device during a violent crime. If convicted, she would face at least 35 years in prison.

Waters was released on personal recognizance bond after her arraignment. U.S. Magistrate Judge Monica Benton ordered that she be subject to electronic home monitoring. Trial was set for June 5.

The UW fire, one of the Northwest’s most notorious acts of ecoterrorism, was set early on May 21, 2001. The same day, about 110 miles away in Clatskanie, Ore., fire ripped through buildings and vehicles at the Jefferson Poplar Farm, causing more than $1 million in damage. The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy collection of environmental activists, claimed responsibility for both fires, which caused no injuries.