Woman found guilty in eco-arson at campus

Arson arguments
During her trial, Waters insisted she would never condone arson as a means to a political end.

"It's very dangerous to human lives," she testified. "I've always been someone who feels very strongly about not hurting people in any way."

Bartlett pointed to a 1998 New York Times Magazine article about radical environmentalists which quotes Waters, then a senior at The Evergreen State College, as saying she "totally" supported arson "as long as people don't get hurt." Tiffany Tudder, a fellow student at the time, testified that she remembered Waters making that statement.

Waters testified she could not remember whether she said it or not, but added that she would be surprised if she did, because she has always opposed politically motivated arsons.

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, prosecutors said.

Records from a Budget Rental Car in Olympia show that Waters' cousin had rented a vehicle the weekend of the university fire, prosecutors said. Soon after, a $200 cash deposit appeared in the cousin's bank account — the only cash deposit he made all year. The money came from Waters to reimburse him for the rental car's cost, prosecutors argue.

Defense: She was framed
Waters' lawyers, Neil Fox and Robert Bloom, accused prosecutors of threatening draconian sentences to persuade those charged in the UW fire and other arsons to plead guilty or testify falsely.

Bloom said prosecutors pinned their case on the testimony of Phillabaum and Kolar, who are expected to receive more lenient sentences in exchange for their cooperation.

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.

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