At some point in the early morning hours of May 21, 2001, a device, which consisted of a digital alarm clock wired to a 9-volt battery and a model-rocket igniter was placed in a filing cabinet in the offices of professor Toby Bradshaw.
It took firefighters two hours to put out the conflagration, after which it was found that the office in which the blaze started was burnt down to the studs and significant damage had been done to the central hall of the building as well as several botany labs.
[3] Activists Lacey Phillabaum, Jennifer Kolar, Bill Rodgers, Briana Waters and Justin Solondz eventually admitted their guilt in setting the fire.
"[1][4][5] The motivation for the arson was rooted in suspicions by the ELF that Professor Bradshaw, a plant geneticist, was engaging in experiments funded by the industry to produce genetically-engineered trees.
"[6] Bradshaw states that while he had considered doing genetic research, at the time he was doing experiments on transgenic tissue samples from poplar trees, a fast-growth species which he hopes could conceivably be used to reduce the need to log natural forests if raised privately on plantations to produce pulp.
[2][3] Bradshaw was quoted in the University of Washington alumni magazine as saying, "I have never genetically engineered a tree, much less released one into the environment," and further explained that of the eighty samples of poplar he had been working with since 1995, none had ever left the laboratory.
He wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Times that, "ELF firebombings are hate crimes against those of us whose missions in life are to increase human knowledge and bring a sense of wonder to the classes we teach.
[7] Bill Rodgers, considered by the FBI to have been a significant organizer within ELF, was alleged to have helped set the fire bombs inside the horticulture center.
The appeals court found that prosecutors in the original trial were improperly allowed to introduce a folder of anarchist literature that Waters was said to have given to another participant in the bombing.
She pleaded innocent to all the chargers,[1][12] Waters was found guilty of the two arson counts by a Tacoma jury on March 6, 2008 and was sentenced at that time to six years in a federal prison and to pay $6 million in restitution by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin D.
[1][12] Justin Franchi Solondz, who previously dated Briana Waters while attending Evergreen State College at the time of the arson, evaded charges for several years.