Protesters charged with sabotage of construction site

Nine environmentalists who commandeered a construction crane in downtown Seattle last month to display a huge anti-logging banner were charged yesterday with sabotage.

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said his office was employing the rarely used felony-sabotage charge in part because the event was planned for months and because it involved paid professional protesters.

"There is a proud tradition of protest and civil disobedience in American history," Maleng said at a news conference. "But these defendants left their First Amendment rights behind them on the sidewalk when they cut through the fence and entered the construction site."

Prosecutors said the defendants, who hail from around the country and Canada, illegally entered a closed construction site, climbed a 240-foot crane and unfurled a banner that read: "Wake up Weyerhaeuser, Protect Forests Now."

The defendants were paid for their activities, prosecutors said, by the Rainforest Action Network of Canada, which has been working with other environmental groups to stop Weyerhaeuser from cutting down trees in parts of Canada that never have been logged. The Rainforest Action Network says it endorses civil disobedience, protest and aggressive free-market campaigns to try to force changes in the forest-products industry.

They hang banners and disrupt business while conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations, urging companies to do business only with those that follow environmental guidelines. Several years ago, the group successfully persuaded building giants Home Depot and Lowe's to stop buying products made of wood from some old-growth forests.

Rainforest Action Network has said the incident is the first of many intended to get the attention of the Federal Way company. The act of sabotage, however, cost the otherwise uninvolved construction firm more than $120,000 in lost wages and scheduling delays, prosecutors said.

The nearly five-hour incident was also a drain on emergency services, said Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. "It was a diversion of significant resources meant for true public-safety emergencies," he said.

Those charged with sabotage are Kate Anne Woznow, 23, of Canada; Hillary Anne Hosta, 31, of California; Melissa Sharon O'Neil-Wimer, 31, of Oklahoma; Kathleen Elizabeth Berrigan, 22, of Maryland; Elizabeth A. Guy, who also goes by Jane WTO, 29, of Seattle; Maurita Prato, 27, of Canada; Jessica Bell Markham, 26, of Virginia; Jennifer L. Krill, 31, of California; and Brant D. Olson, 26, of California.

The nine, who are not in custody, face a standard range sentence of up to 12 months in jail.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com