Bellingham woman pleads guilty in terrorist attack against BNSF; another heads to trial
One Bellingham woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to a terrorist attack and violence against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway in Whatcom County, while another Bellingham woman is slated to go to trial in late August.
Samantha Frances Brooks and Ellen Brennan Reiche were each indicted with one count of terrorist attacks and other violence against a railroad carrier Dec. 9, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle for allegedly placing a shunt on tracks near Bellingham to disrupt BNSF train safety features in late November.
Brooks pleaded guilty as charged July 9, and a federal judge accepted her guilty plea Monday, July 26. Reiche pleaded not guilty Dec. 17, 2020, and is currently scheduled to go to trial Aug. 30, according to federal court records.
Shunts placed
In late November, BNSF police received a motion alert from a game camera placed along track just north of Bellingham, and saw a person trespassing along the tracks north of the railroad intersection with Cliffside Drive. BNSF police contacted the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office to investigate.
Deputies found Brooks and Reiche in the area. The pair allegedly attempted to run, but stopped when deputies ordered them to and they were detained for trespassing on railroad property, according to court records. Deputies later located a wire shunt between the tracks in the area where Brooks and Reiche were seen. A bag that Reiche was allegedly carrying was also found, which contained rubber gloves, a piece of black insulated copper wire and a Makita drill with a wheel-shaped brush attachment, according to court records.
Since Jan. 19 of 2020, there have been at least 41 similar attacks along BNSF track in Whatcom and Skagit counties where shunts have been placed, according to previous reporting in The Bellingham Herald and a U.S. Department of Justice press release. The FBI’s Terrorism Task Force has been investigating the incidents since the first attack in January 2020.
Investigators believe some of the attacks on the safety equipment were to protest the construction of a natural gas pipeline across British Columbia through Indigenous land and to keep supplies from reaching B.C.
To cause those delays, shunts were used to disrupt the low-voltage current traveling through the tracks that allows the tracking of trains’ location on the tracks, according to charging documents.
Shunts consist of a wire stretched between and connected to the rails of the track and mimic the electrical signal of a train on the track, according to previous reporting in The Herald. Sensing trains, safety systems prevent trains from entering the area until the shunt has been located and removed. Making matters more difficult, many of the 41 shunts found since Jan. 19 reportedly were covered by rocks.
The placement of shunts can also cause safety hazards by interfering with the operation of crossing gates at intersections with roadways and can cause gates to allow vehicle traffic to cross tracks, even with a train approaching, the court records state. Shunts can also cause the automatic braking system on trains — known as Positive Train Control — to engage, which can cause decoupling of cars or a derailment, the records show.
Plea agreement
In the plea agreement for the November crime, Brooks admitted to helping another person install a shunt on the railroad tracks and that the pair acted with “the intent to cause BNSF trains to delay operating,” according to federal court records.
The shunt that was placed caused a track indication, which indicated that there was a train or other obstruction on the track. It also interfered with the Cliffside Drive railroad crossing, the court records state.
Brooks faces a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years, a fine of $250,000 and up to three years probation, according to the court records. The government agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the applicable sentencing range as part of the plea agreement, according to federal court records.
Brooks’ sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 8, according to federal court records.
Brooks’ attorney did not return a request for comment.
Suppressing evidence
Reiche has filed a motion to suppress evidence found in a grocery bag at the scene, as well as statements she made before she was read her Miranda rights, according to federal court records.
Reiche’s attorneys filed the motion to suppress on July 23. Reiche’s attorneys argue that she was in custody at the time when a sheriff’s deputy was questioning her and Brooks about why they were allegedly trespassing on the train tracks. Reiche’s attorneys argue that once she was detained for trespassing, she should have been read her rights, but was not.
Because she had not been read her rights, her attorneys argue that the statements she made to the deputy have to be suppressed, meaning they can’t be introduced at trial, federal court records show.
Reiche’s attorneys also argue that the evidence found in the grocery bag Reiche allegedly had in her possession also can’t be introduced during trial. Reiche’s attorneys argue that the search of the grocery bag violated Reiche’s Fourth Amendment rights protecting her from unlawful and warrantless search and seizure of the bag and the items inside, the records state.
Her attorneys argue that because Reiche was in handcuffs and in the back of a police vehicle, she didn’t have immediate access to the bag and that the deputy would have needed a warrant to search it, according to the federal court records.
“While the case remains open, with ongoing litigation, we will not be making any statements to the press,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Jesse Cantor, one of Reiche’s attorneys, said in a Friday statement to The Herald.
A hearing on the matter to determine whether Reiche’s statements and the bag and its contents will be barred from being introduced at trial is scheduled for Aug 13.
