2nd woman convicted of railroad track sabotage in Washington

SEATTLE (AP) — A second defendant has been convicted of trying to sabotage railroad tracks near the U.S.-Canada border in Washington state. A federal jury in Seattle on Thursday convicted 28-year-old Ellen Brennan Reiche of violence against a railroad carrier. Her co-defendant pleaded guilty in July. They were arrested last November near Bellingham, carrying wire, a drill and magnetic adhesive. Deputies found a shunt on the tracks nearby. Such devices, consisting of a wire stretched across the tracks, can cause trains to brake automatically. It was one of dozens placed in apparent protest of a pipeline across British Columbia.