BELLINGHAM, Wash. – A Bellingham woman has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for sabotaging BNSF railroad tracks.
Ellen Brennan Reiche was one of two young women arrested on the railway near Bellingham in November 2020 after Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies found them with equipment used to create a shunt.
The devices disrupt train signaling and braking and could lead to a derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials.
Forty-one of the shunts were found on tracks around Whatcom County in 2020.
The 28-year-old Reiche will also have 3 years of supervised release after she’s served her prison term.
An accomplice, 24-year-old Samantha Frances Brooks, pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced in October to 6 months in prison and two years supervised release.