Teen accused of arson ordered held by judge Suspect in Belfast fire seen as risk to community

BELFAST – A judge Tuesday found probable cause that a 16-year-old Swanville boy set fire to Belfast Area High School two weeks ago and ordered him held at a detention facility pending his trial.

Juvenile Court Judge John Nivison reached his decision despite pleas from the parents of Dennis J. Fongeallaz that they could monitor their son’s movements and keep him under their observation until his trial.

Nivison told Richard and Valarie Fongeallaz that he believes they could not control their son, a freshman at the high school.

Nivison told the parents that he believes the youth is a threat to the community because he has run away from home on numerous occasions and because of the severity of the crime.

“While I do not in any way question the motives of the parents, willingness is not enough,” Nivison said. “Dennis’ history and circumstances are troubling enough. Home would not be the appropriate place for him to be supervised. … His willingness to defy his parents has been apparent.”

Evidence presented by Waldo County Deputy District Attorney Leane Zainea revealed that Fongeallaz had run away from home five times since July.

Zainea said Fongeallaz had been living in “a flophouse” with people who have criminal records. She also produced testimony that Fongeallaz’s fascination with fire was such that he permitted his acquaintances to burn horseshoe-shaped brands into both his forearms. The brands could be seen from the back of the courtroom.

When defense attorney John Harrington of Winterport called Fongeallaz’s parents to the stand in an attempt to sway the judge to release the teen, both acknowledged that Fongeallaz would run away from home whenever he felt like it.

“When he can’t handle the pressure as far as an argument, he gets up and leaves,” Richard Fongeallaz told the court.

Judge Nivison ordered that Fongeallaz be held at the Northern Maine Juvenile Detention Facility in Charleston, where he has been in custody since his arrest Friday. Nivison set March 30 as the date for his initial court appearance on the arson charge.

Fongeallaz showed little emotion either during the detention hearing or when Nivison made his ruling.

The fire at the high school was set to a pile of plastic foam mats used by the gymnastics program. The heat from the burning mats was so intense that it set off the school’s sprinkler system. Water from the system and smoke from the burning mats caused extensive damage to the second-floor exercise room and other areas of the school.

The fire was the third of suspicious origin at the high school in the past year. A team of investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office descended on the school. The investigators were assisted by Belfast Police Chief Allen Weaver and Detective Wendall Ward.

According to an affidavit filed in the case by fire marshal’s investigator Kenneth Grimes, school officials saw Fongeallaz in the hallway near the exercise room seconds after the fire was discovered. Two students interviewed by officers recalled seeing Fongeallaz enter the exercise room. Another student told investigators that Fongeallaz admitted setting the fire when they spoke at a Belfast home after the school had been evacuated.

Grimes noted that when he questioned Fongeallaz about his activities the morning of the fire, his answers contained inconsistencies that were later corroborated by a school surveillance video being used for another matter. Grimes noted that all students could be accounted for at the time of the fire except Fongeallaz.

“Dennis Fongeallaz has two inconsistencies in his actions before the fire. Dennis stated that he returned to the bathroom after leaving the library and before going downstairs. The video … does not show Dennis returning to the bathroom. Dennis was adamant that he did not go into the exercise room when he went downstairs. Both [the student witnesses] state they observed Dennis enter the exercise room minutes before the fire was reported,” stated Grimes.

Grimes also noted that when he asked Fongeallaz who he thought may have set the fire, Fongeallaz replied that “it was probably” the same person who called in a bomb threat the week before. A ninth-grade student interviewed by Grimes during the fire investigation recalled that Fongeallaz told him that “he was responsible for calling in the bomb threat.”

Investigators also learned that Fongeallaz had been seen on the exercise mats on numerous occasions and had been asked many times to get off the mats.