Accused arsonist goes on trial ’00 fire damaged home of trooper

BANGOR – The trial of a Charleston man accused of setting fire to the home of a Maine State Police trooper got under way Monday with the prosecution suggesting to jurors that 45-year-old Vance Lambert may have set the fire to help the trooper.

Saying that Trooper Cliff Sibley was in deep debt in August 2000, Penobscot County District Attorney Michael Roberts told jurors that Lambert might have set the fire so that the Sibleys could collect insurance money.

Sibley, whose employment status with the state police is unclear, is scheduled to testify for the defense on Wednesday or Thursday. The state said Monday that Sibley no longer works for the state police, while defense attorney Arthur Greif says he is out on Workers’ Compensation.

The August 2000 fire damaged the basement and kitchen of the home on Route 155 in Enfield, but did not destroy the home, which Sibley built himself.

Sibley and his family were away camping for the weekend when the fire occurred.

Though Roberts said no charges had be filed against Sibley, he told jurors that profit may have been the motive for the fire.

Greif, however, presented two other scenarios to jurors. He said during opening arguments that Lambert could have caused the fire by accident, or that someone else had set it intentionally.

Lambert, a close friend of the Sibleys, was admittedly at the home minutes before the fire was discovered by a passing motorist.

Lambert had permission to get some building materials from the basement of the house and was there at about 5 p.m.

On Monday, Penobscot County sheriff’s Deputy Quinton Goodall, who lives near the Sibleys, testified that he saw Lambert leaving the Sibleys’ home at around 5 p.m. He said the two men waved to each other.

About 10 minutes later a passing motorist saw smoke spilling from the eaves of the home and called the Fire Department.

During opening arguments, Greif told jurors that it was unrealistic that Lambert would set fire to a home and then pleasantly wave to neighbors as he left.

Remarks from attorneys and testimony from firefighters at the scene indicated that Sibley’s basement was a cluttered “fire hazard” littered with debris, cans of paint thinner, a can of Coleman fuel and a 5-gallon jug of kerosene. Those items were stored beneath or on the basement stairs, where much of the damage occurred. The fire is believed to have started beneath the basement steps.

Sibley also had approximately 200 bottles and cans of beer in his basement, which he had confiscated from Phish concertgoers, Greif said. He told jurors that Sibley’s basement had been broken into several times during the six months before the fire. He said all but seven or eight of the bottles of beer were missing after the fire.

Greif suggested that a burglar could have been hiding in the basement while Lambert was there.

He further suggested that Lambert tripped while in the basement and may have accidentally knocked over a container of flammable liquid without realizing it. He spoke of a defective droplight that had caused the Sibleys problems in the past, saying that it would come on and go off by itself.

He said Lambert could not remember whether he hung the droplight near the stairs when he left the home or set it on the stairs.

Outside the courtroom, Greif criticized the state for damaging Lambert’s and Sibley’s reputations and said the case against Lambert had no merit. He noted that the insurance company had paid its claim, determining the fire was an accident.

The trial is expected to continue throughout the rest of the week and will be dominated by testimony from experts about the science of fire.