Former state trooper testifies he had no role in fire at home

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BANGOR – A former state trooper who prosecutors have suggested was in on a scheme to burn down his own house testified Wednesday in the trial of his close friend who is charged with the arson.

Clifford Sibley of Enfield said on the witness stand that he was not in financial trouble at the time of the Aug. 21, 2000, fire and had no role in setting it. Sibley also does not believe 45-year-old Vance Lambert started the fire as investigators say he did.

The prosecution had planned to put someone on the stand Wednesday who would tell jurors that the Sibleys were in deep financial debt. A last-minute query of the person by Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts revealed that he would not have qualified as an “expert” by court standards and therefore the state did not put him on the stand.

Roberts attempted to provide jurors with information that the Sibleys were in financial straits through his cross-examination of Sibley and his wife, Karen Sibley, who were called as defense witnesses.

But despite numerous attempts and testimony that Sibley had taken on a part-time job at The Home Depot to pay off some credit-card debt, Roberts was unable to provide any concise evidence of severe financial hardship.

Testimony from the Sibleys indicated the fire actually cost them at least $13,000. The house was not destroyed in the fire, but fire heavily damaged the basement and the rest of the house suffered severe smoke damage.

Lambert’s attorney, Arthur Greif of Bangor, began his case Wednesday morning, though the prosecution has not yet rested. The state’s last witness is a chemist from Connecticut and could not be in Bangor until today. Therefore Greif began his case Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Sibley, his wife and his stepdaughter, 18-year-old Victoria Frinzi, told the court they had spent a year building the three-story home on Route 155 in Enfield.

“I put blood and sweat into that house. It was my home,” testified an emotional Frinzi.

Sibley recalled learning of the fire from the newspaper after returning to Maine from Canada, where the family had taken a short vacation.

He said he was buying his wife a soda at the Irving Mainway in Lincoln and saw the headline that there had been a fire at a trooper’s home in Enfield.

“I just remember saying, ‘Oh, my God, that’s my house!’ I was just shocked,” he testified.

Frinzi testified that she had noticed that the 200 cans and bottles of beer stored in a box under the staircase had been dwindling in the months before the fire and said she noticed the day before the fire as the family was leaving for its vacation that there were about 100 cans or bottles left.

When the family returned after the fire, there were only about nine bottles left, she said.

The beer had been confiscated by Sibley and other troopers from Phish concertgoers when the band played in Limestone several years ago. Sibley had been ordered to take and store the beer at his home, he testified.

Sibley said the home had been broken into a few times in the six months before the fire and that he had asked a neighbor to keep an eye on the home when the family wasn’t there.

Also on Wednesday, a statement from a Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy who said he noticed a light on in the Sibleys’ basement the night before the fire occurred was admitted into evidence. The Sibleys were away and testified that they had shut off all the lights in the house before leaving the day before the fire occurred.

The defense has put forth a theory that a droplight that did not always work properly fell to the floor and ignited a pool of accelerant that had been spilled on the floor.

The Sibleys testified the light often turned itself on when they thought it was off and would not always turn on unless you banged it a few times.

“My wife told me to get rid of it and I should have,” Sibley testified.

He said Lambert and he had been friends for several years. Lambert had permission to be in the Sibley home while they were away to get some tiles from their basement. The fire was noticed by a passing motorist about 10 minutes after Lambert acknowledges being at the home.

Lambert may testify today.

Sibley said he never had a cross word with Lambert and felt intimidated by fire investigators after the fire.

He said investigators Stu Jacobs and Ed Archer from the state Fire Marshal’s Office pushed and pushed him to come up with a reason that Lambert would want to burn down the house.

“I told them no. There was no reason. Then they said, ‘To this point we’ve treated you as an innocent victim, but that could change real quick.’ Then I invited them to leave my property,” Sibley said.

Also on Wednesday an agent with the Fire Marshal’s Office who works as a handler of canines trained to detect the presence of accelerants testified that he was at the Sibley home the night of the fire with his dog Midnight, who did not identify any signs of accelerants in the home.

A chemist to be put on the stand today by the state is expected to testify otherwise.

An independent fire investigator who examined the fire scene for Sibley’s insurance company testified that the fire could have been accidental or intentionally set and that he could not determine which method applied in this case.

He testified that the droplight in question was within or very near the area where the fire started. The light was heavily damaged by fire and part of the cord was burned away.