Family to appeal sentence of teen in Arundel arson Kennebunk family say Bush link influenced court

PORTLAND – The family of a Kennebunk teenager who is serving 30 months in prison for burning down a boatyard last year is appealing the sentence the boy received in federal court.

The boy, who was 14 at the time, and a 19-year-old accomplice broke into Southern Maine Marine Services in Arundel early July 7, 2002, according to court records.

During the burglary, the two noticed surveillance cameras and decided to set a fire to destroy potential evidence. The fire burned down the buildings and several boats and boat engines that were stored there, including a boat engine owned by former President George Bush.

Christopher Conley, 19, of Kennebunkport pleaded guilty last January to arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and aiding and abetting such conduct. He was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $728,000 in restitution.

Even though Conley’s accomplice was only 14, he too, was tried in federal court, where he was found guilty and given the maximum allowable sentence of 30 months in prison. He was sent to a maximum security juvenile facility in Pennsylvania on the order of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The boy’s mother and stepfather, Denise Collier and Robert Mongue, told The New York Times that the decision to try the boy in federal court instead of a local court must have something to do with the boatyard’s connection to the former president. Bush’s summer home in Kennebunkport is seven miles from the boatyard.

The federal appeals court in Boston has agreed to hear oral arguments on the sentencing appeal on Jan. 8.

Federal prosecutors and a spokesman for Bush denied that the former president had anything to do with the case being tried in federal court.

U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby said her office handled the case because it was a crime of violence, the boatyard was engaged in interstate commerce, and the local prosecutor asked that it be turned over to federal prosecutors.

Michael Cantara, the state public safety commissioner who was York County district attorney at the time, said he turned the case over because the federal government had more resources and he considered it to be a “thin case” that would be difficult to try.

But juvenile crime experts told the newspaper it is highly unusual to try juveniles in federal court.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, there are only 234 juveniles in federal prisons nationwide. Bureau spokesman Dan Dunne said almost all of them are American Indians, who are subject to federal law when they live on a reservation, or young people who committed a crime on federal land, such as a national park or military base.

Dunne said only one other juvenile from New England is in a federal facility.

Mongue said even though federal law requires that juveniles convicted in federal court be kept in a facility near their home, his stepson is in a prison 570 miles away.

He said the boy was ready to plead guilty in a juvenile court and that prosecutors had all the evidence they needed. He said his stepson had no prior arrests.