"FIREFIGHTER COMMITS THE CRIME OF ARSON"

"BADGE OF DISHONOR"

Poughkeepsie Journal

Friday, June 6, 2003

Man Gets Up To 4½ Years For Barn Fire

Firefighter's Act Killed 177 Head of Cattle

By Larry Fisher-Hertz

A man who set fire that killed 177 head of cattle last fall was sentenced Thursday to up to 4½ years in prison.

Dutchess County Court Judge Gerald V. Hayes imposed a 1½-to-4½-year sentence on 23-year-old Charles E. Miller, an Air Force firefighter who was home in LaGrange on leave when he set the fire.

Miller admitted this year he set fire to a barn at the David Melville Farm on Melville Road in Pleasant Valley last November. He entered guilty pleas to arson and criminal mischief, both felonies.

"You have not only destroyed this man's cattle and his buildings," Hayes told Miller, "you have essentially destroyed his life. His life was centered around the farm, the barn, and there's no way he can repair that."

Melville was in the courtroom at the county courthouse in Poughkeepsie for Miller's sentencing. When Hayes asked him if he had anything to say before sentencing. Miller said he wanted to apologize.

"I'd like to say Mr. Melville, first and foremost I'm sorry for destroying his property and destroying his cattle," Miller said. "If I made life hard on him, I truly apologize for that."

Dutchess County sheriff's detectives who handled the case said Miller, who was also a volunteer Pleasant Valley firefighter, started the fire at about midnight Nov. 25, 2002, then called in the alarm by pay phone from a nearby convenience store. He later helped fight the fire.

Personal Problems

He was reportedly despondent about a failed relationship when he decided to start the fire, deputies said. The fire started in a barn adjacent to where the cattle were housed but quickly spread when sparks drifted from from one building to the other.

Hayes said he did not believe Miller intended to kill all the cattle.

"But you not only were a volunteer firefighter here in Dutchess County, your job in the service was to be a fireman, and I don't think you have to be at the head of your class to know that if you started a fire in hay, in a barn, something is going to happen."

When he set the fire, Miller was home on leave from his job as a firefighter with the 49th Civil Engineers at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M. He was planning to take a civil service test to become a New York City firefighter, said Senior Assistant District Attorney Richard Fiorile, who prosecuted the case.

In addition to the prison term, miller was ordered to pay Melville and is insurance company approximately $300,000 in restitution for the damage to the cattle and the barns.

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