According to the prosecutor, White rigged up an elaborate device intended to burn down the house in Southampton where he lived.
Judge Cornelius Moriarty on Wednesday ruled there are no conditions he could impose on the release of Jonathan Francis White that would ensure the public safety.NORTHAMPTON – A judge ordered a man accused of an elaborate arson scheme to be held without right to bail Wednesday, saying that there were no conditions he could impose on his release that would ensure the public safety.
Jonathan Francis White, 51, was arraigned several hours before his dangerousness hearing on a charge of attempted arson. According to prosecutor Michael Russo, White rigged up an elaborate device intended to burn down the house at 3 East St. in Southampton where he lived.
On July 30, according to Russo, White asked a neighbor to drive him to the bus station in Springfield. En route, he asked the neighbor if he could leave his laptop computer with her. When the woman asked why, White replied, “You’ll understand later,” according to Russo.
According to Russo, the woman detected a strong odor of gas coming from White’s house when she returned, and contacted police. Officials from the Holyoke Fire Department, Holyoke Gas and Electric Co. and the state fire marshall’s office were summoned to the premises and found that an appliance had been moved so a natural gas pipeline could be opened. Investigators also found a highly flammable aerosol can of starter fluid inside a microwave that was attached to a timer. They were able to disable the device before it ignited.
Police in Gloucester arrested White over the weekend, beginning a rapid-fire series of legal procedures. Within three days, White was arraigned in Northampton District Court, indicted by a Hampshire County grand jury, arraigned in Hampshire Superior court and, hours later, ordered held without right to bail following a dangerousness hearing.
At the hearing, several law enforcement officials, including a state police arson expert, testified about the contraption at 3 East St. and the possible repercussions had it gone off. Russo called the device “a ticking time bomb in the center of Southampton.”
Defense lawyer Alan Rubin told Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty III that his client is scheduled to have a follow-up procedure to gall bladder surgery he had two weeks ago. Doctors are scheduled to remove a stent from an area near White’s gall bladder on Aug. 11, and White has a pre-operative appointment for that procedure on Thursday, Rubin said.
“His treatment could fall through while he’s in jail,” Rubin told the judge.
Russo suggested that the Hampshire County Sheriff's Office could take White to crucial medical appointments if need be. In the end, Moriarty ordered the defendant held.
“I find the allegations here are extremely heinous, given the level of planning and the potential destruction,” the judge said.
Moriarty told Rubin to obtain an affidavit from White’s doctor outlining his condition and the necessary treatment for it. The judge scheduled a pretrial conference for Aug. 25 and put the case on the October trial list.
Russo said the house at 3 East St. is “family property” but did not say who besides White lived there.