A former official of the Isabella Volunteer Fire Department in Fayette County admitted Tuesday that he set fire to a social hall and illegally tried to collect $500,000 on an insurance policy.
Jerry Booker II, 21, the former vice president, pleaded guilty to using fire to destroy a building involved in interstate commerce and mail fraud. He waived indictment and faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.
Booker, of Adah, Fayette County, and three other department members, whose cases are pending, were accused of conspiring to set the social hall ablaze on June 30, 2000, and then collect on the insurance policy, hoping to use the money to build a new social hall.
Four days before setting the fire that destroyed the building, Booker and a second defendant, Thomas Baker, 34, of Isabella, the former assistant fire chief, allegedly set a fire that caused only limited damage.
Baker, who is scheduled to plead guilty today before Senior U.S. District Justice Gustave Diamond, expressed fears to an insurance investigator after the first fire that the floor couldn't bear the load of a large crowd, but the investigator believed he was overstating the extent of damage, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The department increased its insurance coverage to $500,000 about six months before the fires, according to the department's civil attorney.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney said the social hall was involved in interstate commerce because it was used for bingos and other social events to raise money to buy fire trucks shipped in interstate commerce, and for weddings attended by people who came from out of state.
Diamond continued bond for Booker, who will remain under house arrest with electronic monitoring until he is sentenced April 15.
Jury selection is scheduled for Thursday in the trial of former chief Steven Dugan, 26, of Isabella, who is charged with mail fraud and filing a false claim with Selective Insurance Co. of New Jersey. The trial is expected to begin Monday.
A fourth defendant, former trustee William A. Robison, 23, of East Millsboro, Fayette County, will be tried after Dugan.
