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Student Jailed In U Arson Case

Student Jailed In U Arson Case image Student Jailed In U Arson Case image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
March
Year
1972
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

A tousle-haired University freshman was jailed on a $50,000 bond this morning, charged with one of the 55 arsons which have occurred on the campus in the past four weeks. Randall Barr Caswell, 19-year-old Northville native, was arraigned today before District Court Judge S. J. Elden on a charge he set a library fire last month. Caswell is a former Kalamzoo College student who was expelled from that school in 1970 after being convicted of OC? c malung a bomb threat. Caswell was seized on E. Madison St. last night moments after he left his South Quadrangle dormitory room. Intelligence División officers from the Michigan State Pólice arrested Caswell on a warrant charging him with arson on Feb. 3 in the North Unit of the Harían H a t c h e r Gradúate Library, 9 2 0 N. University Ave. Thére were three fires set in that library on that day. Caswell is charged with the larger of the three which destroyed a number of books. Moments after his arrest the Literary College student was whisked back to his 1 room at 1512 Gomberg House where j vestigators from the State Pólice, Ann Arbor Pólice and Ann Arbor F i r e Department used a search warrant in a hunt for evidence. The warrant for Caswell's arrest and the search warrant had been issued only hours before by District I Court Judge S. .J Elden. While the month-long investigation of Log Of Arsons At U-M - Page 25 I the arsons was conducted under a mantle of secrecy, knowledge of the impendI ing arrest of Caswell leaked out yesterI day. By the time state officers stopped the student as he walked along a sidewalk near his dormitory at 8:12 p.m., it was difficult to find a path through televisión newsmen camped in the lobby of City Hall, six blocks away. Detectives seized from Caswell's room most of the items they had listed on I thei' search warrant and then when they found what they considered other pieces of evidence, they added these items to the warrant. I While secrecy which enveloped the inI vestig ation continued to cloak most of I what pólice teamed evidence against the I sludent it was learned that he apparently bed in his possession cans of "Sterno" i a substance used for heating and cookU ing food, the waxlike material creates I an intensive heat when ignited. Pólice say the arsonist they have been seeking is believed to have carried incendiary materials to the scènes of various arsons in a knapsack. A brown knapsack, similar to those used by University I students to carry books, was one of the I items seized from Caswell's room, it was reported. This morning, when arraigned before Judge Elden on the arson charge, Caswell remained silent as he stood by his attorcey, Raymond F. Clevenger, an Ann Arbor lawyer who is reportedly only a temporary counsel for the suspect. IWearing a brown, corduroy jacket, a striped T-shirt and blue, bell-bottomod I pants, Caswell held Clevenger's briefI cafe in front of his face to hide from televisión cameras as he was escorted f rom a court lockup cell into the courtroom. Clevenger had heatedly protested exposing his cliënt to the array of photographers and televisión cameras bul lost the argument. Clevenger also took pointed issue with Judge Elden's setting a $50,000 bond on Caswell pending another hearing later today. "Perhaps the court knows more than I do about this case," Clevenger snapped at Elden. "The court knows very little about the csse," the judge answered frostily. 'But I signed the search warrant in this case. I have some knowledge of it." Clevenger continued to protest that his cliënt is under medical treatment and that he should be released in the custody of his father so the treatment could be continued. Judge Elden ended the brief discussion with the crisp comment: "I feel there is some need here of a substantial bond being ordered." Caswell was returned to his County Jail cell to await another court appearance when an examination date will be set. Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny said he is "personally satisifed" that the flurry of arsons on the U-M campus has now ended. He appeared last night with Capt. George Catton, chief of the state fire marshal's office, to announce the arrest of Caswell. Investigators had staked out CaswelFs dormitory most of yesterday, awaiting his return. As it happened when he did return to his room, his visit was so brief it caught pólice watchers off guard. The I student entered the room, remained for I less than two minutes and then emerged. I He walked quickly outside the South I Quadrangle and started down the street. I It was at that point that State Pólice 1 tectives, standing by on the street, I rested him. Caswell spent two weeks in the fall of I 1970 as a student at Kalmazoo College in I Kalmazoo before being expelled after a I conviction for making a telephoned bomb I threat. Records show Caswell pleaded guilty to I making a telephoned bomb threat to I Kalamzoo's Stetson Chapel on Oct. 13, 1970. He was sentenced to 90 days in the Kalamzoo County Jail but was released after serving a portion of that sentence and was placed on probation. College authorities ordered him to leave the school after the conviction. In that incident pólice found a shoe box containing batteries which they say Caswell admitted placing in the chapel of the small, private college. No explosives were found, they said. Special security arrangments, which went into effect recently in University dormitories during the arsons, remained in force after Caswell's arrest. Doors to the South Quadrangle where the suspect lived were locked last night and students using keys to enter were asked for identification by student guards stationed at the doors. Signs taped to doors instructed visitors to cali persons they wished to visit and arrange to be met at the door. One sign proclaimed: "Please excuse the hassle. We are being ripped off." J