Ricers now arsonists in Maryland

[MKSheppard]

Linka

Fires Were Notoriety Ploy, Defendant Says
Club's Leader Was Planner, Men Say

By Eric Rich and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 22, 2004; Page B10

One of six men charged in the arsons that ravaged a Charles County subdivision told investigators that the fires were intended to raise the profile of a local car club known alternately as the Family and the Unseen Cavaliers, federal authorities said yesterday.

Michael E. Gilbert, 21, who was arrested late Monday and charged with arson, told federal agents that the club's leader, who also has been charged in the case, approached him a month ago with "a plan to make the Family bigger and more famous," according to a law enforcement affidavit made public in court yesterday.

Gilbert, of Fort Washington, told investigators that the plan "had to do with setting 'something' on fire and . . . would be big," a federal agent wrote in the affidavit.

The alleged leader, Patrick S. Walsh, 20, was arrested on an arson charge Saturday. According to the affidavit, Gilbert and another man who was arrested Monday evening, Roy T. McCann, 22, have identified Walsh as the main instigator of the arsons at the Hunters Brooke subdivision near Indian Head. Officials have called it the biggest case of residential arson in memory in Maryland.

Drawing attention to a car club is the latest of several possible motives that authorities are known to have considered since the conflagrations destroyed 10 unoccupied new houses and damaged 16 others. Authorities said that the club's name refers to the Chevrolet model that Walsh owns, a Cavalier, and that one of the club's main activities is street racing.

In the affidavit made public , Special Agent Christopher J. Trainor of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote that the club is "a gang operating in Charles County." Other authorities said the group regularly meets in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant in Waldorf.

Unseen Cavaliers, however, advertises itself on its Web site as a car club that meets Wednesday nights at the Wendy's and is open to anyone "looking to chill with other cavalier owners."

Attorneys for Walsh and Gilbert declined to comment on the affidavit yesterday. A man and woman who came to the door of Walsh's home in Fort Washington also declined to comment. Gilbert's mother, Christine Gilbert, would only say, "My son's a good boy."

Law enforcement sources said yesterday that they have not settled on a single motive for the arsons and that a combination of factors might have been at work.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Sanger said in court yesterday that some of the suspects have referred to the arsons as "payback." One suspect was a security guard with a company hired to protect the subdivision who felt that the company had treated him poorly, according to an earlier law enforcement affidavit. Another suspect had been turned down for a job by the Hunters Brooke developer, Lennar Homes Inc.

Sanger's remark came during a detention hearing for the former security guard, Aaron L. Speed, 21. Arguing against his possible release on bail, Sanger described the arsons as "nothing less than an effort to wipe out" the subdivision and a calculated effort to draw attention to the club.

"It certainly has done that," Sanger said.

The defendants are white, and Sanger mentioned in passing that many of the people planning to settle in Hunters Brooke are black. When Magistrate Judge Charles E. Day asked whether race was a factor in the crime, Sanger responded that the government is "trying to be very conservative in ascribing" motives.

Speed's attorney, John Chamble, said his client, a father and husband, is "highly releasable." Noting that the torched houses were unoccupied, Chamble said, "As arsons go, if we want to keep it real, this is as benign as it gets."

Day ordered Speed to remain in jail pending resolution of the case. Gilbert, Walsh and McCann are scheduled for detention hearings tomorrow, as are Michael M. Everhart and Jeremy D. Parady, both 20. All are charged with arson.

According to Trainor's affidavit, Everhart told investigators that the plan to burn houses at Hunters Brooke began to take shape as early as August. Everhart described an episode at a Denny's restaurant in Waldorf that month with Walsh, Gilbert and McCann, Trainor wrote. Everhart told investigators that the group, seated in an area called "the pit," was talking about "how they wanted to burn things down and light fires," Trainor wrote.

"Everhart subsequently overheard Patrick Walsh talk about a plan to burn down homes at the Hunters Brooke development," Trainor wrote. The affidavit states that Everhart acknowledged being at the development on the morning of Dec. 6, but said he left before the houses were set on fire.

According to the affidavit, McCann told investigators that "a couple months ago at Denny's Patrick Walsh stated that he was going to go off and just start blowing stuff up." On the night before the fires, McCann told investigators, an acquaintance alerted him that Walsh was planning to do "something stupid" at the development, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Gilbert told investigators about a conversation that he said he and Walsh had Dec. 3. Gilbert quoted Walsh as saying: "You know something's going down, and it will probably be Sunday. I want you to know that this is your last chance. Do you want to be in on it or not?"

Gilbert told investigators that he declined, according to the affidavit.

According to an affidavit made public Monday, Walsh gave investigators permission to search his two cars, one the Cavalier. Agents asked what would happen if a dog detected accelerants. Walsh replied "with words to the effect of 'then I guess you got me,' " the affidavit states.

The following day, according to the affidavit, "the canine alerted to the [presence] of accelerants in both vehicles."

Older court records suggest that there was hostility between Parady and two of the other suspects, Walsh and McCann, and that Speed was once the subject of an emergency mental health commitment to a treatment facility.

In September, according to Charles County court records, Parady alleged that McCann and Walsh had threatened him. He said the two had followed him in cars and "pointed cylinder objects that appeared to be handguns at me." A judge ordered McCann, but not Walsh, to stay away from Parady until March 2005.

In 1999, a judge ordered that Speed undergo a psychiatric evaluation at Civista Medical Center in La Plata. The order was granted after a Charles County's sheriff's deputy reported that Speed "has demonstrated violent behavior to family and school staff and made threats of suicide." The report said he had earlier been treated for bipolar and personality disorders.

Staff writers Hamil R. Harris, Amit Paley and Avis Thomas-Lester and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Ricers are the greatest of non-gangbanger youth scum.

[Zaia]

Wow those guys are incredibly stupid. Sounds like the police won't have to do much to lock down the case against them since they're doing a damn good job of implicating themselves.

And although I'm obviously sorry that they caused so much damage to a residential area (what was it, about $10 million worth?), I can't help but find the idea of a Charles County gang laughably pathetic. Where the fuck's their big bad hood, the grand metropolis that is Waldorf, MD? So lame...

[Dennis Toy]

And does anyone know the identity of the other arsonist who likes to set front entrances of homes on fire?


personally i think it is a meth wired Human torch

[Sam Or I]

My advice, buy a V8.

[CmdrWilkens]

Hah Charles County gang...that's almost as laughable as a Columbia gang. Cripes you know things are out of whack when the biggest "gang realted crime" they could get these guys on was arson in unoccupied houses and their "crew" was a bunch of ricers who meet in a Wendy's parking lot. Seriously I've seen tougher crowds in Ellicott City.

[White Haven]

Waldorf's sole purpose for existence is to place stoplights on Rt. 301 when I'm visitting family in Maryland. I...can't really find any other purpose.

[The Yosemite Bear]

damn what ever happeded to my nutso neighborw...

Hotrodders, lowrideers, bikers

my kind'a scum.

shit they even have places they can drive without hurting anyone...

now the bikers used to deal drugs, but that was it...

[Ghost Rider]

Waldorf's sole purpose for existence is to place stoplights on Rt. 301 when I'm visitting family in Maryland. I...can't really find any other purpose.

They have a comic store...cheapskates...but it at least give them purpose in my mind .

As per the article...nice to see some people are still fucking morons. Yeup Ricer Arsonist .

Fucking A, I am wondering what the fuck really happened with the thought of a gang to become something so completely asinine and whitewashed.