Many of the fires have occurred at night, in secluded areas, and in unoccupied buildings, apparently set for excitement rather than revenge, profit, or to injure. An arsonist with such motivations, federal studies show, is typically a single white male with a criminal record and limited education."
"Middleborough man in arson case held without bail" by Brian Ballou | Globe Staff, February 08, 2013
BROCKTON — A resident of Middleborough charged with setting fire to a building in West Bridgewater was ordered held without bail Thursday, as authorities continued to investigate whether he set fire to at least 24 other unoccupied or abandoned buildings south of Boston since September.
During a two-day dangerousness hearing in Brockton District Court to evaluate whether Mark Sargent and co-defendant Jean Marie Louis should be held without bail, prosecutors portrayed Sargent as being so focused on causing fiery destruction that he could not stop even when he knew officials were closing in on him.
Eric Drury, a Plymouth County prosecutor, said during the hearing that Sargent knew police suspected him in the arsons because they had questioned him twice before Jan. 30, the day he and Louis were arrested moments after the West Bridgewater arson....
Sargent, 45, lives with Louis’s mother, and the couple have a younger child. Louis lives at the same address....
Jennifer Sunderland, Louis’s attorney, said her client does not fit the profile of an arsonist.
“He’s just an ordinary guy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said....
Michael Peters, a State Police arson investigator returned to the witness stand Thursday to complete his testimony . He said a GPS tracking device on Sargent’s Subaru Outback indicated that it stopped at the West Bridgewater building before the fire broke out there.
The device also indicated that the vehicle drove by the building a total of eight times, both before and after the blaze.
Sargent was stopped in the area a short time after the fire was reported. Louis was in the passenger’s seat, and police said he reeked of gasoline.
Authorities had secured a warrant allowing them to use the GPS device. A Raynham police detective went to Sargent’s home in Middleborough Dec. 22 and placed the device on his Toyota Highlander. Sargent, a wholesale car dealer, exchanged the Highlander for a Subaru Outback in early January, and authorities placed the GPS on the Subaru.
Jason Howard, who is representing Sargent, said authorities had no eyewitnesses or evidence linking his client to the Jan. 30 arson or any of the other cases.
Howard said of the GPS tracking: “It’s all beeps and dots on a map. I suggest it’s lazy. They’ve been beating their chests on how amazing this technology is. I suggest it’s lazy.”
Howard said that during the time that authorities surreptitiously tracked the Toyota Highlander and Subaru Outback, they did it only by looking at a computer, rather than actually following the vehicles.
After the hearing, Howard expressed disappointment with Campbell’s decision.
“I don’t feel to date that what’s been testified to during the hearing or what has been relayed to the media has been supported by sufficient or credible evidence,” he said. “I’m anxious to see what discovery the government will provide, because nothing has been provided so far.
“What he is accused of doesn’t fit the character of this gentleman,” Howard said, standing in front of a lectern and pointing at his client sitting several feet away.
“He trades on his reputation,” Howard said, referring to Sargent’s job as a wholesale car dealer.
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