Former firefighter enters Alford plea to arson charges

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A former New Ulm firefighter, accused of setting several fires in New Ulm last summer, admitted Thursday that the evidence against him could win a criminal conviction but did not admit any guilt.

Prosecutors charged Gary Ralph Negron, 40, of New Ulm, in April with intentionally starting four fires that involved property owned by his former employer, New Ulm Telecom, over course of several months last year.

Negron made an agreement with prosecutors during a two-hour hearing in Brown County District Court on Thursday. In that agreement, prosecutors dismissed a first-degree arson charge and Negron entered an Alford plea to two second-degree arson charges and one third-degree arson charge.

By making the Alford plea, Negron did not admit any guilt: he simply agreed that the state's evidence against him could win a criminal conviction against him beyond a reasonable doubt.

Negron is the first New Ulm firefighter charged with arson. New Ulm Fire Chief Curt Curry said after Negron's hearing that Negron was "well-liked by the whole department until (the charges were filed)." He and Second Assistant Fire Chief Greg Palmer said Negron worked for the department for a year and half, beginning in March 2001.

Under Minnesota state law, any arson charge is considered a felony. Second-degree arson is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Third-degree arson has maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

Under the plea agreement, Negron will have a stay of imposition of sentence and will spend six months in the Brown County jail, pay a $3,000 fine and undergo a psychological evaluation.

Attorney Robert A. Gibson of Mankato represented Negron at the hearing. He said he originally intended to challenge the admissibility of part of the statements Negron gave to investigators and other incidents that Gibson said "had nothing to do with this case." But Negron had already decided not to risk a trial by the time the prosecutors gave Gibson full disclosure of the evidence and so what was going to be a contested evidentiary hearing became a negotiation over a plea, Gibson said. Gibson said the Alford plea was entered because Negron still maintained he was innocent of the charges.

"He would've been required to do four years in a penitentiary under mandatory sentencing guidelines," he said in Mankato later Thursday. "He wanted to minimize the consequences to himself and to his family."

Judge Allison Krehbiel Baskfield accepted Negron's plea and ordered a pre-sentence investigation, which may or may not determine whether or not Negron will have to pay for the property he allegedly destroyed. She ordered Negron to return to court for sentencing on Sept. 19.

Negron said he had no comment on the case and deferred questions to Gibson.

A criminal complaint alleged that Negron was present at the scenes of four fires minutes before firefighters arrived on the scenes and later responded with the fire department, but didn't mention anything about what he might have seen to his superiors at the fire department. Negron supposedly admitted to starting two of the four fires -- one that burned wooden cable spools on July and another that damaged a Dumpster -- during an interview with the New Ulm Police Department.

The complaint also indicates that investigators felt Negron was responsible for two more fires--one that caused over $500,000 in damage to a warehouse on 20th South Street on Jan. 14, 2002 and another April 10, 2002 fire that damaged a New Ulm Telecom utility truck, based upon interviews with employees of that company.

No one was injured in any of the four fires, police said.

When asked if Negron's case will change the New Ulm Fire Department's hiring policy, Fire Chief Curt Curry said the department already uses background checks as a part of its hiring process and the case won't change that policy. Assistant Brown County Attorney Clark Tuttle, who is also a New Ulm city councilor, said the investigation found nothing that indicated a faulty hiring process. He pointed out that Negron had no prior criminal convictions before the arson charges were filed.

"It's a little demoralizing, to some extent you feel betrayed," said Greg Palmer, second assistant New Ulm fire chief, when asked what his reactions were to the news of Negron's case. "When a member does something like this, you feel betrayed. "

Curry added, "This happens a lot more than people think it does."