Arson suspect to stay in jail

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge has ordered that a man who investigators have linked to the fire that destroyed a museum founded by a Holocaust survivor remain in jail on unrelated gun charges.\nFederal prosecutors during a court hearing Monday described Joseph Charles Stockett, 57, as a Nazi-sympathizer who has burned down abortion clinics and had told acquaintances he was prepared to kill Jews.\nFederal Magistrate Kennard Foster denied a defense request that Stockett be freed on electronic monitoring or work release until trial.\nStockett denies that he set the Nov. 18 fire at the CANDLES Museum, and he has not been charged in connection with the fire.\nDefense attorney James McKinley said the case against Stockett was a "garden-variety" firearms charge, and while Stockett had anti-Semitic beliefs, those views were not illegal.\n"It does not make him a Nazi. This guy is not a Nazi," McKinley said of Stockett.\nFederal agents arrested Stockett on Nov. 21 after an informant told a Terre Haute police officer he thought he knew who set the museum fire.\nThe informer sold Stockett a 9 mm handgun during a recorded undercover sting, after which Stockett was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.\nIn a transcript of the recording presented by prosecutors, Stockett said he was on his way to a confrontation with the Jews and wanted to be prepared. "This struggle that I've embarked on to save my race from the Jews might require that I kill someone some day," the transcript quotes Stockett as saying.\nAlthough a firearm possession charge typically is not considered a crime of violence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Vaughn asked Foster to classify Stockett's case as one.\nFoster agreed. "Those kinds of statements while in possession of a firearm do not bode well for anyone."\nOutside the courtroom, Stockett described the outcome of Monday's hearing as "totally unfair." He said the case against him was based on "lies, lies, lies and more lies."\nStockett has been held in the Marion County Jail since Nov. 21. Prosecutors would not say Monday why they have not charged Stockett with the museum fire.\nTerre Haute police Capt. Rick Erney described him as "an interesting person that's emerged" in the case.\nWhen asked whether he believed Stockett set fire to the museum, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Michael Vergon said, "Read between the lines."\nStockett, a California native, had lived in Terre Haute since July, sleeping on a street behind a business and camping in the area before moving into an efficiency apartment in October, according to police reports.\nIn 1976, he was convicted of setting fire to a Planned Parenthood office in Oregon. At the time, authorities said, Stockett suffered from schizophrenia.\nInvestigators believe the Holocaust museum fire was arson, as they said evidence of an accelerant was found and a brick was thrown through a window.\nThe museum was founded by Auschwitz survivor Eva Kor in 1995 in a one-story brick building along U.S. 41, south of the city's downtown. The fire caused the roof to collapse and destroyed many of the displays inside.