Water Board Official Acquitted of Arson in House Fire

A Lancaster Superior Court judge found Antelope Valley water board member Glenn Martin not guilty Monday of a charge that he intentionally set fire to his Lancaster house last year.

Judge Margaret Grignon announced the acquittal on a single count of felony arson after presiding over a three-day, non-jury trial last week.

Although Grignon said she had suspicions about the origin of the fire, she said testimony by an insurance company investigator that the fire was accidental raised a reasonable doubt.

After the verdict, Martin left Lancaster for a vacation and was unavailable for comment, a water agency official said.

Martin, 67, has served 16 years on the board of directors of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to up to eight years in prison and would have been forced to resign from the board, because convicted felons cannot hold public office.

Carl Hunter, one of Martin’s six colleagues on the board, said in a telephone interview Monday that he wrote to the judge on Martin’s behalf and was glad to hear of the acquittal. Hunter said he argued that Martin would not have committed a crime that could have prevented him from holding elected office again.

“His whole life revolves around being on the water agency board,” Hunter said. “It seemed incredible that he would do anything to jeopardize that.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Damon, who prosecuted the case, said Grignon’s decision appeared to have been based on defense testimony by an insurance investigator about the fire, which began in a living room and caused heavy damage to the junk-strewn home last July.

The investigator said the blaze could have been caused by careless smoking, countering testimony by arson investigators who said evidence showed that it was set intentionally.

“The fact that he was able to call an expert was really critical,” Damon said. “It’s scientific evidence, and reasonable minds differ over scientific interpretations.”

Martin, who has twice been convicted under Lancaster’s nuisance ordinance for storing junk on his property, acted as his own attorney during last week’s trial. His defense featured exhibits of memorabilia from his days as a fighter pilot in World War II and recollections of his youth, as an argument that he was not the kind of man who would voluntarily destroy items he valued. He alleged that the charges against him were politically motivated. Prosecutors described that as nonsense.

Martin stands to collect an insurance payment of about $120,000, according to court testimony.