Owner of Burned Store Still Investigated : Arson: Authorities say he cannot yet be ruled out as a suspect. Arraignment is delayed for a man who has already been arrested.

Thousand Oaks businessman Myron Cohen-Ross is still under investigation as a suspect in the fire that destroyed his comic book store two months ago, a sheriff’s official said Friday.

Law enforcement officials have refused to rule out the possibility of his involvement in the fire, and Cohen-Ross said he resents the continuing thrust of their arson investigation.

“It’s ludicrous. Why would I do it? I’ve lost so much,” Cohen-Ross said as he sat in his Heroes and Legends comic book store in Agoura Hills.

“I don’t have anything to worry about,” he added. “I just want to put this all behind me.”

The 59-year-old businessman’s statements came as investigators postponed the arraignment of Christopher David Nagano, a 20-year-old Moorpark College student who was arrested Wednesday in connection with the Sept. 18 fire at Cohen-Ross’ Thousand Oaks store, also called Heroes and Legends.

Before it was set on fire, the store was spray-painted with swastikas, “SS” and the words Die Jew.

The anti-Semitic scrawlings led many in the Thousand Oaks community to view it as an apparent hate crime, but investigators have also been exploring possible economic motives for the fire.

The arraignment of Nagano, described by investigators as only one of several suspects in the case, was postponed Friday because the district attorney’s office has not yet filed charges against him pending conclusion of the investigation. Nagano remained in Ventura County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Investigators have refused to release any information about the other suspects.

But Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kitty Hoberg said Friday that investigators cannot rule Cohen-Ross out as a suspect at this time. If they could, she said, they would do so publicly.

“It’s not that simple. It’s a complicated case,” she said. “We’re still investigating it. It takes a while to put it all together. When things happen, suddenly there’s information available like there was earlier this week.”

Investigators have spent the last two months trying to unravel the motive behind the incident. Nagano’s arrest came earlier this week after a tip from an informant, Hoberg said.

At one point, because of the anti-Semitic tone of the graffiti, investigators focused on the theory that it might have been a hate crime directed against the Jewish community. But they also began exploring other possibilities.

Cohen-Ross said Friday that detectives took his fingerprints early in the investigation and interviewed all of his employees. Then he was asked if he was responsible for the crime, he said.

He told the investigators: “I didn’t do it. Why would I torch the store?” he said Friday. “That’s their job, I guess. I think they’re just doing their job.”

Hoberg said Cohen-Ross was told that his fingerprints were taken so that investigators could distinguish between his prints and those left behind by whoever may have set the fire.

Although investigators said last month that they were also looking into the possibility that the fire might have been a case of arson-for-profit, the Thousand Oaks community has continued to rally around Cohen-Ross in an effort to help him rebuild his store.

He has received about $3,200 in donations from individuals and anti-hate crime groups. Supporters held a rally at a local church to express support for him. The city of Thousand Oaks has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever set the fire. And some of Cohen-Ross’ youthful customers have given him back baseball cards and comic books to help him re-establish his business.

Cohen-Ross said Friday that he will use the money to open a new store on Thousand Oaks Boulevard about a mile east of where the original shop was. That store is scheduled to open by Dec. 1, he said.

But Cohen-Ross said he has not recovered all of his losses. He said he has filed more than $40,000 worth of claims with his insurance company, but has not received a settlement.

Insurance covers only $50,000 of losses, and about $220,000 worth of comic books, photographs and artwork went up in smoke, he said.

The past two months have been a strain, he said. On Friday, he bustled around the Agoura Hills store trying to sort through new orders.

“I work seven days a week. I’ve been spending my time trying to find a new location,” Cohen-Ross said. “Life has to go on. That’s what I’m trying to do now.”