GLENDALE : Hearing Date Set in Arson, Murder Case

Murder and arson charges against a former Glendale Fire Department arson investigator already imprisoned for starting several fires could be heard in court as soon as next month.

John L. Orr, 45, who prosecutors believe was responsible for the disastrous 1990 College Hills fire in Glendale, was ordered this week to Los Angeles County Municipal Court on April 12 for the setting of a preliminary hearing date, a court official said Thursday.

At the hearing, which is expected to take place before the end of April, Judge Craig Veals will decide whether there is enough evidence for Orr to stand trial on four counts of murder and 22 counts of arson with special circumstances. Orr has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Orr is serving a 30-year sentence at the Terminal Island federal prison in Long Beach for setting three fires in the Fresno area in 1987 while attending a conference of arson investigators in Central California. He was convicted in 1992.

In 1993, Orr pleaded guilty to three more counts of arson, one for a 1990 fire at a Builders Emporium in North Hollywood and two more for fires in stores along Pacific Coast Highway near Atascadero in 1989. The fires along the Central Coast also occurred around the time of an arson investigators convention Orr attended.

In November, 1994, Orr was charged with setting a new group of fires whose origins were never solved. The new charges included four counts of murder stemming from a 1984 fire at an Ole’s home improvement store in South Pasadena, in which two clerks and two customers died, including a 2-year-old boy shopping with his grandmother. The new arson charges include the College Hills fire, which destroyed 67 homes.