Judge Dismisses Arson Case Against Firefighter

A judge dismissed an arson case Wednesday against a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman accused of setting fire to an unoccupied house he had tried to buy.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz ruled that prosecutors had presented insufficient evidence that Roland Lee Sprewell, 37, had started the fire in the Pasadena house.

Sprewell and his wife, Heidi, 36, were charged with a single felony count of arson each after being arrested last February by the San Gabriel Valley Arson Explosives Task Force.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office dropped the charge against Heidi Sprewell in April.

A Fire Department spokesman regularly quoted in news reports, Roland Sprewell held a news conference of a different sort Wednesday--one detailing what he called “a four-month nightmare.”

“I am overwhelmed,” Sprewell said. “I had charges of arson leveled against me because I was involved in a business transaction. It was hell.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the office would review the charges before deciding whether to refile the case.

Sprewell’s attorney, Vicki Podberesky, said the case was based on weak circumstantial evidence.

The house was vacant last July when the fire occurred.

The Sprewells had tried to buy it, but the escrow had bogged down because of an IRS lien against the house. When the Sprewells tried to get their deposit back, the bank refused.

When the fire broke out, Sprewell went to the scene. He told several firefighters that he was in escrow on the house, and that he had warned the sellers that vacant houses were at risk of vandalism and arson.

He also had proposed during a meeting with the owners that they rent the house to him during escrow so he could protect it.

“Based on 16 years of experience as a firefighter, [I said] it was my belief that a vacant house was a fire risk,” Sprewell reiterated Wednesday.

When investigators determined that the cause of the house fire had been arson, Sprewell and his wife became suspects.

The prosecution’s case, Podberesky said, had been based on Sprewell’s warnings to the sellers and his statements to firefighters at the scene.

But the judge, she said, “thought those statements were more indicative of innocence than of guilt.”

A Fire Department spokesman, Armando Carillo, said he expected Sprewell, who has been on administrative leave, to return to regular duty soon.

Sprewell said the stigma of the the charges had “turned me into a pariah.”

He thanked those who had supported him.

“I’m ready to go back to work,” he said.