Suspect Ordered Held without Bail in Arson Attack on Toledo Mosque
A federal judge has ordered Randolph T. Linn – who is charged with setting fire to a mosque outside of Toledo, Ohio, earlier this month – held without bail until he stands trial on two federal hate crime charges returned this week by a grand jury.
Linn, who has expressed obscenity-laced anti-Muslim comments, is a flight risk and ‘there is serious risk that the defendant will endanger the safety of another person or the community,’ U.S. Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong said in an order filed after a hearing Thursday.
After viewing evidence against Linn in a closed session, the grand jury panel voted this week to indict the 52-year-old St. Joe, Ind., truck driver on two federal charges – intentionally defacing, damaging and destroying religious real property because of the religious character of that property and using fire to commit a felony.
Federal jurisdiction in the case comes, in part, because the alleged crime affects interstate and foreign commerce. According to the indictment, Linn drove from Indiana to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, located just outside Toledo in Perrysburg, broke in and used gasoline to start a fire in the prayer room.
If convicted, Linn faces 70 to 88 months in prison for damage to religious property and a mandatory 10-year sentence for using fire to commit a felony, the Toledo Blade reported in today’s editions.
much more at Hatewatch