Court bars evidence of arson suspect's prior fire

A McHenry County judge Tuesday barred prosecutors from presenting evidence that a Carpentersville man charged with setting a fire inside an occupied Algonquin restaurant was involved in a similar fire four years earlier at Dundee-Crown High School.

Reversing an earlier decision allowing the evidence, Judge Joseph Condon ruled the circumstances of the school blaze were not similar enough to the 2005 restaurant fire to show a modus operandi by arson suspect Jose Rivera.

Condon, however, ruled prosecutors could use the information as rebuttal evidence if Rivera takes the witness stand and denies starting the Algonquin fire.

Rivera, 22, is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 23 on charges of aggravated arson and arson in connection with a June 2005 fire inside a women's washroom at Mandile's restaurant. The fire damaged the building, but restaurant patrons and employees escaped unharmed.

Police said Rivera admitted starting the fire, but claimed it was an accident. If convicted, he would face between six and 30 years in prison.

Condon initially decided that when the case goes to trial prosecutors could inform jurors that in 2001, when he was 15, Rivera was found guilty in juvenile court of helping set a fire inside a bathroom at Dundee-Crown.

But the judge changed his mind after Rivera's defense brought forward evidence that, unlike the 2005 fire, Rivera never claimed to have set the Dundee-Crown fire, accidentally or otherwise.

"(Condon) was led to believe that my client was the igniter of that (Dundee-Crown) fire, but he clearly denied that and the police reports indicate another kid did it," Rivera attorney D.J. Tegeler said.