Woman charged with setting ex-boyfriend's hotel bed on fire

Police arrested a 31-year-old Sleepy Hollow woman on charges she set her ex-boyfriend's bed on fire early Monday morning inside an Algonquin hotel room.

Her former boyfriend was in the room at the time, but not in the bed, and no one was injured, police said.

Stephanie A. Komistra, of the 1200 block of Acorn Court, now faces charges of reckless damage to property and reckless conduct stemming from the incident at the Holiday Inn Express, 2595 Bunker Hill Drive.

According to Algonquin police and a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in McHenry County Circuit Court, Komistra held a cigarette lighter to bed linens in the hotel room, igniting them as well as a mattress and box spring, then left. Her ex-boyfriend noticed the fire a short time later and managed to douse it with water before flames spread beyond the bed, Deputy Police Chief Steve Kuzynowski said.

"It started as a domestic situation," he said. "They had been drinking, there was an argument and she got upset."

Komistra was arrested and taken to the McHenry County jail. After appearing in court Tuesday morning, she was released after posting $1,000 bond. She is scheduled to return to court Friday on the charges, the most serious of which is a Class 4 felony punishable by a probation or one to three years in prison.