Thursday, July 3, 2008 2:45 PM CDT
Arson case against former Pizza Hut employee dismissed
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — A 3-year-old case accusing a former Mattoon Pizza Hut employee of setting a fire at the restaurant was dismissed Wednesday because witnesses couldn’t be located in time for her trial.
Susan D. Dhermy, 45, whose address on record is on Lafayette Avenue in Mattoon, had been charged with arson in connection with the fire at the restaurant at 721 Charleston Ave. on April 27, 2005, when she was a manager at the restaurant.
State’s Attorney Steve Ferguson made a motion to dismiss the case, which Circuit Judge Teresa Righter granted, but did so in a way that means it can be refiled later. After Wednesday’s hearing, Ferguson said that’s what he’ll do if the prosecution’s witnesses could be found.
“We feel good about the case and if we can locate them, we intend to refile it,” Ferguson said.
Defense attorney Todd Reardon, however, said he thought the case was dismissed because of a “lack-of-evidence problem.”
Dhermy had been scheduled for a bench trial on the arson charge Wednesday, but Ferguson said testimony from some witnesses who were “critical” to his case couldn’t be arranged though subpoenas were issued about a month ago. Many of the witnesses were former employees of the restaurant and have since moved, he said.
Ferguson also said it was “too speculative” to say that delays in the case since it was filed contributed to the witness location problem, though he admitted that it might have. Ferguson took over the case from former Assistant State’s Attorney John Longwell, who was fired in March, and Ferguson said he didn’t know why the case had so many delays.
Reardon said he also had problems finding some of defense witnesses because they’ve since moved as well. He also said he couldn’t explain the case’s delays, but said he thought perhaps the prosecution was “still trying to build a case.” He also said there was no evidence of any motive Dhermy might have had to set the fire.
“How did she benefit?” Reardon said. “Not one iota.”
Had Dhermy been convicted of the arson charge, she would have faced a sentence of three to seven years in prison or up to four years of probation.
Records in Dhermy’s case show that her case wasn’t first scheduled for trial until February 2006, partly because she had to have surgery. The case was first scheduled for a bench trial, where a judge decides a case instead of a jury, in March 2006 and was rescheduled seven times before it was set for Wednesday.
Documents in the case said police talked to employees of the restaurant who described Dhermy as “disgruntled” and saying she didn’t want to be at work. Dhermy denied setting the fire when police interviewed her, according to the documents.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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