ARKANSAS RESIDENTS PLEAD GUILTY TO

RACIALLY MOTIVATED CHURCH ARSON

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two Arkansas residents pleaded guilty today to setting fire to a Christian school operated by an inter-racial church in Shirley, Arkansas, under a plea agreement announced the Justice Department. The case was investigated by the National Church Arson Task Force.

Michelle Leigh Dunn, 22, and Robert Marion Treece, 25, both of Shirley, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, admitting that they set fire to the school run by the Universal Church of God in Shirley, on May 21, 1995.

"No community should have to experience racially motivated arsons," said James E. Johnson, Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement and Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Co-chairs of the National Church Arson Task Force. "We will continue to stomp out the flames of racial hatred wherever they may burn."

Dunn and Treece admitted to charges alleging that they conspired to intimidate, prevent and discourage African-Americans in Shirley, by setting fire to the school. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment or a $250,000 fine, or both. In addition to the conspiracy charge, Treece, who actually set the fire, pleaded guilty to the use of fire to commit a felony. The charge carries a mandatory 10 year term of imprisonment.

Under the plea agreements, all remaining charges against Dunn and Treece would be dismissed.

A third man, Jerry Lynn Jones, 25, of Shirley, entered a guilty plea in connection with the case on August 14, 1998. Jones, who drove Treece to the fire scene and waited for him to set the fire, also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge, as well as a charge of aiding and abetting in the malicious damaging of a building by the use of fire. The second charge carries a 5 year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.

Sentencing of all three defendants will take place on a date to be set by the court. Treece is currently being held in the Faulkner County Jail for the arson. The sentences will be imposed under the United States Sentencing Guidelines according to the nature of the offenses and the criminal backgrounds, if any, of the defendants.

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98-458