A former volunteer firefighter accused of setting a string of summer blazes in northern Allen County won’t be spending any time in prison.
Rather, Lee Daniel Berg, 19, of Iola checked into the Allen County jail at 8 a.m. this morning to begin serving a 60-day sentence, handed down Tuesday in District Court by Judge Daniel Creitz.
His jail stay will be followed by 24 months of supervised probation.
Placed at the scene of 21 fires by local law enforcement officers from Aug. 16 through Sept. 13 with the help of GPS tracking and originally charged with a felony for each, Berg admitted guilt to five felony arson charges. In exchange, Allen County Attorney Wade Bowie dropped the remaining 16 felony counts.
When Creitz gave Berg an opportunity to explain why he lit the fires that destroyed property throughout the northern region of Allen County, the former Iola High student replied, “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
Kansas sentencing guidelines prevented the court from placing Berg in prison, though Bowie said many of the arson victims hoped it would.
Bowie told the judge that because Berg spent more than a month “terrorizing” Allen County and causing thousands of dollars in property damage, some of the victims were adamant that he spend time in prison.
Because he couldn’t sentence prison time, and despite no recommendation by the county to sentence Berg to any jail time, Creitz called the 60-day jail sentence “the right thing to do.”
Berg will pay $9,700 in restitution to the victims and could pay more if additional damage claims are presented to the county attorney’s office between now and March 26.
Berg, who lives in Carlyle Township, was at the scene of a Sept. 13 grass fire on Utah Road southeast of Geneva when he was arrested. He had just finished putting out the blaze he himself had started.
Altogether 28 arson fires were investigated in Allen County during the summer spree.
One resulted in the loss of 250 big bales of hay, valued at $25,000, another destroyed a vacant farm house.
Berg faces an additional felony arson charge in Anderson County.
