Authorities added additional arson charges Wednesday against a former firefighter and woman who are already charged with setting fire to several barns in the Lehigh Valley.
The charges stem from two vehicle fires in Northampton Borough and were filed by police at a preliminary hearing Wednesday for former firefighter Justin Anthony Emmons, 20, and Samantha Rose Keeney, 24, of Northampton.
In the most recent charges, authorities say that on March 23, Emmons and Keeney set fire to a 2015 Dodge Dart in the 400 block of East 10th Street. Days later, police again returned to the same address for a second vehicle fire that damaged a pickup truck and a garage.
Police say that on March 29, the date of the second truck fire, a barn was also set ablaze on Cherryville Road. In an interview with Emmons, he told investigators that Keeney set the truck and barn fires. Two women who owned the vehicles damaged in the fires knew Emmons, but police did not detail the relationship.
In an interview with Keeney, she admitted to police that she set several of the barn fires as well as the March 29 truck blaze, court records state.
Both Emmons and Keeney waived their right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday, a move that typically acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to merit the charges. Both remain in jail; Emmons under $120,000 bail and Keeney under $270,000 bail.
Emmons lost his job with a local farmer a week before the fires began in mid-March, court records say. The first two fires were set in barns where Emmons’ former employer stored his equipment, according to authorities.
Police said Keeney was connected with three fires: 3646 Cedar Drive and 786 Fir Drive, both in Lehigh Township, as well as 4413 Cherryville Road in Allen Township. The fires occurred on March 15, March 23 and March 24.
Keeney and Emmons have been charged with multiple counts each of causing or risking a catastrophe, conspiracy to commit arson, arson, reckless burning, agricultural vandalism, criminal mischief, criminal trespass and reckless endangerment.
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