ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT
By TARA BURGHART
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO (AP) -- A 25-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department was charged Thursday with setting four fires in the city over the past week, and suburban police said they suspect him in 10 more dating back to 1998.
No one was injured in the blazes, but a fire Monday at a Chicago school damaged its computer room.
Police said Lt. Jeffrey Boyle, 46, admitted setting the four fires in Chicago. He was charged with eight felony arson counts in all, including four from the series of fires in suburban Park Ridge.
Police Lt. Wayne Micek said Boyle mentioned girlfriend problems and losing bets as events that brought on stress and that he dealt with the impulse to set fires ''for some time.''
''He said he was just stupid, he did stupid things at different times in his life when he was under stress,'' said Micek. ''He would just drive around at times he wasn't feeling right, and all of a sudden ... an unknown emotion would trigger him that he would want to go set a fire.''
Defense attorney James Tunick said Boyle ''has served the Chicago Fire Department for years in an excellent capacity'' and helped to battle a number of blazes.
''We'll deal with the case,'' Tunick said.
Boyle's arrest also had repercussions on another case in the Chicago courts: His brother, John ''Quarters'' Boyle, is charged in a federal investigation of the city's Hired Truck Program with soliciting thousands of dollars in payoffs and campaign funds.
Jeffrey Boyle had been named his ''third-party custodian'' -- the person responsible for informing the court if the defendant violates conditions of bond.
John Boyle went to prison in the 1990s for stealing $4 million in quarters from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. On release, he landed a job on the city payroll.
