A former Ellicott City volunteer firefighter convicted of second-degree arson was granted a reduced sentence Wednesday in Howard County Circuit Court.
“But if I get any indication you are using or abusing alcohol during the probation period, I will pull you off the street,” Judge Dennis Sweeney told Joseph Schroen, 21, after trimming his prison sentence from 18 months to 15 months followed by two years of supervised probation.
He has served about 11 months in the Howard County Detention Center.
A psychological evaluation determined Schroen “gets into trouble” when he drinks alcohol and becomes bored, his lawyer Louis Willemin said.
The state opposed a reduced sentence, saying Schroen admitted to four other incidents of arson, including several brush fires and the burning of a mailbox on Melba Road in Ellicott City during June and August 2006. And Schroen set fire to a classmate who spilled gasoline on his shirt at a Carroll County high school in 2002, according to court records. The student suffered second-degree burns.
“It?s important you understand … there is a concern that if you get off the wrong track, especially with drinking, you are a dangerous person,” Sweeney told Schroen on Wednesday.
In November 2006, Schroen pleaded guilty to second-degree arson for setting fire to a 12-by-20-foot wooden shed on Melba Road in August, destroying the shed and its contents, all valued at more than $10,000, according to court records.
Schroen then knocked on the door of Joon Kang, the shed?s owner, and asked to use his telephone to call 911. Kang believed Schroen was intoxicated. Schroen was a volunteer firefighter for the Ellicott City fire department but had been suspended for unspecified criminal activity, according to court records.
“I?ve learned a lot from what I?ve done. I?ve lost a lot,” Schroen told the judge Wednesday.
AT A GLANCE
Joseph Schroen also was required to undergo alcohol treatment, attend two self-help meetings each week for 52 weeks and seek treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
