ALFRED — A York County Superior Court judge has ordered Carol Field, a 65-year-old Standish woman who is charged with arson, to continue to be held in jail on $100,000 cash bail.
Judge Paul Fritzsche refused to lower bail as requested by Field’s attorney, J.P. DeGrinney, saying that he was concerned about public safety.
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DeGrinney had asked for bail to be lowered to $50,000 surety bail, which would have allowed Field to put up her house to secure her release. DeGrinney said Field has never failed to show up for court and has no history of violence. He added that no one was injured in the fires Field is accused of setting.
The judge said he worried that Field’s psychological issues could lead her to start setting fires again.
However, when Assistant District Attorney John Connelly asked for a psychological evaluation for Field, Fritzsche denied the request, saying it is up to the defense to initiate such an evaluation.
A probable cause affidavit submitted to the court and made available today said authorities had been investigating a series of fires, starting on July 19 in York and Cumberland counties.
The statement by state Fire Marshal’s Office investigator Daniel Young said the series of fires started with a small brush fire in Standish, and then spread outward and became more serious. A witness to one of the fires described a blue Cherolet Cavalier leaving the area.
Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies on the lookout for the car pulled over Carol Field on Sept. 18 in Raymond. Investigators later placed a tracking device on Field’s car, and information from the device showed Field was on Moody Road in Standish on Sept. 27 shortly before a small fire was discovered in the woods there.
The statement also says that a witness to a fire on Sept. 22 at Plummer’s Hardware in Waterboro identified Field as the suspect.
Field is charged with setting the Sept. 22 and Sept. 27 fires, as well as a Sept. 16 fire in Limerick not far from Field’s daughter’s house.
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