FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CR

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1998                                                                                                                           (202) 616-2765

                                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888




THREE INDICTED FOR SETTING FIRE TO AN ARKANSAS CHURCH





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three Arkansas residents were indicted by
a federal grand jury in Little Rock in connection with a 1995 arson
at a church in Shirley, Arkansas, the National Church Arson Task
force announced today.

	The four count indictment, returned yesterday and unsealed
today, charges Michelle Leigh Dunn, 21, Jerry Lynn Jones, 25, and
Robert Marion Treece, 24, with conspiring to set fire to the
Universal Church of God on May 25, 1995.  Treece also faces charges
of intimidating a witness in connection with a subsequent
investigation of the incident.

	"Today's case underscores our ongoing commitment to find and
prosecute those who attack our nation's houses of worship," said
James E. Johnson, Treasury Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and
Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights,
Co-Chairs of the National Church Arson Task Force.  

	The first three counts of the indictment charges the three
defendants with conspiring to set fire to a mobile home trailer
used by the church as a Christian school in order to intimidate
African-American members of the church.  Count four charges Treece
with threatening a witness in order to prevent the communication of
information about the fire to federal law enforcement officers.

	The maximum possible prison term for all of the charges
returned against Dunn, Jones, and Treece is forty years in prison. 
In addition to prison terms, each defendant could also be sentenced
to fines of $250,000 for each count of the indictment.

	The indictment was the result of a joint investigation by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms.  The investigation began in August 1997, after the
fire at the Universal Church of God.  The Task Force also opened an
investigation into an earlier fire at the church that had been set
in May, 1995.  The second fire remains under investigation.  

	More than 600 hundred arsons of houses of worship have been
reported to the Church Arson Task Force since January 1995. 
Already, 273 suspects have been arrested in connection with 204
arsons.

	An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. 
A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the
government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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