Article

2021-08-12 -Lurid Crime Tales-

College professor held in wildland arson spree near California’s massive Dixie Fire

Hattip to Thing From Snowy Mountain. 746 also submitted this article, because great minds. :-)

[SacramentoBee] A college professor suspected in a series of arson fires in remote forested areas of Northern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, near the massive Dixie Fire has been charged in connection with one of the blazes in Lassen County and was ordered held Tuesday in the Sacramento County Main Jail.

Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, is believed to have worked at a number of colleges in California, including Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, where a Dr. Gary Maynard is listed as a lecturer in criminal justice studies specializing in criminal justice, cults and deviant behavior.

Sonoma State spokeswoman Julia Gonzalez said Maynard is no longer with the university.

"He was a part-time lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice," she wrote in an email. "He was employed with Sonoma State University in Fall 2020, but did not have an appointment for Spring 2021.

"Mr. Maynard was contracted to fill in for a faculty member who was on leave. He taught two seminars in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies in Fall 2020."

Santa Clara confirmed that Maynard had worked there, as well.

"Gary Maynard was an adjunct faculty member in the sociology department at Santa Clara University from September 2019 to December 2020," the university wrote in an emailed statement.

Maynard was arrested Saturday following an investigation that began July 20 and included a U.S. Forest Service agent placing a tracking device under his car after he had been stopped briefly by Susanville police on Aug. 3.

Maynard, whose middle name is alternately spelled "Stephan" in jail records, made a brief appearance Tuesday in federal court in Sacramento, where Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson asked that he not be released from custody.

"There are simply no conditions that could be fashioned that could ensure the safety of the public with respect to this defendant," Anderson told U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman.

"Over the course of the last several weeks, Maynard has set a series of fires in the vicinity of the Lassen National Forest and Shasta Trinity National Forest...," Anderson wrote in a detention memo. "The area in which Maynard chose to set his fires is near the ongoing Dixie fire, a fire which is still not contained despite the deployment and efforts of over 5,000 personnel.

Maynard is charged in a criminal complaint with willfully setting the Ranch Fire in Lassen County on Saturday, and could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on that count.

Newman said the nature of the case suggested there may be mental issues at play and ordered him to remain in jug pending a hearing Wednesday.

"There’s certainly some potential, if not red flags, pink flags," Newman said.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-08-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1 If you can prove that Climate Change made him become a pyromaniac, then Climate Change is still the cause of the Cali wild fires.

Posted by SteveS 2021-08-12 01:01|| 2021-08-12 01:01|| Front Page Top

#2 specializing in criminal justice, cults and deviant behavior.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2021-08-12 02:28|| 2021-08-12 02:28|| Front Page Top

#3
"It was all for my theses on Desperate Behavior Resulting From Induced Chaos."

Posted by Dron66046 2021-08-12 04:14|| 2021-08-12 04:14|| Front Page Top

#4 I got downvoted slightly over at That News Place for Hack(er)s for suggesting that maybe this guy was responsible for the Dixie Fire too. Or that the original fire was arson.

It's hard for me to tell.

Of course, in modern California and the land of the technoligarches, you can be running around trying to burn people to death and that's merely a pink flag rather than a red one.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2021-08-12 08:42|| 2021-08-12 08:42|| Front Page Top

#5 Count up how many people died because of this, then allow them to survive that many days under grueling torture.

Hand him over to the most violent rapey gang in prison for one week per death.

Find the teachers that brainwashed him and take away their tenure and put aiding and abiding mass murder on their permanent record.

Something like that might work to prevent future arsonists. Nothing else seems to stop the sick bastards.

Posted by rjschwarz 2021-08-12 08:48|| 2021-08-12 08:48|| Front Page Top

#6 too costly rj. a 9mm round is cheaper and if administered by one of the surviving family members...even better.

Posted by Warthog 2021-08-12 09:28|| 2021-08-12 09:28|| Front Page Top

#7 not as cheap as a 9mm, but burning at the stake has a certain elegance in this case.

Posted by Mercutio 2021-08-12 09:46|| 2021-08-12 09:46|| Front Page Top

#8 He was trying to qualify for tenure at Berkeley.

Posted by Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 2021-08-12 10:13|| 2021-08-12 10:13|| Front Page Top

#9 Maynard is one crazy bastid.

Posted by JohnQC 2021-08-12 15:28|| 2021-08-12 15:28|| Front Page Top

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