Remember the big fire in May that burned down the Greenpoint Terminal Market? Leszek Kuczera, the only person charged with setting the fire, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors yesterday that will keep him out of jail. In the agreement Mr. Kuczera, a homeless alcoholic, pled o contest to burglary and criminal mischief charges. He will spend about eight months in an upstate alcohol treatment center and then serve three years' probation. The Post quotes Justice Abraham Gerges as saying "The defendant does need whatever support he can get."
If Kuczera successfully completes the alcohol treatment prosecutors will drop the burglary charge. According to Sam Getz, Kuczera's lawyer, the misdemeanor conviction for criminal mischief will not be enough to deport the Polish immigrant.
Aside from 9/11 the ten-alarm fire was the largest in the city in ten years. At first Kuczera allegedly confessed to setting the fire to burn insulation off of several hundred pounds of scavenged copper wire. Shortly thereafter upstate contractor Zbigniew Sarna claimed that Kuczera worked for him and that the two had breakfast together upstate on the morning of the fire. Kuczera later denied confessing, saying he was under the influence of a hangover and that he thought the police were asking him about a different fire.
Gothamist on the Greenpoint Warehouse Fire.
Photo by Tien Mao on Flickr.
