New charges from a federal grand jury Tuesday charge developer Angelo Reyes with ordering the arson of two more Fair Haven properties to make way for his development plans.
Reyes, who’s 45, already faces charges connected to two Fair Haven arsons — the July 2009 arson of People’s Laundromat at 83 Lombard St. and the March 2005 arson of 42 Lombard St. A father-son pair has pleaded guilty to torching the laundromat at Reyes’ direction.
Click here to read the indictment released Tuesday by a grand jury sitting in New Haven.
Reyes has proclaimed his innocence. After his People’s Laundromat went up in flames, Reyes told the Independent in an emotional interview that he didn’t know who did it. (Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch.)
The new charges concern an October 2008 arson at 238 Poplar St. and a September 2002 arson at 139 Lloyd St., according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Tom Carson.
The grand jury concluded the motive for the arsons was to make way for development plans, according to Carson. In the Poplar Street case, Reyes is accused of telling an accomplice to torch a vacant house so that Reyes could build a wider driveway to “allow better access to [his] adjacent commercial properties on Grand Avenue.” After the arson, Reyes knocked down the home and developed a broader driveway there.
The indictment also accuses Reyes of ordering an accomplice to burn down a vacant home at 139 Lloyd “so that he could acquire the property at low cost, obtain mortgage and construction loans, build a driveway to [a nearby] landlocked property, and develop a multiple family apartment building on the landlocked parcel,” Carson wrote in a press release.
After the Lloyd Street arson, Reyes obtained 137 Lloyd. And with the help of a five-year, no-interest loan from City Hall’s Livable City Initiative, he built a multi-family apartment complex at the previously landlocked property, “with off-street parking and a driveway where the burned residence once sat.” Reyes sold that apartment complex in November 2004 for $281,000, according to Carson.
For the two new incidents, the grand jury charged Reyes with one count of wire fraud and two counts of using fire to commit wire fraud.
The indictment is not evidence of guilt, noted U.S. Attorney David Fein in a press release. “Charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”