Volunteer Jim Thorpe is charged with taking $110, starting two fires
By Chris Parker
Morning Call
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Jim Thorpe volunteer firefighter already charged with arson who now faces a dozen felony counts in two more arsons and a charge of stealing money from the firehouse where he volunteered, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Christopher Karper, 19, of 23 E. Third St., sat quietly with his parents in the waiting room of District Judge Casimir Kosciolek of Lansford as he waited for his lawyer, Robert T. Yurchak and Assistant District Attorney Jean Engler to confer.
Several firefighters who were scheduled to testify in the case waited across the room.
Karper has claimed that he lit the fires as an initiation into an alleged gang known by its graffiti tags as KOS, for Kids on Skateboards or Killers of Open Spaces. Members have marked vehicles and trash containers throughout Jim Thorpe with KOS, police said.
Karper is accused of setting fire to Community Pharmacy in Jim Thorpe on Feb. 4 and a two-story garage behind a borough residence in December. He is also accused of stealing $110 in September from Fairview Hose Company in Jim Thorpe, where he volunteered as a firefighter.
At Karper’s Dec. 11 arraignment, Kosciolek set bail at $250,000 cash and ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation.
A 17-year-old Jim Thorpe boy also was charged with three counts of arson/endangering a person and other charges in the pharmacy case, according to Carbon County Chief Juvenile Probation Officer James Dodson.
Karper, a Jim Thorpe Area High School senior and a bingo worker at the borough’s Memorial Hall, had no previous criminal record.
On Dec. 6, he was charged with setting fire Dec. 5 to a hunting cabin at 1370 Germantown Road in the borough and jailed under $75,000 bail.
The latest charges Karper faces are two felony counts of arson/endangering persons and one felony count each of arson/endangering property, reckless burning or exploding, possession of explosive or incendiary materials or devices, causing or risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and conspiracy to commit arson, and a summary count of simple trespass.
The charges stem from the Feb. 4 blaze that destroyed the Community Pharmacy at 322 Center St. and an adjacent vacant apartment building. The fire caused $500,000 in damage. A firefighter was slightly hurt battling the blaze.
An affidavit filed by Jim Thorpe Detective Joseph Schatz and state police fire investigator David Klitsch said the fire was set in the buildings’ common walkway using gasoline.
Karper also was charged with one felony count each of arson/endangering persons, arson/endangering property, reckless burning or exploding, criminal mischief and one summary count of simple trespass in a December 2 fire that damaged a two-story garage owned by Agnes Busocker behind 224 South St., Jim Thorpe.
Karper also was charged with theft in connection with the money theft from the Fairview Hose Company. The affidavit said Karper told police he used bolt cutters to remove the lock on a filing cabinet a nd t ook $110 that he used for his car