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KENNEBEC COUNTY, MAINE, AUTHORITIES announced that on Wednesday a man was arrested in South Carolina on a warrant charging him with setting the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop on fire in Vassalboro last June. The 3-alarm blaze brought nine fire departments to the scene.
AP / Joel Page photo
Firegeezer reported the story HERE and HERE following the fire of the controversial business in the small town. When it opened in February of last year the citizens complained about the public nudity taking place in the coffee shop, claiming that it had no uplifting benefits to the town. However, the proprietor Donald Crabtree, who lives in the building, stood up to the pressure and remained open. The arson of the uninsured business occurred just hours after Crabtree had applied for a business license to open a strip club in an adjoining section of the building, leading people to think that community morality had a connection with the fire.
That wasn’t the case though, as the wanted man who was arrested yesterday turned out to be a former boyfriend of one of the waitresses. Raymond J. Bellavance Jr., 49, was arrested in Spartanburg, South Carolina, yesterday and is being held pending extradition to Maine.
The Kennebec Journal reports:
Fire Marshal’s Office investigator Kenneth MacMaster said he had few details of the arrest. “He was apprehended without incident, so I’ve been told,” he said.
Bellavance had been on the lam since he was released from jail in Augusta (Maine) on April 2 after being held on an unrelated charge. Authorities received judicial permission to arrest him on the arson charge 24 hours later, and a warrant was issued April 5.
Raymond Bellavance
Donald Crabtree, owner of the coffee shop in Vassalboro, said “I feel safer now that they got him.” Krista MacIntyre, of Augusta, a former waitress at the coffee shop and Bellavance’s ex-girlfriend, said Wednesday afternoon she had just learned of his detention from authorities. She didn’t know why he would have been in South Carolina.
According to Crabtree, Bellavance made accusations of illegal behavior by MacIntyre, then a waitress at the shop, and demanded she be fired, but Crabtree said he found no reason to do so. Crabtree said Bellavance “did threaten me that, if I didn’t have her fired, he would have me shut down.”
Bellavance is scheduled to appear in court today for an extradition hearing.
Update, Friday morning:
The U. S. Marshal Office disclosed that Bellavance was recently hired as a roofer in Greenville and he was arrested when he was caught on a roof and forced to surrender without incident. He was living in a tent in a wooded area.
WYFF-TV Ch. 4 Greenville reported on the arrest yesterday:
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Also on FireGeezer…
- Topless Coffee Shop Tosses in the Bra – May 8, 2011
- Topless Coffee Shop Arsonist Convicted – December 31, 2011
- Case Closed on Topless Coffee Shop Arson – May 11, 2012
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