Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire. ROTFL!

http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/arti...-bethlehem.htm

Ex-fireman sentenced for arson
By Peggy Wright, Daily Record

A 42-year-old man, dubbed "a pyromaniac" by an assistant prosecutor because of prior arson convictions, was sentenced Friday to 10
years in prison for setting fires in 2001 at two vacant cottages at the Bethlehem Hermitage on Pleasant Hill Road in Chester
Township.

The 10-year term, with five years of parole ineligibility, imposed on Richard Meleski Jr. was less than the 15-year sentence that
Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Charles O'Connell wanted Superior Court Judge John J. Harper to set.

"In laymen's terms he is a pyromaniac," O'Connell said. "This individual likes to set fires for whatever reason, and that problem
has to be dealt with."

A Morris County jury on June 5 found Meleski, a former volunteer firefighter in Iselin, guilty of two counts of arson, or recklessly
placing the hermitage cottages in danger of being destroyed. Jurors rejected more serious counts of aggravated arson, which required
proof that his specific purpose was to burn down the bungalows. The blazes did cause about $48,000 in damage to the two cottages.

The distinction by the jury was noted by the judge, who said he believed Meleski set the fires at the religious hermitage as "a cry
for help." Although Meleski has two prior convictions in Middlesex County for arson, and other convictions for calling in false fire
alarms and burglary, the judge called the April 9, 2001, fires "an aberrant" deed by Meleski.

Harper said he believed that emotional problems, a drinking habit and stress "coalesced" that April night so that Meleski reacted by
setting debris on fire outside the door of one unoccupied cabin and lighting curtains in a second cottage.

Defense lawyer Alfred Gellene said that Meleski had a history of mental health issues, and "is certainly not the offender who would
deserve the maximum the court could impose. One thing he really does need is to be in a counseling situation."

Harper ordered that Meleski receive therapy in prison for alcoholism and, if available, for fire-setting propensities.

Meleski claimed at trial that he felt a religious calling to the contemplative life of a hermit. While hiking the Appalachian Trail
in the fall of 2000, he called the Bethlehem Hermitage, spoke to its founder, the Rev. Eugene Romano, and received permission to
stay in a cabin on the grounds as "a live-in" while he pondered whether a hermit's life was his true vocation.

Romano, a key witness at the trial, said that Meleski was an excellent carpenter and laborer. But he said he discerned that Meleski
was not fit for a hermit's life, in part because he could not master daily prayers, a fundamental and time-consuming part of the
solitary life of a hermit.

After Meleski's arrest on April 10, 2001, detectives found a small television, wine bottles, a police scanner and other articles in
his cottage that indicated that he had not made a commitment to a hermit's self-denial of material goods.

Romano, dressed in his denim habit and accompanied to court by hermit Sister Mary Magdalen, addressed the judge at sentencing.
Romano said he knew that Meleski had been in state prison before, but did not know he had prior arson convictions when he agreed to
let him stay at the hermitage. He said he believed Meleski needed serious counseling and lifelong supervision.

"The hermits and I want Richard to know that we have not abandoned him," Romano said in court. "He has been in our hearts and in our
prayer over these past two years and will continue to be there in the future. We appreciate all that he did for us that was good and
we forgive all that was not good."

Meleski gave police a confession but claimed at trial that he made it up because he believed that it would please Romano and ensure
a continued home for himself at the hermitage. On Friday, Gellene read a statement that Meleski prepared, in which he blamed his
troubles on drinking and the early deaths of his parents. He again denied in the letter that he set the fires at the hermitage.


Peggy Wright can be reached at or (973) 267-1142.