Port Orford man indicted for high school arson

GOLD BEACH – A 19-year-old Port Orford man was indicted by a Curry County grand jury on Thursday on charges of first-degree arson, aggravated theft in the first degree and two counts of second-degree burglary stemming from a crime spree at Pacific High School north of Port Orford in early October.

Timothy Allen Maynard was arrested in Kiowa County, Okla., and has waived extradition. Officials said he is expected to be back in Curry County in about two weeks.

Security has been set at $200,000.

Maynard’s indictment charges that he started a fire at the high school that caused more than $50,000 damage and that fire on the night of Oct. 7-8 was to evade criminal sanctions for another crime. It also charges him with the theft of computers valued at more than $10,000 from the school that same night. The first burglary charge said he entered the school that night with the intent to commit theft and arson. The second burglary charge said on the night of Oct. 5-6, he entered a building at the school to commit theft and criminal mischief.

Sheriff John Bishop said earlier that deputies have located and seized the 20 laptop computers that were stolen from the high school.

“The computers were wet and appeared to have been hidden in the location for a period of time,” Bishop said. “The computers were dried out and then transported to the Oregon State Police Crime Lab.”

Bishop said he expects that all the computers were ruined.

On Oct. 23, sheriff’s officers arrested three people in the vandalism spree in which the school’s cranberry bogs, greenhouse and water tanks were damaged. The 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl have since been released to the custody of their parents, Bishop said.

Meanwhile, another boy is facing multiple charges of first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree arson, aggravated theft, second-degree burglary, numerous counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and first-degree trespass.

Bishop said this suspect is in juvenile custody on unrelated matters.

The sheriff said the 16-year-old boy who has been released to his parents is facing charges of second-degree burglary and first-degree trespass.

Bishop said the two girls would be charged with trespassing.

“All charges are subject to change as the District Attorney and the Juvenile Department review the case,” Bishop said. The sheriff’s office during the first part of October responded to several calls at the Pacific High School regarding criminal mischief, arson, theft and other crimes and has spent many hours in putting these cases together, Bishop said.

Port Orford-Langlois Superintendent Mike Lane said there were multiple acts of vandalism at the school over a three-day period which resulted in the closure of the school for a day.

He said maintenance workers discovered on Oct. 5 that someone had entered the locked water system area and broke pipes, destroyed an expensive gauge, and temporarily disabled the water supply.

Workers repaired the water supply, and school was not interrupted, Lane said. The following night the system was attacked again with no effect on water to the school, but there was more plumbing damage.