Jury indicts cop for setting fires on Capitol Hill

A federal grand jury returned a one-count misdemeanor indictment Wednesday against a U.S. Capitol Police officer accused of setting fire in a Senate office building.

Karen Emory, 36, of Waldorf, Md., faces up to one year in jail. The indictment stems from a fire inside a ladies restroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Nov. 2.

{mosads}An arraignment date has not yet been set by the court.

Emory is charged with willfully injuring or committing any depredation against property of the United States, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor said in a statement.

The indictment lists the damaged property as “toilet roll dispensers and toilet tissue under the control of the Architect of the Capitol.”

The Nov. 2 incident followed a series of suspicious fires in Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill, all of which were quickly extinguished. There have been no injuries reported in relation to the fires.

But a fire reported on Oct. 31 led to  evacuations from Hart and Dirksen offices. That incident followed four, small trashcan fires reported on Oct. 3 in the same two buildings. Three of those fires were found in women’s restrooms.

According to a Justice Department statement, Emory’s indictment only related to the Nov. 2 fire. The other fires remain under investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police.

If convicted, Emory faces up to one year in jail.

In announcing the indictment, Taylor and Chief U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip D. Morse, Sr. commended “the excellent work of U.S. Capitol Police Criminal Investigation Division, particularly the lead investigator, Detective Nettie Watts, and the U.S. Capitol Police, Office of the Inspector General. They also commended Assistant U. S. Attorney Angela Schmidt, who indicted the case and will be prosecuting it.”