Stuart will live with a friend in Ware.
11.02.2012 | SPRINGFIELD -- George Stuart appears in court Friday.
SPRINGFIELD -- George W. Stuart, the retired Springfield police officer arrested after an arson and standoff at his Ludlow home in July, was arraigned in Hampden Superior Court Friday on a charge of burning a dwelling.
Stuart, 71, was indicted on the charge in September but was arraigned Friday because he had just been released from Baystate Medical Center, where he was recovering from complications from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his stomach.
He walked into court dressed in jeans, a blue shirt and sneakers. In some previous court appearances he had been in a wheelchair. Stuart denied the charge.
Stuart had been free after posting $250,000 bail several months ago. That bail was set under the condition that the bail matter would be looked at again by the court as soon as he was released from the hospital.
Judge Bertha D. Josephson accepted the conditions of release agreed upon by defense lawyer Thomas J. Rooke and Assistant District Attorney James Forsyth.
Stuart will continue to wear the electronic monitoring device he wore while in the hospital. He is to live with a friend, Jeffrey Roberts, at 23 Shoreline Drive in Ware. He can only leave the house for medical and legal appointments.
Under the conditions of his release, Stuart must attend outpatient counseling.
According to the state law under which Stuart was charged, a conviction would be punished "by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 20 years, or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment."
Stuart shot himself following a 7 1/2-hour standoff with police in Ludlow on July 18.
Stuart, who was apparently distraught over a pending divorce, claimed in a letter he wrote to his wife to have shredded $1.5 million in cash, stocks and bonds and used the material to start the fire that severely damaged their home.
Forsyth said Roberts was the friend who spent the night with Stuart prior to the standoff and was the one who went to police asking them to do a well-being check which ended with the standoff.
A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Jan. 31.
Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said the agreement for conditions of Stuart's release came after his office reviewed the discharge report and psychological report from Baystate Medical Center.