Bowling Green, Ky- On October 9, 2024, a federal grand jury in Bowling Green delivered an indictment accusing a man from Cumberland County, Kentucky, of setting fire to the City Hall in Burkesville, Kentucky. The statement was made by Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr., ATF Louisville Field Division Special Agent in Charge R. Shawn Morrow, and U.S. Attorney Michael A.
Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky. The indictment states that Nathan Riddle, 47, was charged with both arson of a building impacting interstate commerce and arson of a building receiving government assistance.
The City of Burkesville, Kentucky, possessed the Burkesville City Hall, which was maliciously damaged by fire on October 25, 2020. The structure was part of a business that had an impact on interstate commerce, and the City of Burkesville got federal funding.
Riddle got five years of imprisonment
On October 17, 2024, Riddle appeared in court for the first time before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The defendant was ordered to be held pending further proceedings by the court.
Riddle could receive a minimum term of five years in jail and a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison if found guilty. Any sentence will be decided by a federal district court judge after taking other statutory considerations and the sentencing guidelines into account.
The federal system does not have parole. The Kentucky State Police and ATF are looking into this situation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Yurchisin II of the United States Attorney’s Bowling Green Branch Office.