Crime & Safety

White Supremacist's Pals to Snitch in Arson Case?

Two of racist agitator Brian Moudry's friends had been arrested in connection with the alleged arson that now has him locked up while he awaits trial. Will they testify against him?

Hours after someone set fire to a house where nine people were sleeping, the Joliet police arrested two men and charged them with arson.

The cases against these men were dropped, for one almost immediately and the other months later, and now the man at whose house they were drinking when the fire started has been arrested in their stead.

That man— white power leader Brian Moudry—appeared in federal court Thursday on charges of arson, using fire to interfere with housing rights on the basis of race and using fire to commit another felony. FBI agents arrested Moudry May 29.

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The nine people sleeping in the burning house were black. Moudry, a vocal, active racist, lived seven doors down from them on South Reed Street.

Moudry was mentioned in reports chronicling the fire investigation, but it was two other men who were charged with torching the house.

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Marcin Golebiowski, 34, of Des Plaines and Daniel Marlin, 32, of East Peoria had both traveled to Moudry's house for a "party," according to police reports. The three went to Jewel and bought beer, then drank together in Moudry's garage.

Moudry's unidentified girlfriend was also drinking in the garage, police said.

The cops showed up around midnight and told the partiers to turn down their music. Marlin reportedly told officers that he, Golebiowski and Moudry "went into the garage where they were sitting around talking about politics and such, and the next thing he remembers is waking up with the police there in the garage area."

Prior to waking up to find the cops in the garage, Marlin said he, Golebiowski and Moudry "drank throughout the night to the point he was completely intoxicated," according to a police report.

The cops were in the garage because a 16-year-old from the torched house told them she smelled smoke about 4 a.m. and saw a small fire outside. She ran out and caught sight of a man splashing gasoline on the corner of the house, police said. The man was white and had a "tattoo near his head."

Moudry is heavily tattooed. He has the words "Blue Eyed Devil" inked into the back of his shaved head and sports drawings of horns and the Nazi SS logo, among other things.

The girl said she and the man looked right at each other before he fled toward Moudry's residence and she ran back inside to tell her mother what was going on, police said.

The man was wearing an orange shirt, police said, just like Golebiowski. And the girl told police she was sure Golebiowski was the man pouring gas on her house.

Marlin was released by police the same day he was arrested and never even made it to the . Golebiowski wasn't as fortunate. He was jailed on charges of residential and aggravated arson. He eventually bonded out, but the case against him lingered for nearly nine months before prosecutors dropped the case.

Moudry had been subpoenaed as a witness in Golebiowski's case. Now that Moudry's the one facing arson charges, will Golebiowski and Marlin be called to testify against the man whose garage they were drinking in when the family down the block's house was set on fire?

"I don't know anything about it yet," Golebiowski said, claiming he has yet to be informed by prosecutors whether he will play a part in the Moudry case.

Golebiowski said he was never a member of Moudry's white power organization and that he no longer associates with the jailed racist.

"As far as I know, Brian doesn't hang out with anyone," Golebiowski said.

Marlin could not be reached to discuss the case.

Randall Samborn, the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment on whether either man was to be used as a witness against Moudry.


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