An 18-year-old Haverhill High School student was arraigned Wednesday in Haverhill District Court on charges she, along with another student and a friend from New Jersey, allegedly set fire to an abandoned mill early Tuesday morning near downtown Haverhill.
Judge Cesar A. Archilla ordered Isabella A. Sargent released to her home at 15 S. Lincoln St. while monitored on a GPS tracking device and ordered her on 24/7 lockdown. Her two alleged accomplices are still at large. Bianca Ann Leonhart, also 18, reportedly returned to her home in Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J., yesterday morning by bus according to a Haverhill Police report. The third suspect is a juvenile.
Sargent was also ordered to undergo a mental health examination and follow up treatment, as necessary.
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Brittany Fraine told Archilla the trio entered the mill and, when they stumbled over a box of yarn, ignited it and then sprayed the fire with aerosol deodorant to accelerate it. When the fire flared, the trio raced out of the building and fled to Sargent’s house.
Sargent is charged with willingly and maliciously setting to burn the building and conspiring with two others. She was represented in court by attorney Denver Cherms of Haverhill-based Hutchinson Law Office.
A Haverhill School resource officer identified two of the teens through surveillance camera images.
The Haverhill Fire Department was dispatched at 2:40 a.m., Tuesday, April 28, to 14 Stevens St.—the same site as an eight-alarm blaze in 2015. Flames could be seen rising through all floors of the brick building and through the roof.
Meanwhile, Fire Chief Christopher Cesati, Mayor Melinda E. Barrett and Building Inspector Thomas Bridgewater said Stevens Street will be closed entirely for necessary demolition. As WHAV reported earlier, the city retained an outside consultant to evaluate the structure.
“Based on this professional evaluation, it has been determined that the building has sustained a critical loss of structural integrity and will require full demolition,” officials said.
The abandoned and boarded up mill is owned by Pentucket Textiles and Steven Shain of North Jupiter, Fla. The city previously placed liens on the property in an attempt to collect back taxes dating back to 2006, in 2014 to remove asbestos and other “safety nuisances or hazards” and in 2021 to recover $96,385 to secure the building and remove hazards following a Sept. 20, 2015 blaze. That fire destroyed another part of the complex—the former site of Hudson Machinery Company, 14-30 Stevens St., on the side of Little River. Three days later four teenagers, including two 15-year-olds, a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, were arrested and faced arson charges in Lawrence Juvenile Court.