OU Employee Charged With Arson
Susan K. Lauterbach
Accused Of Setting Fires In Chemistry
Building
POSTED:
11:05 am CST November 19, 2009
UPDATED: 10:04 pm CST November
19, 2009
NORMAN, Okla. -- A University of
Oklahoma employee has been charged with arson in connection with three
campus fires.
Susan K. Lauterbach, 46, was
formally charged in Cleveland County District Court on Tuesday, accused
of setting three fires on campus since Sept.
8.
Cleveland County Assistant District
Attorney Richard Sitzman said she was charged with first-degree arson
because the fires had been set in an occupied
building.
Lauterbach was released on $75,000
bond and is expected back in court in December. Each charge carries a
maximum 35-year sentence.
According to
information in a probable cause affidavit, Lauterbach set a fire on
Sept. 8 in a closet inside the Chemistry Annex building, Room 326. She
is also accused of setting a fire on Sept. 10 in a recycle bin at the
chemistry building and yet another on Sept. 11 in a stairwell at the
chemistry building.
An investigator said the
first fire was set by lighting paper towels on fire inside a locked
teaching assistant's closet. Officials said this fire caused $13,000 in
damage.
The investigator noted that
Lauterbach was the primary person assigned to lab safety but that her
"lack of interpersonal skills had been specifically criticized and noted
during her personnel
evaluation."
Specifically, investigators
said, Lauterbach had an adversarial relationship with her supervisor. In
an e-mail dated Aug. 18, Lauterbach allegedly wrote, "I'm not fighting
him anymore. If the building burns, it's not my
problem."
Investigators said she had
requested extra compensation for her efforts to clean and restore Room
326 in the Chemistry Annex Building after a previous fire on Oct. 8,
2008. Because that request was denied, investigators believe this room
was targeted by Lauterbach.
The second fire
was lit inside a blue plastic paper-recycle container in the hallway
outside of room No. 304 in the chemistry building. A teaching assistant
noticed the fire, and another chemistry faculty member found a piece of
burned newspaper inside the recycle
bin.
After the second incident, Lauterbach
allegedly tried to interfere with the investigation process,
interrupting interview efforts between the university's fire inspector
and a chemistry faculty member, investigators
said.
The third fire was set inside a blue
plastic paper-recycle bin inside a stairwell that connects the Chemistry
Annex building and the chemistry building itself. A faculty member found
the fire and discovered burned papers inside the recycle
bin.
The affidavit indicates that Lauterbach
was angry with the chemistry department for not including her in
building safety conversations and that she felt unappreciated and
undercompensated.
Lauterbach was fired from
the university this week. She had been on paid administrative leave
until charges were filed in the case.
She did
not respond to attempts to reach her on
Thursday.