WOODSIDE — A 53-year-old Long Island man was arraigned last week on charges of arson and criminal mischief, the Queens district attorney’s office said. James Millbrandt, of Lincoln Road in the hamlet of Franklin Square, L.I., allegedly set fire to clothes in another man’s apartment in Woodside in December, the DA said.
A witness supposedly told police that on Dec. 9 at around 11:40 a.m., Millbrandt allegedly said about the Woodside resident that he was going to “burn his house down,” the DA said. In response, the witness reported the incident to the superintendent of the Woodside building, the DA said. When the superintendent went to the apartment, Millbrandt was allegedly there and said the resident who lived there was not at home. Several minutes after the superintendent left, a tenant said there was smoke in the halls coming from the apartment, the DA said.
Police found a pile of clothes on top of turned-on stove burners in the apartment’s kitchen, the DA said. A surveillance video allegedly shows Millbrandt leaving the building around 11:47 a.m. and smoke coming from the apartment around 11:53 a.m. the DA said.
The resident had left Millbrandt alone in the apartment around 9 a.m., the DA said. He told police the damage costs more than $1,500, the DA said.
Millbrandt allegedly called the resident two days after the incident and said, “I’m sorry for starting the fire in your apartment,” the DA said.
His next court date is March 22, the DA said.
