COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The case of a woman who has been charged with second degree arson in connection with a March 2021 house fire on South Jefferson has been bound over to Branch County Circuit Court.
58-year-old Catherine Louise Allen waived her arraignment that was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Branch County District Court.
She is now scheduled to appear for a pre-trial conference in Circuit Court on August 1.
Allen was taken into custody by Coldwater Police shortly after the fire.
The arson charge was filed a month later, but the formal arraignment was put off as Allen underwent mental evaluations after a petition was filed in Branch County Probate Court.
Allen is accused of using a BIC lighter to light a one-foot-high stack of papers of fire in a back room closet.
According to court documents, she allegedly told investigators that “the Gods told her to burn it down.”
Coldwater Fire Chief David Schmaltz said at the time of the fire that the two-story wood-frame house was a total loss.
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