No charges to be filed in fire at Equal Rights Commission

Monday, Jan. 28, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

No charges will be filed against a former employee in a July 2000 blaze at the Nevada Equal Rights Commission offices, 1515 E. Tropicana Ave.

Attorney Frank Cremen said he has received confirmation from the attorney general's office that Charles H. Gratman, 63, of Henderson, will not be charged in connection with the two-alarm blaze that caused $700,000 in damage.

Gratman was arrested on suspicion of arson in early August 2000, posted a $3,000 bond and was released. He remained free awaiting disposition of the matter.

It is a relief for Gratman after a difficult two years that included a stroke, Cremen said.

"After he came back to the office after his stroke, his performance was off a little and he had a difference of opinion about what direction the office should be taking," Cremen said today. "When investigators came to talk to workers about who might have set the fire, someone blurted out Gratman's name."

Now that he is cleared of charges, "of course, he is happy, but he was always a little bewildered why he was accused in the first placed," Cremen said.

Cremen said prosecutors could not prove that the fire was caused by arson, though the Clark County fire department's arson-detection dog sniffed out flammable liquids in the burned-out building.

Brian Kunzi, a deputy attorney general, agreed that the case boiled down to whether there was enough scientific evidence.

"I don't feel there was enough to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," Kunzi said, noting that tests of materials from the fire by both the Clark County Fire Department and an insurance company came back negative on accelerants -- fuel for hastening the spread of the fire.

Gratman has received about $8,000 in back pay, Cremen said today, noting that his client now is retired.

Cremen said a witness told police that a black man with a beard was seen near the offices. Gratman has a beard, but is white, Cremen said.