(The following story by Denny Walsh appeared on the Sacramento Bee website on August 21.)
SACRAMENTO — A Salvadoran national in the United States illegally is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation and is under indictment for allegedly lying about his whereabouts at the time of the March 15 blaze that destroyed the Union Pacific Railroad trestle along the American River Parkway, a federal prosecutor confirmed Monday.
In order to keep José Eduardo Moran-Marques, who is homeless, from disappearing while the investigation continued, he was arrested as a vagrant and then rearrested by federal authorities on May 18 on a charge of re-entering the United States illegally after being deported on Aug. 1, 2003.
That charge, however, was resolved Thursday when Moran-Marques was sentenced to time served by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr., making him eligible for deportation.
In order to continue his incarceration, a federal grand jury indicted him Thursday on three counts of making false statements.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham confirmed Monday that Moran-Marques, 31, is a subject of an ongoing investigation and that the fire referenced in the false statement charges against him is the trestle fire.
Lapham would not elaborate.
A source close to the probe, who does not wish to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said Moran-Marques told other homeless people that he set the fire in retaliation for police and park ranger harassment of transients and frequent raids on transient camps, some of which are near the trestle.
Sacramento County spokeswoman Chris Andis said park rangers have cited Moran-Marques several times for camping in the American River Parkway, although it doesn’t appear he has been cited this year. Andis said one of the citations was for camping on the south side of the American River near Northgate Boulevard, about a mile from the trestle, which is on the north side of the river.
The March 15 fire, which sent a plume of black smoke billowing thousands of feet into the air, interrupted freight and passenger rail service throughout the area. It consumed heavy-duty trestle timber and tracks west of the Capital City Freeway near Cal Expo.
Thursday’s indictment charges Moran-Marques with lying when he was questioned on May 15 as to where he was “at or about the time of the commencement of a fire that occurred on March 15, 2007, in the Arden area of Sacramento.”
In one count, Moran-Marques is accused of claiming during a May 15 interview that he was “in the area of 47th Avenue in Sacramento” at the time of the fire. Also on May 15, according to the indictment, he said he was “in the area of Folsom Lake” at the time of the fire.
These were both “false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement(s) of material fact,” the indictment charges.
In the third count of the indictment, he is accused of lying — again on May 15 — about his name.
Moran-Marques, who has six aliases and has provided authorities with at least two birth dates, was arrested in February in Sacramento County on a misdemeanor drug possession charge, according to court and jail records.
His criminal history in Sacramento includes three separate drunken driving charges to which he pleaded no contest in 2005, resulting in just over a year in prison and five years of probation, court records show.
Moran-Marques’ attorney, Dina Santos, declined to comment Monday.
Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Sacramento Fire Department and the Sacramento Police Department determined the fire to be human-caused and were treating it as a criminal investigation, ATF spokeswoman Nina Delgadillo said in May after Moran-Marques was arrested, although she made no mention of the arrest.
She said at the time that investigators were not sure how many people were responsible for the fire, but said investigators had assembled a good case. But, she said, they are hoping people will come forward with more information.
“We have a pretty good hand that we have close to our chest right now,” Delgadillo said in May. “We’d like to make the hand a better hand.”
Reported at 5:41 p.m. on March 15, the fire moved quickly, devouring a section of track. Within hours, investigators were describing the blaze as suspicious, partly because of how rapidly it spread.
Forensic evidence was sparse; no incendiary device was discovered, so investigators said they would have to rely heavily on witness interviews.
There are two rewards totaling $20,000 being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the fire. ATF and the Fire Department are offering a $10,000 reward and Union Pacific is offering $10,000.
In April, the railroad finished a new 1,400-foot concrete-and-steel trestle to replace the burned wooden structure. Construction was expedited because the fire-damaged freight line links the West Coast with the rest of the country.
Union Pacific officials declined Monday to comment on the latest indictment of Moran-Marques.
“We’re aware of the ongoing investigation,” UP spokesman James Barnes said. “We appreciate the tenacity of local authorities on this case. We will continue to support their efforts.”