A gay couple whose downtown bookstore was firebombed last September have decided to leave this southwestern Utah town, citing a climate of hatred and police indifference.
Claude Schneider and Dave Hamilton, who locked the doors of their Agave bookstore for good last week, criticized St. George police for their handling of the case, which remains unsolved."Because of the firebombing and the aftermath, we are closing the business and leaving Utah," said Schneider, who says police wanted to give the owners a polygraph test before beginning an investigation. "We continue to be very uncomfortable and are concerned about our safety."
Police Chief Jon Pollei has maintained a California couple with white-supremacist beliefs are prime suspects in not only the Agave arson but also pipe bombings at Woodward Elementary School, Dixie Discount Auto, and Star Flag and Display. There were no injuries in any of the incidents.
When police searched the St. George home of Sean Riker and Paula Castillo in November, they reported finding explosive materials and stolen property.
The two were arrested in December in Olympia, Wash., on suspicion of shoplifting. They were returned to St. George and then transferred to the Salt Lake County Jail.
However, investigators have been unable to substantiate any white-supremacist connections of the suspects. Riker has a long record of property crimes and other offenses, but none for hate crimes.
Wade Farraway, deputy Washington County attorney, says no motive has surfaced in the one charge filed against the couple - possession of an unexploded 10-inch pipe bomb recovered near a Nov. 2 car explosion on St. George's Main Street.
Forgery, burglary and other state charges have been dismissed against the couple for now, Farraway said.
The Agave owners are not surprised that Riker and Castillo - who remain jailed without bail while awaiting their federal trial on bomb-possession charges - have not been prosecuted for the bookstore arson.
"We do not feel the modus operandi connects them to us because ours was not a pipe bomb, it was a petrol bomb," Schneider said. "The others had thefts involved and not a penny was taken from us."
The Agave owners say that months before the fire, a man espousing white-supremacist views was bothering bookstore customers and was asked to leave. That night, a rock was thrown through a store window, they said.
When the store reopened after the fire, which caused $200,000 in damage, the owners say they were subjected to continual threats and insults.
"We have been called `faggot' in our own shop," Schneider said. "But I will say a large percentage of the town supported us and shopped here. We had a successful business in providing something that St. George didn't have before, but we can't take this anymore."