NORWALK — A Stamford man was charged Friday with trying to set fire to the prosecutor’s office inside the Norwalk courthouse.
Joseph Stephenson, 47, was served with an arrest warrant at the MacDougall Correctional Institution and charged with attempted first-degree arson, first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief and interfering with a search warrant. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
An alarm summoned police to the Norwalk Courthouse at 10:49 p.m. March 3. When police arrived they found that someone had broken a window, gone into the state’s attorney’s office and tried to start a fire.
The person responsible fled through a rear door, police said.
Western District Major Crime Squad detectives tried to obtain a DNA sample from Stephenson when they served the arrest warrant. He refused, resulting in the interfering with a search warrant change, police said.
By David Owens, Hartford Courant