SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
By: WNYT Staff
JOHNSTOWN, NY
A Fulton County couple was arraigned Friday morning on a three-count criminal indictment, charged with torching their own music shop last April to collect insurance money.
If the allegations against Garry Lane, 80, and his wife, Audrey Lane, 56, are true, the long time music merchants might need to prepare themselves for a long-playing version of Jailhouse Rock.
On the night of the fire, when Dad's Music in Johnstown burned to the ground, four fire companies battled the intense flames for better than six hours.
"It was an intense fire," said Mike McGrath, who runs Big Mike's across the road from the fire scene, and was there the night of the fire. "The firemen were going to the front, putting water on it, and then going to the back because the flames got higher and then the front got higher. It was one of the most massive fires I've ever seen."
"During the course of the fire, the roof collapsed and basically landed on top of the contents," said Louise Sira, the Fulton County district attorney.
Even though the contents of the music store were destroyed, items that included drums, guitars, and keyboards, an investigator with Traveler's Insurance caught a break while searching for evidence.
"He uncovered electronic evidence and turned it over to police," Sira said.
The district attorney says one thing led to another, and after executing a search warrant at the owner's home on nearby Stone Street, there was enough evidence to charge 80-year old Garry Lane and his wife Audrey Lane, 56, with three felonies: arson, conspiracy, and insurance fraud.
"In the days following the fire, Mr. and Mrs. Lane initiated a claim for insurance payments including $151,000 claiming lost contents," Sira says.
The building was insured for another $300,000 and based on rumors spreading through town at the time of the fire, some people don't seem surprised by the charges.
"From Day 1 everybody said, "Oh, I think he started it," McGrath stated, "But we sit here and have to wait and see what the facts are."
The Lanes are free tonight after each of them posted a $10,000 bond. The top counts in the indictment carry sentences of 5-to-15 years.