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Accused Arsonists Go to Court Friday

By Alabama Public Radio

Birmingham, AL – Benjamin Nathan Moseley, Russell Lee DeBusk Junior and Matthew Lee Cloyd will go before a U-S Magistrate judge in Birmingham this afternoon. They were arrested this week and are accused of burning nine rural Alabama churches. The court hearing could determine whether the men will remain jailed on charges of conspiracy and setting fire to one of those churches -- Ashby Baptist in Bibb County. Authorities aren't saying much about a possible motive. But they say the three men may have been drinking alcohol at the time. Defense attorneys aren't saying much, either, other than the fires were not hate crimes.

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