BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has released a Massachusetts man to home confinement after he was accused of trying to set fire to a Jewish-sponsored assisted living center. Judge Katherine Robertson released 36-year-old John Michael Rathbun on Wednesday shortly after he was charged with attempted arson. The judge’s decision garnered a written objection from U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow, who writes that Robertson’s decision to release Rathbun “appears to have been greatly influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” Officers say they found Rathbun’s blood stains on a full gas canister that had a Christian religious pamphlet burned out in the nozzle at the entrance of Ruth’s House in Longmeadow on April 2.
