A federal judge has rejected a former fire department captain's request to exclude statements he made to police about nearly two dozen suspicious wildfires set in a Vermont town in 2008.
George Allen faces a charge of conspiring to set fires on federal public lands.
Two other former department members have been sentenced for their roles in starting grass fires in the Green Mountain National Forest in Walllingford.
The Rutland Herald reports Allen isn't charged with setting any fires, but prosecutors say he directed other department members to do so. They say they have tape-recorded acknowledgements made by Allen from police.
Allen's lawyer argued Allen didn't realize they could be used against him. A psychologist determined Allen had a level of abstract reasoning normally ascribed to an 8-year-old child.
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