HLS Alum Fined for Torching Chapel with 9/11 Remains

Brian A. Schroeder, a 2009 Harvard Law School graduate who pleaded guilty to setting fire to a chapel containing Sept. 11 victims’ remains and mementos, had his fine for the crime set at $50,000 at a court hearing Monday.

While prosecutors pushed for jail time and a fine of $180,000, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller said that Schroeder would pay only $50,000, according to media reports.

In court proceedings last December, Schroeder pleaded guilty to burglary, criminal mischief, and cemetery desecration. At the time, Uviller also ruled against a jail sentence, instead putting Schroeder on probation with mandatory community service and alcohol counseling.

While none of the victims’ remains that were temporarily housed in the New York City chapel were harmed in the arson, many items that family and friends of victims had placed at the chapel were destroyed.

At the time, the New York Daily News branded him "New York’s newest Public Enemy #1."

Schroeder turned himself in, claiming that he was intoxicated at the time and that he barely remembered his actions.

—Staff writer Leanna B. Ehrlich can be reached at lehrlich@college.harvard.edu.