The fifteen year-old Cape Elizabeth boy arrested last June for setting off a pipe bomb on Casino Beach, appeared in court last week and denied two class C felony charges brought against him.

The boy is being charged by the Cumberland County District Attorney with two class C felonies: criminal use of explosives and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. He is being prosecuted as a juvenile.

When Judge Keith Powers began the hearing last Thursday, Rick Berne, the lawyer representing the boy, apologized to Powers for not wearing a tie. Berne broke his collarbone in a bicycling accident a few weeks ago, which postponed the boy’s arraignment, originally scheduled for May 24, to June 8.

The Current’s policy prohibits naming juveniles charged in criminal cases except for those juveniles charged with the most serious felony charges.

“Do you understand the charges pending against you,” the judge asked the defendant. Berne answered for the boy, explaining that he went over the boy’s rights extensively with his parents. “I think they understand the rights,” he said.

The judge, addressing the boy directly, asked whether he understood his rights. The boy told the judge that he did.

The boy has been under the supervision of a juvenile community corrections officer since last July, said Assistant District Attorney, Christine Thibeault after the arraignment. He was released to his parents last July under certain conditions which included, regular meetings with his corrections officer, abiding by a curfew, attending school and he is not allowed to possess materials that could be used to create explosives.

Thibeault said so far the boy has complied with the conditions of his release. “We haven’t heard a peep out of him, he’s been doing really well so far,” he said. Both Berne and Thibeault agree the boy is in good shape to receive a minimal sentence. “We are hopeful that we’ll reach a fair resolution, I don’t think the D.A. is looking to incarcerate him,” said Berne.

Berne said described the boy as a “gentle, placid, quiet and intellectually curious kid.”

The boy became interested in fireworks, Berne continued. “That’s what he believed and still believes he was working with,” Berne said.

Berne said the boy first started experimenting with scraps of fireworks, then moved onto using cardboard tubes to experiment with and then obtained copper tubing.

Prior to the incident on Casino Beach, Berne said the boy infrequently tested out his products. “He set them off,” said Berne.

Berne said the boy’s parents knew what he was doing the night on the beach. The boy and three or four friends went down to the beach, where Berne said they often played.

Before they started setting off what the boy believed was a homemade firework, he and his friends videotaped their experiment. The video of the boy detonating bombs on the beach was discovered after his arrest. One of three other juveniles on the beach that night revealed the existence of the video in a recorded statement taken three days after the boy’s arrest.

Berne said they tried setting one off that was a dud, but the next one exploded with a loud blast and the kids packed up shop from there and went home. “I don’t know if it frightened the kids, but they were surprised and they shut it down,” said Berne, adding the teens thought they had packed everything and taken it home.

Cameron Gale, a beachfront resident, first discovered what has since been categorized as a pipe bomb on June 12 last year, when he was on the beach collecting trash with his daughter. Assuming it was litter, he picked it up and tossed it into his daughter’s sand pail. Gale spent about five hours on the beach with the un-detonated bomb lying beside his beach towel.

Upon further investigation, Gale realized it was not just a piece of litter. He then handed it over to Cape Elizabeth police who identified it as an explosive and began an investigation.

A few days later, an anonymous tip relayed through a lawyer, led police to the boy’s home, where they discovered bomb-making materials in the basement. Among the items found were copper pipes and caps, wires, fuses and a wooden rack for holding the pipes.

The boy was arrested June 15 and charged with criminal use of explosives. The boy’s mother, who received a box from a “supermarket for pyrotechnics professionals” at the Old Port company where she works, was not charged.

Berne maintains that his client was only building homemade fireworks for entertainment. “I don’t think anybody believes that he set out to build an explosive, there was no plan to do anything nefarious,” said Berne.

The boy has had two psychological evaluations in the past year. Both times, the psychologists found, “he presents no danger to his classmates or anybody else,” said Berne.