NORTHAMPTON — An Easthampton man accused of unlawfully possessing and planting explosives was ordered held without bail Friday pending a dangerousness hearing.
Bryan O. Desmarais, 41, of 36 Ridgewood Terrace, pleaded not guilty to charges of throwing, placing or detonating explosives, possession of ammunition without a license, possession of an incendiary device and possession of explosives in Northampton District Court.
Neither police nor prosecutors commented on why Desmarais had the explosives or what he was doing or planning to do with them.
Easthampton Police, in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Massachusetts State Police, executed a search warrant at 142 Pleasant St., Suite 104A, on Thursday afternoon. The office is home to Bustin’ Bass Baits, which sells fishing equipment online. The building was evacuated for the police search and Desmarais was arrested that day.
On Feb. 6, Easthampton Police received reports of multiple explosions the night before off Pleasant Street near Lower Mill Pond. Investigators later found one unexploded and nine detonated explosive devices along the pond’s southerly bank as well as a boot print.
The location is approximately 200 yards away from Desmarais’ business office. His home on Ridgewood Terrace is across the street from mill buildings.
Police described the unexploded device as “a tube approximately 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter colored white, red and blue. Attached to the tube is a wire, orange in color. The orange wire is connected to a red and black wire.
“The two wires were joined with United States Postal Service Priority Mail packing tape. The black and red wire was connected to the AlphaFire firing module,” according to a narrative written by Easthampton Police detective Eric Alexander.
In court Friday, Desmarais’ attorney, Alan Rubin, successfully requested his client be evaluated to determine his competency to stand trial.
He is being held in Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections until his next court date, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 27.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Thomas said after the hearing that it “remains to be seen if more charges will be filed.”
Thomas declined to provide more information about the case, which remains under investigation.
According to court documents, police connected Desmarais with the explosives after a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was able to find the manufacturer of the firing module and contacted the business’ office in China, according Alexander’s report.
Through email, the agent was able to gain sales history information for purchases made in Massachusetts during the last 12 months, Alexander wrote.
One was a man out of Leominster, the other was Desmarais, who had two shipments — one in November and another in December – which included a total of 13 firing modules. Both shipments were sent to his Pleasant Street business address with an email associated with his business.
Police spoke with the building owner, James Whitmer, three days after the reported explosions.
Whitmer told police, Alexander wrote, that he received a text message from Desmarais on Feb. 8 that read “Get any inquiries for me today?”
“James Whitmer indicated that he would not have thought much about the text from Bryan Desmarais if he hadn’t had knowledge of the explosives being detonated 3 days earlier,” Alexander wrote in his report.
When police arrested Desmarais Thursday, Alexander wrote that Desmarais admitted to purchasing the firing modules but told investigator that he had given them to someone as a Christmas gift, according to court documents.
Inside the office suite, police found cardboard tubes similar to the one located on Lower Mill Pond as well as “precursor chemicals” including sulphur and aluminum powder which can be combined to create an explosive powder. Alexander wrote that police also observed flash powder, which is commonly used in explosives.
Outside the building Friday afternoon, numerous crews from Environmental Services Inc., an emergency oil and chemical spill cleanup company out of Connecticut, were seen removing items.
The hazmat crews had been on scene since 8:30 a.m Friday removing chemicals and substances, according to officer Chad Alexander.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m., Easthampton Firefighters were on scene as a precaution as chemicals were removed, Alexander wrote in a message.
Officers were seen loading two buckets white into a Easthampton Department of Public Works truck filled with sand and removing them from the scene.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com. Staff writer Caitlin Ashworth contributed to this report.