Published: 2010-02-26 18:20:18
Author: Robert Moran | The Philadelphia Inquirer | February 9, 2010
A Bucks County chiropractor was charged with arson yesterday for a 2008 fire that destroyed his office and neighboring businesses - a fire he blamed on Spanish-speaking gang members.
A federal grand jury charged in a seven-count indictment that Jonathan P. Wiktorchik Jr. lied to investigators and had set the fire himself using gasoline.
The March 30, 2008, blaze destroyed Upper Bucks Chiropractic Center in Nockamixon, which Wiktorchik owned, as well as four other businesses in a strip mall on Mountain View Road.
The indictment said that Wiktorchik had his chiropractic license suspended after a guilty plea for insurance fraud and that his business subsequently began losing money.
Wiktorchik had pleaded guilty to insurance fraud on June 7, 2007. Thirteen days before his guilty plea, he obtained a $212,200 insurance policy on his business, according to the indictment. He received a partial payment of $50,000 after the fire.
Wiktorchik told investigators that he was camping with his son when the arson occurred, and just happened to have suffered a burn on his face from a wood stove, the indictment says.