The Unseen Cavaliers car club met Wednesday nights in the parking lot of an unremarkable strip mall 25 miles south of Washington, opening its gatherings to anyone who claimed an interest in that particular model Chevrolet. But as daylight faded last Wednesday, there were no engines idling and no car stereos thumping.
The club's leader, Patrick S. Walsh, 20, is in jail, accused of engineering Maryland's most extensive residential arson in recent memory -- fires that raged through an upscale development in Charles County that was attracting mostly black homebuyers.
Federal agents say a co-defendant, Jeremy D. Parady, told them that some or all of the men accused in the arson, including Walsh, met in the parking lot hours before setting the pre-dawn fires Dec. 6.
Six months later, Parady has pleaded guilty in the case, and Walsh and three other men are facing trials, the first of which is set to begin July 12. Parady has acknowledged that race played a role in his actions, but no single motive has been ascribed to all the alleged participants.
Rather, some law enforcement officials said, a variety of aims appear to have found expression in a single act: the destruction of a dozen half-million-dollar houses under construction at the Hunters Brooke subdivision in Indian Head.
"I think everybody had their own motives, including those who just like to set fires," Charles Sheriff Frederick E. Davis said.
Six men ages 20 to 22 were arrested in rapid succession beginning 10 days after the conflagration. Charges against one man, Michael E. Gilbert, were dropped eventually. His attorney has said Gilbert has made no agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.
Walsh's lawyer, William B. Purpura, said his client "immediately and continually denied" any involvement. Attorneys for the remaining defendants -- Michael M. Everhart, Roy T. McCann and Aaron L. Speed -- declined to comment.
According to law enforcement affidavits, all of the suspects but Walsh implicated others and, to varying degrees, incriminated themselves during interviews with investigators. A federal judge threw out a written statement investigators took from Speed, whose case is scheduled to be heard first, saying that Speed was improperly questioned after invoking his right to counsel.
The suspects come from four towns in two counties, but some have connections that go back years: Parady and Speed attended elementary school together in Waldorf. Speed and Everhart attended the same high school, also in Waldorf, at the same time.
Others are linked through their interest in cars and in the Wednesday-night gathering, informally called "the car show," which drew people from as far away as Montgomery County. Gilbert allegedly told investigators he was a member of the Unseen Cavaliers. Gilbert's girlfriend, April Wilkinson, said three suspects -- Everhart, McCann and Parady -- also appeared regularly at the gatherings.
Yet there were tensions among them as well. In September, Parady alleged in court that McCann and Walsh had threatened him. A judge ordered McCann, but not Walsh, to stay away from Parady until March. Parady's sister has said her brother and Everhart, once inseparable, have recently become estranged.
