Arson suspects get new court date

The District Attorney's office charged Engineering junior Zayd Hammam, College sophomore Seth Schorr and Engineering sophomore Tim Young with arson and six related offenses after they allegedly set fire to a lunch box on the porch of the Tabard Society house at 41st and Pine streets in late February. At the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District Headquarters courtroom yesterday, Whitehead and defense attorneys Jim Coleman and Nick Nastasi told Municipal Court Judge Lynwood Blount that they had consented to move the preliminary hearing -- and possible trial -- downtown. The hearing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Monday in room 506 of the Criminal Justice Center at 13th and Filbert streets before Municipal Court Judge Francis Cosgrove. An arson conviction carries a maximum penalty of 15 to 25 years in prison and a $25,000 fine, but the students are unlikely to receive such a harsh penalty, police said recently. The three Zeta Psi brothers -- who said in police statements that the incident was a prank gone wrong -- had been suspended by their fraternity pending the outcome of the case. Coleman and Nastasi declined to comment on the case. -- Scott Lanman