Video footage showing a 15-year-old Cape Elizabeth High School student detonating homemade bombs on Casino Beach June 11 has been confiscated as part of an ongoing police investigation.

The boy, arrested June 15 on a felony charge of criminal use of explosives related to his alleged manufacturing of pipe bombs in his basement, was videotaped by another juvenile with a handheld digital video camera, according to a search warrant filed in Portland District Court by Cape Elizabeth Police Officer Scott Thompson and executed July 5.

The existence of the video footage was revealed by one of three other juveniles on the beach that night in a recorded statement taken three days after the suspect’s arrest on June 15.

The family did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.

Ned Chester, the boy’s lawyer, said he had not seen the video and could not comment on how it might affect the case. However, he said there were a lot of questions that would need to be answered first, such as whether the identity of the people in the footage can be determined, if what is actually going on in the footage is a crime and the dating of the footage.

“They have to prove everything,” he said.

He said the boy would enter a denial of any charges at his arraignment Aug. 4.

“We don’t have much info at this point,” Chester said. “What we know about this case is mostly what you’ve read in the newspaper.”

It was the discovery of an unexploded pipe bomb on Casino Beach by a nearby resident June 12, the day after the video was shot, that began the investigation by the Cape Elizabeth Police Department.

A few days later an anonymous tip led the police to get a search warrant for the 15-year-old boy’s home on a small street off of Mitchell Road. They discovered what they say are bomb-making materials in the basement, as well as a cardboard box mailed to the boy’s mother’s office in the Old Port from a fireworks company.

The suspect was arrested on a charge of criminal use of explosives, a Class C felony, but was not charged with anything related to the bomb found on the beach. His mother has not been charged with a crime.

According to the second search warrant, three juveniles came forward after the suspect’s arrest and completed statements that they were on the beach with the suspect the night of June 11.

Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Neil Williams said all three juveniles were Cape Elizabeth residents about the same age as the suspect, but he said one of the juveniles did not attend Cape schools.

Williams said police believe there were no other people on the beach, apart from the suspect and the other three juveniles.

The juvenile who told police about the video footage gave a recorded statement on June 18. In his statement the juvenile said the suspect had a number of metal tubes on the beach the night of the 11th and explained the fuses and method of detonation of the pipe bombs to the accompanying juveniles.

This juvenile also said he had been given a handheld digital-type video recorder by the suspect and asked to film the suspect detonating the pipe bombs. The juvenile claimed he captured about three minutes of footage.

Williams said he had not seen the tape yet, but “it will hopefully show us a little about what (the suspect) was doing at that time.”

In the affidavit attached to the second search warrant Officer Scott Thompson claimed two counts of criminal use of explosives could potentially be brought against the boy, one as a result of the materials seized in the first search and a second for the detonation of explosives on the beach the night of June 11.

Thompson also claimed the boy could be charged with two counts of reckless conduct, one for the detonation of explosives on the beach and a second for leaving one of the pipe bombs behind.

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Juvenile Division will handle the case and will decide what charges will be brought against the boy. The DA’s office did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Cape Elizabeth Police Capt. Brent Sinclair said the DA’s office is probably waiting for results to be returned from the state crime lab, which was analyzing the chemicals and other items seized during the first search.

Some of the items confiscated from the basement of the 15-year-old Cape Elizabeth High School student who was arrested June 15 for criminal use of explosives and is suspected of being responsible for the pipe bomb found on Casino Beach June 12. On the right are different lengths and diameter of copper pipe similar to the one found on Casino Beach. Other items in this picture include copper caps, two paper plates with residue of explosive powders, funnels and, in the back, the wooden rack that holds 11 pipes at once and facilitates manufacturing pipe bombs.

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