Three men were arrested Friday in connection with the torching of a church hours after Barack Obama won the presidential election.
The suspects, Benjamin Haskell, 23, Michael Jacques, 24, and Thomas Gleason, 21, were held without bail after a hearing in federal court in Springfield.
No pleas were entered at the hearing.
The men were charged with violating a civil rights conspiracy statute that makes it illegal to injure, threaten, or intimidate anyone from exercising their civil rights.
It wasn't immediately clear if the men were being charged with setting the fire.
A judge continued the hearing until Wednesday and said he was considering a $100,000 bail with electronic monitoring for the men.
The blaze caused an estimated $2 million in damage. Within hours, state fire investigators called it arson.
Investigators got a break in the case when a witness came forward and said he'd been driven to the site of the fire by two of the accused men.
He said Jacques asked him who he had voted for in the election; when he responded "Obama," Jacques replied with a profane racial epithet, then said he thought Obama would be assassinated, the unidentified witness told investigators.
One of the suspects told investigators the men purposefully ignited vinyl siding to ensure the church went up in flames quickly, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
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