Seneca ? A Nemaha County magistrate judge has acquitted a 14-year-old boy of starting a fire that destroyed two northeast Kansas schools in March.

After hearing five hours of testimony, Judge James O’Connor on Wednesday found Damon Miller not guilty of the fire that destroyed most of the Seneca Grade School and Nemaha Valley Junior High School.

The blaze caused $5 million in damage and forced 275 students from kindergarten through eighth grade to finish the school year at sites across the county.

Steve Deiter, a Sabetha attorney who represented Damon, said the case hung on circumstantial evidence that didn’t preclude reasonable doubt.