Back in trouble:

A former Kalispell boy who made headlines when he helped start a fire that destroyed the Lakeside Marina is back in trouble.

Michael Kullberg was 6 years old when he and a teenager started the million-dollar fire that destroyed the marina and about 30 boats.

Now 17, Kullberg is suspected of raping a 14-year-old girl.

It was on March 12, 1995, that Kullberg lit a match, starting the fire that destroyed a part of Lakeside's landscape. Even before that, Kullberg's name was infamous in the community.

He was expelled from school at Lakeside shortly after he began first grade. Then, he reportedly brought a knife to school, chased an older boy, and threatened to slit his throat.

After his expulsion, Kullberg prompted complaints and reports of concern from the community. Without the structure of the school day, he wandered through town, alienating some

business owners and others.

"A little 6-year-old should not be wandering around unsupervised all day," Mary Schulze, a spokeswoman for the Department of Family Services, said at the time.

"He's mouthy," one woman complained. "He's more streetwise at 6 than some adults," another said.

Kullberg's parents, the school district, DFS, and the community blamed one another for his Kullberg. His mother, Kari Starks, and his stepfather, Michael Starks, said the community persecuted the family. Eventually, they moved to Eureka.

But Kullberg is again the subject of an investigation.

He was arrested Monday on a charge of sexual intercourse without consent.

On June 6, a girl reported to police that she and some friends had met up with other youths driving around town. They stopped near the Outlaw Inn and Kullberg, staying in Whitefish with a relative for a while, persuaded her to go for a walk with him, according to detective Sgt. Jim Wardensky of the Kalispell Police Department.

Instead, he pulled her into some bushes near the tennis courts outside the motel and raped her, the girl said. Afterward, the girl went to a Super 8 motel to call her friends. After she used a phone at the motel desk, so did Kullberg, Wardensky said. The clerk heard Kullberg brag to a friend that he had just had sex with a 14-year-old girl, he said.

Wardensky said it took awhile to identify Kullberg, who had returned to Eureka.

"It's not too often you have a true drag-them-in-the-bushes-and-throw-them-down kind of rape," he said.

He said Kullberg was "bold and brazen to brag about it" to a friend.

Kullberg is being held in the youth detention center on the charge.