(RNS) Two Massachusetts men who face federal charges for torching a predominantly black church after President Obama’s election last November pleaded innocent in state court on Tuesday (Oct. 20) to charges involving an unrelated 2003 fire.

Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder accepted the recommendation of prosecution and defense lawyers that Benjamin Haskell, 22, and Michael Jacques, 24, be released on their own recognizance. They must abide by the same conditions on which they were freed while awaiting prosecution in the U.S. District Court case, including wearing electronic monitors.

In the fire at Macedonia Church of God in Christ, investigators said Haskell, Jacques, and another man admitted to an undercover state trooper that they crept through a window at the partially constructed church and doused the building with gasoline, setting off a massive blaze.

Witnesses told the FBI the defendants said they set the fire in response to Obama’s election as the nation’s first black president.

They were arrested for that fire in January after an undercover sting, which involved the defendants allegedly agreeing to burn down a commercial building in Holyoke for a fee.

All denied the federal charges of civil rights violations in connection with the fire. The charge carries a 10-year mandatory prison sentence.

A pre-trial conference in the state court cases is set for Feb. 17.