Hot Sulphur Springs – A Grand County man on Friday pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in the electrocution of a Granby teen who touched a live wire installed to ward off beavers in a golf-course pond.
In exchange for his plea, Charles E. Haddock, 77, was sentenced to two days in jail and three years of probation and ordered to donate $2,000 to the Granby skate park, which is being expanded in honor of 16-year-old Ian Raftshol.
Raftshol died June 19 while rescuing his mixed-breed dog, Emily, from being shocked by the bare 110-volt wire that Haddock, a retired electrician, placed in the pond at the Roadside Campground golf course.
“There aren’t any words that can say how sorry I am that this whole tragic accident occurred,” Haddock told District Court Judge Shelley Hill as Raftshol’s parents, Jon and Loretta, sat in the gallery. “I have a son, and I know if things were reversed today, how devastated I would be. I think I know how devastated they are, and I’m just very, very sorry.”
Haddock faced two to six years in prison, but prosecutors and Raftshol’s family agreed to the shorter sentence, in part due to his age.
Defense attorney Jonathan Abramson said Haddock “personally grieves over Ian’s death and will continue to do so for the rest of his life,” adding that the stress has complicated his treatment for bladder cancer and kidney failure.
Although Abramson asked the judge to let Haddock serve his weekend in jail in late February, Hill ordered him to begin serving next Friday.
“I’ve been practicing law for 25 years, was a prosecutor for almost 10, and this is one of the saddest, saddest cases I’ve ever set my eyes on,” she said. “Mr. Haddock, I know you didn’t intend for Ian to die, but you did some really stupid things that led to this.”
Loretta Raftshol lamented after the hearing that Haddock had encouraged her son to retrieve lost golf balls from the pond, which he had wired to combat beavers.
“He knew it had a wire in it, and he let our son go back,” she said. “He played Russian roulette every time that boy went in there. This was a preventable thing.”
At the hospital where Raft shol had been rushed after the electrocution, staffers gave the family several golf balls that were found in the teen’s pockets.
Jon Raftshol – who recently had a tattoo placed on his right shoulder that depicts Ian’s mop-haired face – took great delight in fishing with his son, noting it was how the two celebrated Father’s Day just a day before the tragedy.
Last weekend, he claimed second place in a fishing tournament on Green Mountain Reservoir, adding his $350 prize to the skate-park fund.
“I took his pole just how he left it and caught the fish,” he said. “I figured he caught it, and I just reeled it in.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
