“We just disagree.”
This was Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers’ initial response to a column last week on her decision to prosecute an 11-year-old boy who played with fire and touched off a blaze that severely damaged a Parker townhouse last May.
Indeed, it was only “initial.” She was not nearly done.
I still maintain prosecuting the boy, who was only 10 when the fire happened, serves no one’s interest.
Kids do dumb things. Hauling them in front of a judge when they do it is ludicrous to me. But I have had my say.
“We are treating Jacob Christenson in the same way we would treat any juvenile who allegedly committed a property offense in this judicial district,” she wrote me.
“Charges are based on conduct, not age.”
This is a big thing with Carol Chambers. She pointed this out for long minutes in our conversation. I figure she knows her reputation as a no-nonsense and hard-charging DA.
I didn’t ask, but I think the Jacob Christenson furor surprised her some and got to her a little bit.
She wanted it made clear that she did not charge the boy as an adult.
There is no provision in the law that would ever, she said, allow her to charge a 10-year- old boy as an adult, no matter how serious the offense.
I told her I would make that clear.
In conversation, she is darn near cuddly bear friendly. She spoke at length about her desire to help, rather than simply punish, those who run afoul of the law.
That, she said, is her only desire in the Christenson case.
“In any juvenile case,” she said, “our job is to do what is in the best interests of the victim, the community and the child.”
Because the boy has no prior offenses, she said, realistically he will not be taken from his home if he is convicted.
He is not going to prison, she said, and will not have a criminal history that will follow him for the rest of his life. She says this again and again.
It is not unreasonable, she said, to ask a court of law to decide some or all of many issues, including ruling on the child’s behavior and restitution to the victim of the fire.
She understands, she says, how I only see a 10-year-old kid.
“But I believe in the power of the justice system,” Chambers said. “You want to help children get back on track. We try to deal with people on a consistent basis, and not just automatically assume people will do what they should do.”
She says that what she finds most interesting in the media’s coverage of the case “is the complete disregard and empathy for the victim whose home was destroyed.”
She is so passionate on this point it is difficult to see a scenario in which she would not have sought a prosecution of the boy.
“I do not think most people can fathom the devastation they would suffer if their home was destroyed,” she said. “And what if she or someone else, such as a firefighter, had been injured as a result of this fire?”
I told her I would give her side, but I am running out of real estate.
“You may not agree with our decision to charge this young man,” Carol Chambers said. “But I think you have to agree that there are no good answers or easy solutions in such a situation, that reasonable minds will inevitably disagree, in whole or in part, as to what is reasonable in a case that involves such a young man, a completely innocent victim and a catastrophic result.”
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
