Arlington man jailed in Mexico may wait months

Published 9:56 am Thursday, January 22, 2009

ARLINGTON — Sen. Maria Cantwell has asked the U.S. State Department to look into the case of Edward Chrisman, an 88-year-old Arlington man held in a Mexican prison for the last two weeks.

“The State Department is fully aware of the case,” said Ciaran Clayton, a spokeswoman for Cantwell’s office said Wednesday. “As of right now, the senator is in contact with the State Department to make sure these gentlemen receive fair treatment and due process.”

Clayton didn’t know if that meant the men’s situations will change, and she didn’t think Cantwell could do more to help.

Rep. Rick Larsen’s congressional staff is communicating with Chrisman’s family.

“We are looking for ways to help,” said Amanda Mahnke, spokeswoman for the Washington Democrat. “Beyond that, we respectfully decline to comment due to privacy concerns. Representative Larsen is concerned about Mr. Chrisman’s age and health and his thoughts are with him and his family.”

Chrisman and his grandson, Gary Chrisman Jr., were arrested Jan. 8 by Mexican police who say the pair tried to pay young girls to pose nude for photos.

The Chrisman family maintains the men are innocent and Mexican authorities are trying to shake the men down for cash. They’re worried Edward Chrisman, a World War II veteran and a devout member of the Arlington Assembly of God Church, won’t survive the ordeal.

A lawyer the family hired has told them it may be up to three months until a trial, said Shannon Perkins, of Yuma, Ariz., Edward Chrisman’s granddaughter.

The pair is locked up in the Carcel de Mexicali in the state of Baja California Norte.

Juan Galvan, a police reporter for La Voz de la Frontera, a newspaper in Mexicali, on Wednesday said the case no longer is in the hands of Mexican federal prosecutors. He spoke with an official who handles important cases. He also obtained ­paperwork detailing the allegations from Mexican prosecutors.

According to the document, written in Spanish, the Chrismans are accused of approaching a 13-year-old girl in her mother’s business on Jan. 8 and asking to take pictures of her naked. The girl’s mother reported the incident to police. Both men reportedly were in the store at the time.

Another employee of the store told police the same men offered her money to take photographs of her fully clothed three days earlier and she accepted, according to the document.

The woman said the younger Chrisman took the photographs and also gave her money. She also said he offered her money if she would pose nude but she declined, and he left a phone number, the document said.

Family members for both men say the allegations are bogus.

Members of Edward Chrisman’s church in Arlington have repeatedly called and sent dozens of e-mails to Arizona lawmakers, trying to get some help for the man they consider the “grandpa” of the church.

“We’re trying to be optimistic,” said Kathy Carlin, who works at the church. “It’s just hard. It’s not good — he’s going downhill in there really fast.”

An Arizona state legislative liaison called the church Wednesday and told church members he was working on a memorandum to the Arizona State House of Representatives about the Chrismans’ situation. A call to the liaison Wednesday wasn’t returned.

The Chrismans’ Mexican legal woes are not unusual.

At any time, about 400 Americans are detained in Mexican prisons, said Charles Smith, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana. His office, which monitors the Baja peninsula in Mexico, sees 20 percent of all arrests made overseas.

“It’s a very busy consulate district,” he said.

Smith declined to comment about the Chrismans’ case, citing privacy laws. He said the Mexican judicial system is more of a closed system than that of the United States. Trials are often held without a jury, although that’s changing, he said. The U.S. Consulate only has the authority to monitor conditions of American prisoners.

“Is the U.S. government in a position to spring you out? No. The U.S. government cannot get you out,” Smith said. “You are subject to the same judicial system as the people living in Mexico.”

Consulate staff visit every American prisoner in Mexico quarterly. When Americans are initially incarcerated, the consulate brings them a list of local attorneys and general information about how to negotiate the Mexican legal system. They also check on their medical condition. With elderly or ill patients, the consulate also tries to secure necessary additional treatment, he said.

He was not allowed to say whether any of those steps had been taken.

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.