Still no word on Arlington man held in Mexico

Published 10:19 pm Friday, February 13, 2009

ARLINGTON — The family of an 88-year-old Arlington man held in a Mexican prison is tired.

They’re tired of broken promises, missed appointments and shifting deadlines.

After 37 days, Edward Chrisman, a World War II veteran with a spotless record, still isn’t home.

An emergency hearing held Monday was supposed to provide a quick resolution, but so far the family has heard nothing.

“We’ve been told they’ve come to a decision,” Shannon Perkins, Chrisman’s granddaughter, said Friday. “It’s been signed but it’s sitting on their desk. They’re supposed to be out today but no one has said anything, nobody called, nobody knows. They’re still in limbo.”

“It’s a waiting game,” she added later in the day. “I wish I had new news.”

Mexican police arrested Chrisman and his grandson on Jan. 8 in the border town of Algodones. Police allege the Chrismans tried to pay young girls to pose nude for photos.

The family said the grandson went into a convenience store and offered two fully-clothed girls $25 to take their head shots. He said he had been taking cultural pictures all day with a new camera. One of the girls later told a Yuma, Ariz., television station he had asked them for a more explicit pose. Everyone agrees the elder Chrisman was waiting in the car the entire time.

Edward Chrisman apparently contracted pneumonia in prison and his family fears he won’t survive the ordeal. The elder Chrisman appears to be faring better after he was moved to an elderly ward in the prison, said his son, Gary Chrisman Sr. of Yuma. He’s still sick and told his son in a phone call from prison Thursday that he’s weary.

The family can visit on Saturdays and they have to buy most basic necessities the men need, including food vouchers and toiletries. Gary Chrisman Sr. said he’s concerned about the tainted water and food. Both men are ill.

A delegate from Algodones, the border town where the men were arrested, promised Gary Chrisman Sr. the men would be released Friday — the fourth such promise. Even the family’s own lawyer stood them up for a meeting this week. It doesn’t give the family a lot of hope for a resolution.

“Everything is kind of relative,” Gary Chrisman Sr. said. “Nothing is firm.”

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