EVERETT – When a judge in December sentenced the teen who killed her son, Karen Elliott didn’t hide her hopes – or her fears.
She wanted the 17-year-old to spend time behind bars reflecting on the pain he caused in September when he crashed a speeding car near Silver Lake, and left her son, Shawn Elliott, 18, bleeding to death in the street. Julie Busch / The Herald
Karen Elliott also asked that the boy take advantage of substance abuse-counseling offered by the state’s Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration. The teen needed to succeed, she said, because he was now “living for two.”
Elliott told the judge her biggest fear was the teen would serve a few months and emerge unchanged.
A letter she received early last month at her Arlington home convinced her that was exactly what happened.
The news was delivered in five brief lines written by an employee of the state Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the juvenile prison system. The letter said the boy responsible for Shawn Elliott’s death would be released this week to live in Woodinville. It offered few other details.
“This will be the last notification from our office but if we can be of further assistance or you have an questions, please feel free to call us at the numbers below,” the letter concludes.
Elliott was crushed. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman had sentenced the teen to serve between 71/2 and 18 months in juvenile prison. That meant he shouldn’t be free until sometime in July at the earliest.
When she called state officials, Elliott was told the information she sought about the teen was off limits under federal health care privacy laws.
Elliott’s attorney, Jeffrey Herman of Seattle, said he ran into similar roadblocks.
DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said the Elliotts were sent a letter of apology and explanation.
Contrary to what the original letter says, the teen isn’t being released but instead has been transferred to a minimum-security group home.
“It was an honest mistake,” Spears said Monday.
The teen’s attorney, Monte Wolff of Everett, said his client will continue to receive substance abuse treatment and counseling.
The change-in-custody status is recognition of the teen’s good progress and earnest attempts to change, Wolff said.
“It is not a release. It is a transfer,” Wolff said. “He is still under their custody. If he screws up he goes straight back.”
Elliott said she is glad the boy appears to be trying. She said the state shouldn’t have sent a letter that misled her. “Those kinds of mistakes should not happen,” she said. “It is devastating.”
DSHS should review the letters it sends crime survivors to ensure they are accurate, said Jenny Wieland, executive director of Everett-based Families and Friends of Violent Crime Victims.
“It is unfair to victims to have to be a detective when trying to find out what is happening with a perpetrator, especially when there has been a death involved,” she said.
Spears said she’s convinced the letter sent to the Elliott family was an isolated mistake.
The state’s juvenile justice system places a greater emphasis on rehabilitation compared to adult prison, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Dave Kurtz said. State officials are given broad authority on developing plans to help offenders get back on track.
“One has to assume they are using their wise discretion,” Kurtz said. “If it proves that’s not the case, obviously, that is reason for attention and concern.”
Herman, the Elliott family’s attorney, said he isn’t convinced the state has made the best choices. He believes the teen responsible for the fatal accident shouldn’t be moved to a less-restrictive setting until after serving his minimum sentence and completing drug treatment.
“It’s a fiction that placement in a group home is incarceration,” he said. “There are no physical barriers to him leaving.”
Wolff said the teen has been making a sincere effort to address the problems in his life that led him to tragedy. One of his motivations is the care the Elliott family has shown regarding his future, Wolff said.
“I think he has been consistent since the accident in his genuineness of his remorse,” Wolff said.
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