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CNN Live Today

Forest Service Worker Has First Court Appearance

Aired June 17, 2002 - 11:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We are just getting word of a development in Denver on a story that we have been following here, the Colorado wildfires and the case that -- discovery, rather, that that fire was set by a Forest Service worker. Let's go now to our Rusty Dornin who is standing by in Denver -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, Terry Barton made her first appearance in federal court just about a half hour ago. In that appearance, the judge advised her of her rights, and told her the charges against her, and that includes three counts, one of making false statements to investigators. She lied to investigators, apparently, on two different occasions about who did set the fire. She claims someone else had, someone that she didn't know.

Also, she's charged with setting timber afire and something called depredation of U.S. property, injuring U.S. property. Now, with all three of those counts, if she was convicted on those, she could face up to 20 years in prison and a half million dollar fine.

Prosecutors did talk later, after the appearance. They would not specify whether they believe that she willfully set the fire by taking this letter from her estranged husband, and you know, threw it in the campfire. They are not saying whether they believe that, or whether it was accidental, which is what, apparently, Barton is claiming, that she lit the letter on fire, put it in the campfire, and thought it was out, and left and then accidentally, it came out and it spread, becoming the Hayman fire, destroying over 103,000 acres.

Prosecutors also say that they do not want to release her. They want her in detention because they do believe she's a flight risk, and one of the reasons they believe she's a flight risk is that they feel that if they released her back to her community, that people are so hostile there that she would feel that she would have to leave. So they say that that is one of the reasons that they want to keep her in jail.

So, apparently, she will reappear in court in three days, on Thursday, June 20. At that time, there will be a detention hearing, and also they will have a preliminary hearing.

Now, what happens then is either it is turned over to a grand jury, who will then -- a federal grand jury, who will decide whether to indict her or not, or she could waive that. She has, of course, already admitted to these charges, so -- but it is up to her whether she will waive this indictment -- Leon.

HARRIS: Boy, I tell you. Rusty, you may not be able to answer this, but I just cannot believe that the investigators in this case were able to find -- we are talking 103,000 scorched acres, and they found the remnants of a letter in that? Is that how they found out that it was her?

DORNIN: No. Actually what happened was, they had -- they spoke to her. She was the one who originally reported the fire, so she was the one investigators kept going back to, and they had these forensic fire investigators, and they would come back to her, and they would say, Well, you know, when did you smell this fire, and where were you going in your truck, and they would say, Well, you know, the wind direction doesn't match with that, and the way the fire spread doesn't match.

So, basically, they were finding inconsistencies in her story, and who knows, perhaps she was appearing nervous by this point. I mean, an interviewer for a local paper just said that she said she wasn't sleeping, after she had reported this fire. So, obviously, she was probably a little nervous about this, and maybe investigators did pick up on that as well as the inconsistencies in her story.

HARRIS: Boy. And on a human level, I can understand all that. But boy, that is amazingly ironic. Rusty Dornin, thank you very much. Take care, we'll see you in a bit.

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