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CNN Live Today

Forest Service Worker in Court for Setting Fires

Aired June 17, 2002 - 12:01   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: About an hour ago, a U.S. Forest Service worker headed into a Denver courtroom, accused of setting the largest fire in Colorado history. Authorities say Terry Barton has admitted she set the blaze that forced thousand of residents from their homes.

CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us live from Denver right now with the latest -- hi there, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the other twist of this story is that this is the woman who actually reported the fire on June 8, claiming she came upon it -- a campfire that escaped the ring -- while she was patrolling, looking for illegal fires. Now 38-year-old Terry Barton came into federal court today. She was dressed in coveralls and a T-shirt, very somber, very quiet. A few times the judge had to ask her to speak up or to make her answers audible.

The judge did advise of her rights and told her of the charges. Now, she is charged with setting timber on fire. She's charged with what's called depredation of U.S. property. She's also charged with false statements to investigators, where apparently they are accusing her of lying to investigators on two different occasions, still claiming that someone else lit the fire.

Now, investigators apparently saw so many inconsistencies in her story that they kept facing her with those. That is when she broke down and admitted she set the fire. She claims that it was a letter that she had burned from her estranged husband. That she tried to put it out, and that escaped the campfire, and that's what started the forest fire.

Now, of course, folks in Colorado have been for very upset, shocked and stunned about this whole thing, and may of them really could care less what her emotional state was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were just stunned. You know, I think we were more stunned than the public was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you just felt guilty like you've personally done something wrong, and we should not feel that way. But I think that everybody in the Forest Service is going to feel that way for awhile.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is their job, is to protect what we have around us. And to find out that she started this, it is just sickening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, prosecutors spoke to reporters outside here a few minutes after the court hearing and said that they want to keep her in jail. They asked to keep her in detention, because they said if they did release her, she would go back to a community of very hostile people. And of course, that would increase the chance of a flight risk, that she wouldn't want to stay around.

So they want to keep her in jail. There will be a preliminary hearing and a detention hearing on Thursday, June 20. Meantime, she faces possibly 20 years in jail and a half million dollars in fines. And of course, this is for a fire that has burned 103,000, burned 24 homes to the ground, and could end up costing over $52 million -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Rusty, any idea as to how they narrowed it down to Terry Barton?

DORNIN: Well, she was the one who reported the fire, so of course investigators kept going back to her, asking her more questions. Well, how did you see the fire? And she said that she had smelled smoke when she was in her truck. She was actually patrolling looking for illegal campfires at the time. So she says that she smelled fire. And then the way she described the behavior of the fire, there are several experts who examined the area said, Well, that's not possible. You couldn't have smelled it then.

So they kept facing her with inconsistencies in her story, and apparently, she finally just broke down.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Thank you very much. That persistence I suppose paid off at least for these charges.

Rusty Dornin, thank you very much.

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