All misdemeanors. He'll still get to own a gun!

Why are they only charging one of the kids?
What about the older teen that drove him there, or the other teens that were with them?
What about the kids who encouraged him, laughing and recording with their smartphones?

Years of labor for the forest service and conservation corp ought to learn him. I feel sick for the kid. He'll have to live with this for the rest of his life.

@2 no charges for accomplices

@1. So turn a 15 yr old down the path of a convicted felon?

Gonna drop the restorative justice spiel when a crime against the environment occurs? Or is it just because you think he's white?

@4
Wow, that's just unbelievable.

Thanks for the response.

Muffy might smell like Camembert left in a hot trunk, but goddamn if she-it doesn't have just a little bit of a point here. Let's keep this kid out of the Aryan Brotherhood if we can help it ...

@5: you sure put a lot of words in my mouth, muff.

@2 what about the taxpayers who paid to pave the roads? Why aren't THEY accountable?

I mean... I can imagine myself doing this when I was 15 or 16 - not to start a fire or destroy property but just thoughtlessly, failing to consider the possible outcomes. That being said, you (we) can't let this slide without penalty, but other than the thirst for vengeance from the commenterati, whose interests are served with a felony charge? The only way society's interests are served is if he was malicious, rather than simply reckless. I guess we'll find out what the motivations are at trial.

How they gonna prove it was him? All they’ve got is the testimony of a woman who claims she saw him throwing fireworks near the gorge where the fire later originated. Did she check that gorge for campfires, cigarette butts, and lightning strikes, or is she just self-importantly assuming she knows what happened in an area she couldn’t see at a time she wasn’t there?

Hopefully the kid wasn’t dumb enough to confess. He has a defensible case otherwise.

I take it he's racially White? ( as Arabs and Mohammedans are KKKONSSidered Terrorists until proven otherwise . . . .)

Me, I think he should be sentenced to plant trees for 10 years.