Teen pleads guilty in arson

One of three teenage boys charged with burning the Sacajawea Middle School library on Sept. 8 pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to a maximum standard 75 days of detention.

Harrison M. Seaborn, who turns 16 next month, also was ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution – along with his co-defendants, 16-year-old Quinten M. Glenn and 15-year-old Cody L. Baker, if they also are convicted.

School officials estimated damage from the gasoline-fueled fire at $300,000.

Seaborn told Juvenile Court Commissioner James Triplet that he thought it would be “cool” to smoke a cigarette on the school roof before he torched the library.

“I am sorry for what I have done,” Seaborn said. “I had no idea how big of a fire it could be. … I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did it.”

It wasn’t the first time Seaborn, a Lewis and Clark High School sophomore until he was expelled, had broken into and vandalized the middle school he attended.

Seaborn broke into the school twice in one week in June 2005 and committed vandalism for which he was ordered to pay $2,006 in restitution. Charges against him were dismissed in that case after he paid the restitution and served 18 hours of community service.

Court documents say Seaborn and Glenn also broke into Sacajawea Middle School on July 21 and attempted to burn the library but were scared off by a school security officer responding to a burglar alarm. Baker, who was out of town, was not accused in that incident.

Seaborn pleaded guilty as charged in the subsequently successful arson: to second-degree burglary, second-degree arson and first-degree malicious mischief. In exchange, Deputy Prosecutor Bill Reeves agreed to drop two charges from another incident this year in which Seaborn allegedly stole his mother’s car and drove it over soft ground at Comstock Park.

Juvenile probation counselor Patti Spilker told Triplet that Seaborn is “exceptionally bright” but academically “lazy.” She said he is a tobacco smoker who also was accused on Sept. 6 of smoking marijuana and called for him to have no incendiary devices as a condition of his sentence.

Triplet imposed the ban on incendiary devices during two years of probation and specifically ordered Seaborn not to smoke. However, Triplet stopped short of granting a recommendation by Spilker and Assistant Public Defender Michael Elston that Seaborn be excused from public service if he pays his restitution.

Reeves opposed that idea, but Triplet said he will consider it if Seaborn first pays at least half of his income to restitution for a year. Reeves called for a standard maximum of 200 hours of community service, and Triplet imposed 150.

Otherwise, Triplet imposed the maximum standard sentence that Reeves requested: 75 days of detention and two years of probation.

“This was a serious offense,” Triplet said. “Lives could have been lost.”

With credit for time already served, Seaborn faces 20 more days of detention.

He will be allowed to serve the time on electronic home monitoring – as he served all but eight of the days for which he was given credit.