Prison Release Attracts Swarm of News Media

Reporters from all over the country have converged on the story of Charles Rothenberg’s Wednesday prison release, for weeks inundating both the man who set his son afire and his ex-wife with interview requests.

From Oprah Winfrey’s show in Chicago to East Coast network and local television news programs, the media have tried to arrange coverage of Rothenberg as he leaves prison. The Times, “A Current Affair,” CBS News and KABC-TV have interviewed the son Rothenberg burned beyond recognition nearly seven years ago. CNN is still interested in doing so. Dozens have been turned away.

“Simply today, I think I’ve fielded probably a half-dozen calls alone about him and I expect it will intensify,” said Ted McAlister public information officer at the San Luis Obispo California Men’s Colony from which Rothenberg will be paroled.

“Local reporters and press as far away as New Jersey have inquired, so it’s coast to coast,” an already weary McAlister said Thursday. “All forms--television, radio, print--have contacted us. Oprah Winfrey, Joan Rivers, all your other ‘Hard Copy,’ ‘Inside Edition’-type programs.”

Rothenberg, 49, has denied all requests for in-prison interviews. While media coverage of his departure from the medium- and minimum-security compound is expected to be extensive, it is unlikely that anyone will actually see him leave.

Public outrage about his release has forced prison officials to keep Rothenberg’s parole destination a secret. So he will be removed from the 6,465-inmate facility with stealth, officials there say, possibly in darkness.

Although authorities are trying to avoid a “media circus,” another corrections official said, a “camp-out” of reporters and television crews is nevertheless expected outside the remote prison grounds.

According to Harry Gaynor, director of the New Jersey-based National Burn Victim Foundation, at least five media outlets have inquired about having him and Rothenberg on their shows once Rothenberg reaches his parole destination, and dozens more have called with questions. So many, in fact, that Gainer now only returns phone calls collect. The foundation intends to publish “A World Without Tears,” a book about child abuse co-authored by Gaynor, Rothenberg, a psychiatrist and a minister.

To publicize the book--the foundation would receive any profits--Rothenberg has said he is willing to appear on a few “carefully selected shows” to “help other parents.” However, none of those appearances has been scheduled because Rothenberg does not know where he is being paroled, and it remains unclear whether he would be allowed to travel.

Although Rothenberg has refused to be interviewed as his prison release approaches for fear of jeopardizing it, he has communicated in several letters to reporters. In his correspondence with The Times, he writes incessantly of the “overwhelming” media attention.

Some prison officials believe that Rothenberg enjoys what he perceives as intense personal interest in him. Thus, they suspect he may ultimately reveal his whereabouts once coverage of his release ends. This troubles them, said Tipton C. Kindel, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, which oversees California’s prisons. Parole agents do not want to continually relocate Rothenberg in the event communities discover him there and protest. And Kindel said some corrections administrators worry what Rothenberg may do when the attention fades.

“I think he’ll do something,” Kindel said. “I am still convinced this guy loves this stuff and if the media would ever leave him alone, I think he is the kind of guy who would be interested in getting it (the attention) back.”

After seven years in the national spotlight, 13-year-old David Rothenberg and his mother, Marie Hafdahl, are tired of the attention. They have repeatedly cooperated with the media, partly to promote a 1989 television movie of the case and a book she co-authored.

They have refused requests, however, to appear with Rothenberg in any of television appearances he might make. And they are hoping reporters will leave them alone after this week.

David Rothenberg, who has been interviewed since grade school, says he is tired of the questions, the “dumbest” being: Is he angry at his father for trying to kill him? “What do you think?” he said he asked the reporter. “What would you think? That was a dumb question.”

He is polite about it, but adds: “I’m kinda sick of it.”