The Case of Eric Schimmel

In light of several letters and phone calls we have received regarding the case of Eric Schimmel, the 19-year-old Frazier Park resident recently arrested by the sheriff’s office for theft and vehicle tampering, I thought your readers might be interested in how the matter is being handled.

It is important to first note that when the sheriff’s office asked us to file charges, we were not informed that Mr. Schimmel may be seriously developmentally disabled.

In fact, like many of you, we first learned this from news reports. Since we cannot make decisions on this source of information, we asked Mr. Schimmel’s attorney to provide us with evidence of his client’s disability. We recently received information supporting that such a disability exists, although its extent has not been recently determined.

As a result of learning this information, we are pursuing a course that would allow Mr. Schimmel to be diverted from the criminal justice system into an outpatient counseling program for adults who are developmentally disabled.

Clearly, we are not interested in putting Mr. Schimmel through a trial, and he certainly shouldn’t be returned to jail.

It is, however, important that we pursue some type of help for him since he has committed several other theft-related crimes and engaged in conduct that could endanger public safety (e.g. throwing rocks at moving cars). We cannot simply ignore the fact that he presents a problem, since to do so would mean that he will most likely return to the attention of the authorities. Even children are held accountable in the juvenile courts when they continually engage in criminal behavior.

Hopefully, this will clear up some of the misinformation circulating about this matter. However, if members of the public still have concerns, they may call me at 654-3695.

BRENDA ANDRADE

Deputy District Attorney