Youth Worker Held in Arson, Firebomb Cases

The former director of a Garden Grove youth shelter was arrested Thursday on suspicion of setting a fire at the shelter in 1989 and firebombing a former girlfriend’s home, police said. Charles H. Smith, 41, who by some accounts is a teacher at the county’s Juvenile Hall, was arrested about 8 a.m. at his home in Santa Ana without incident on suspicion of arson and attempted murder, police said.

Investigators said they do not know the motive for the arson fires, according to Garden Grove Police Sgt. Patrick Thrasher.

The first occurred on an early October morning and destroyed the front office of the Amparo Youth Shelter at 12922 7th St., authorities said.

Dennis Catron, who was the president of the nonprofit group that operated Amparo at the time of the fire, said it caused an estimated $20,000 in damages but no injuries. Catron said fire investigators told him that the blaze was started by someone who broke a front window, poured gasoline on the office floor and ignited it.

In early September of this year, fire investigators allege, Smith tossed two firebombs through the bedroom window of 27-year-old Karen Keup’s Costa Mesa home as she slept. Keup was not injured in the fire, which was contained to her bedroom, according to her mother, Mary Keup.

She said her daughter had dated Smith for about two years but that their relationship ended “on bad terms.”

Smith lived by himself in a boarding house at 502 Parton St., according to Jim Batiste, another tenant. Smith has been on administrative leave of absence from Juvenile Hall in Orange, where he is a teacher, Batiste said. Juvenile Hall officials, however, would not say Thursday night whether Smith taught there.

“He was dedicated to his job, to teaching the kids,” Batiste said. “He felt that was what he was meant to do.”

Batiste said he was “surprised but not shocked” by the arrest. “The police had been here about a month ago asking questions,” he added.

Simon Lachenvruch, who owns the boarding home with his wife, said they rent five bedrooms, and Smith has lived in a back bedroom for about a year.

Lachenvruch said his wife, Emogene, and Smith are close friends.

“They talked endlessly and for hours all the time,” he said.

Times staff writer Donnette Dunbar contributed to this story.