Woodinville Teen ‘Relieved’ After Fire Charges Dropped

The mom of a 17-year-old girl who accidentally set their Woodinville house on fire says her developmentally delayed daughter is relieved now that criminal charges have been dropped.

Rebecca Gerhardt spoke to Woodinville Patch on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the King County Prosecutor’s Office of reckless burning against Gerhardt’s daughter Abby.

The Gerhardts’ home burned Feb. 16 when Abby accidentally set it on fire with a barbecue lighter while trying to kill a bug in her room. The high school junior functions at a second-grade level academically and socially, the family said.

The night of the blaze, a fire investigator told one of Rebecca Gerhardt’s sons that it “was clear from speaking with Abby that the intent to do criminal mischief was not there, and there would be no charges against her,” Rebecca said.

But then over the weekend, she and her husband got papers in the mail from the county seeking information from them as crime victims. And then on Monday, they got a call from Abby’s court-appointed attorney saying charges had been filed.

“We had to tell (Abby) yesterday that she was going to have to talk to a judge. And she started to cry and asked if she was going to be arrested. And we told her no, we didn’t think so,” her mom said.

Then the family tapped into its support network, launching a Facebook page, contacting the media and mobilizing people who called the prosecutor’s office asking that the charges be dropped. (The Facebook page had 1,235 “likes” by Tuesday afternoon.)

On Tuesday morning, the charges were dismissed. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said Abby’s mental state should have been taken into account.

“So today we told her they changed their mind, and she doesn’t have to (talk to a judge), and she is very relieved about that,” Rebecca said.

The family is renting a house in Woodinville until they can move back home, expected about early August.