Fire starter sentenced

Brenda Joyce Eitzen was arrested in mid- August and sentenced Jan. 27 to a year in jail. With credits, she met her sentence and has been released. She’ll now face three years’ formal probation. The Tehama County woman who pled no contest to recklessly starting the Coffin fire in Lewiston has been released from the Trinity County Jail after being sentenced Jan. 27.

Brenda Joyce Eitzen, 60, had been in jail since her arrest in mid-August and, with custody credits that double the time actually spent in jail, has served her sentence.

Judge James Woodward also ordered Eitzen to complete three years’ formal probation, and she will be required to register as an arson offender who must register with local law enforcement whenever she moves to a new area.

The maximum prison sentence for the felony Eitzen was convicted of is four years in prison.

The Trinity County Probation Department had recommended that Eitzen be sentenced to 365 days in jail, the maximum jail time Eitzen could have received under a plea agreement with the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office. Under that plea, Eitzen was not to be sent to prison.

Judge Woodward stated the court will consider restitution separately if any of the victims submit claims.

The Aug. 12 Coffin fire burned more than 1,000 acres, including private property but no homes. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s cost to fight the fire was $4 million. Eitzen was arrested that day after being stopped at a roadblock in the area.

Eitzen was seen in the area of the fire’s origin, and some of her belongings were found in the vicinity as well as two discarded matches. She at one point told a fire investigator she had dropped a cigarette, and also said she couldn’t get a match lit in the wind and thought she threw it on the road.

Weaverville in July to stay with her sister, then went to live at the Trinity Recovery Lodge (A-Frame) sober living facility in Lewiston in August, about three days before the fire. She had walked away from the facility to get away from an altercation when the fire started along Lewiston Road that afternoon.

She acknowledged to officers that she’d had a drink that morning, and she failed a CHP field sobriety test, ac-cording to the probation report. However, blood was drawn at the hospital and Eitzen tested negative in a screen for alcohol and other drugs.According to sheriff’s department records Eitzen was reported as missing or a suspicious person three times and arrested for being drunk in public on one occasion within nine days prior to the incident.

The probation report also noted that Eitzen — who started a foundation in Tehama County with her husband to help displaced families furnish their homes — had no prior convictions and seems very remorseful.

However, “Her denial of having an alcohol problem is of great concern to probation. If she does not admit to and seek help for this issue she will not be successful in completing her probation,” the report states.In seeming contradiction to this, a psychiatric evaluation ordered by the court indicated that Eitzen does not have a drug or alcohol problem, but that her issue at the time of the incident was severe stress and her condition improved during her time in jail.

Given her stay at the sober house and public intoxication arrest, “It was very odd,” Trinity County District Attorney Michael Harper said. “A lot of question marks (concerning) what was going on here. We didn’t get the answers we were hoping for.”“When the psychiatric doctors say she doesn’t need any treatment, what do you do?” he asked.

Under the terms of Eitzen’s probation, her probation officer can require that she participate in a drug or alcohol treatment program.