Healdsburg arsonist sentenced to prison

<p>A Healdsburg man who admitted setting fire to three buildings in 2006 was sentenced Wednesday to 5 years and 4 months in prison, capping a case his attorney says highlights the lack of mental health care in Sonoma County.</p><p>Criminal proceedings for Henry Scholten, 30, have been on-again, off-again since his arrest depending on his mental state.</p><p>Meanwhile, Scholten earned nearly five years of credit for time served in county jail and state mental hospitals, including more than a year for good-behavior. He likely will serve only a few more months in prison before being released on parole for three to four years.</p><p>More than three years after the original crimes, prosecutors and Scholten’s attorney hammered out a plea deal in which Scholten would admit setting two fires if the other two felony arson charges were dropped. </p><p>The fires, set over a five-day period, caused more than $500,000 damage to three office buildings that weren’t occupied at the time. No one was hurt.</p><p>Scholten’s attorney, Jeff Mitchell, said the case underscores a dearth of appropriate local mental health facilities.</p><p>“It highlights the unfortunate state of our mental health system,” he said. “The jail has in effect become the largest mental health facility in the county.”</p><p>The fires were “the tragic result of how someone with serious mental health issues, out on the streets, gets a hold of street drugs" and becomes dangerous to the community, he said.</p><p>Scholten’s diagnosis is complex, he said, and he isn’t always cooperative with treatment plans. Scholten is being properly medicated now, Mitchell said, and appeared lucid and engaged in court on Wednesday.</p><p>In previous hearings, he snickered, made inappropriate comments, responded inappropriately to witnesses and the judge and generally disrupted the proceedings.</p><p>Prosecutor Rosanne Darling urged Judge Ken Gnoss to abide by the attorneys’ negotiated deal, saying the “fear and devastation” Scholten caused in Healdsburg during February 2006 warranted prison.</p><p>Though the victims have “rebuilt their lives and businesses,” she said, the fires will have “a lasting effect on how they live their lives.”</p><p>Scholten read a wide-ranging statement in which he said laws are too strict and that more “mercy and compassion should be shown to boneheads like me who make mistakes.”</p><p>He said he just wanted to have this “nightmare be over” and “go back to the family and friends I have left.”</p><p>Gnoss said he couldn’t ignore the dangers of arson. “I do realize that treatment is lacking,” he said. “But the court cannot overlook the seriousness of the offenses.”</p><p>Gnoss ordered Scholten to register as an arsonist for the rest of his life and to pay $30,000 in restitution to three fire departments that helped douse the flames.</p><p>The two felonies can be counted as “strikes” if Scholten faces other criminal charges. He could have faced nearly 10 years in prison if convicted on all counts.</p><p>Scholten is well-known in the Healdsburg, mostly for bizarre, but usually harmless, antics.</p>