In a six-page ruling, Circuit Court Judge John A. Olson on Monday upheld all but a fraction of the $36.6 million in restitution requested by the Hood River County District Attorney’s Office that a Vancouver youth pay for damages in the September 2017 Eagle Creek, Ore., fire.
The youth, who turns 16 this month and set the 48,000-acre blaze with fireworks, will be required, formally, to repay the amount, but realistically, Olson averred, the restitution bill serves a purpose beyond financial remuneration. In his ruling, Olson invoked the statutory aim of “responsibility, accountability, and reformation.”
“In short, I’m satisfied that the restitution ordered in this case bears a sufficient relationship to the gravity of the offense for which the youth is adjudicated,” Olson wrote.
