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D.A. Files Opposition To Pending Release Of Convicted Arsonist

MADERA COUNTY — Madera County District Attorney David Linn announced today that on Sept. 1, his office filed an opposition to the pending parole release from the Central California Women’s Facility, of Alice Waterman.

Waterman was convicted in May 2014 of six counts of arson, and one count of conspiracy, and sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison for her part in setting dozens of fires in the Yosemite Lakes Park area in May and June of 2013.

Parole was denied for her co-defendant and husband, Kenneth Jackson, on Aug. 18, after dozens of citizens submitted their objections to his release, which were included in a letter from the D.A.’s office to the Board of Parole Hearings. The Board found that Jackson would pose an unreasonable risk of violence to the community and denied his release.

In the letter filed by Linn on Sept. 1, additional arguments were included specific to Waterman’s release, along with all arguments and exhibits previously submitted in the Jackson case.

Linn thinks that the Waterman case may be more difficult, in that she was charged with one third the number of criminal counts, and was sentenced to only 10 years and 8 months in State Prison, as opposed to Mr. Jackson’s 21 criminal counts, and 30-year prison sentence.

Jackson and Waterman were convicted of what were considered “non-violent” and “non-serious” felonies.

“Mr. Jackson and Ms. Waterman were neither prosecuted in an appropriate manner, nor prosecuted under the proper penal code sections by my predecessors, to obtain convictions on all the crimes they committed,” says Linn. “Proposition 57,- a previously unwritten law – was flawed since its inception, and should never be applied to criminal acts such as those Mr. Jackson and Ms. Waterman committed.”

If you have previously sent a letter in opposition to Mr. Jackson’s release, it has already been forwarded to the Parole Board, says Linn.

Should any member of the public have any additional information as to Waterman’s involvement, please contact the Madera District Attorney’s Victim Services Specialist, Taguhi Bableyan, at (559) 675-7726, by Sept. 11.

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