Pubdate: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 Source: Des Moines Register (IA) Copyright: 1999, The Des Moines Register. Contact: http://www.dmregister.com/ Author: Lee Rood, TEEN ACCEPTS DEAL: TESTIFY AGAINST DAD The Des Moines Youth, Arrested in a Meth Raid, Avoids a 25-year Sentence. Prosecutors told Abraham Boettger this week that he could go free: All the 17-year-old has to do is turn on his father. Boettger was caught red-handed last month helping his father when police launched a methamphetamine lab raid. The day he was charged, prosecutors asked a judge to allow them to try the Des Moines youth in adult court. The most severe penalty Boettger would have faced was 25 years in a state prison. "My brother was scared to death," said Gabe Boettger, 19. "I think it kind of screws up the right to a fair trial when someone will say just about anything" to avoid an adult prison. The charge against Boettger, believed to be the first Polk County youth accused of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, prompted an outcry from relatives who considered it too severe. On Tuesday, a Polk County judge accepted a plea agreement to give the boy a way out: Testify in the cases against the adults accused of running the meth operation and receive probation, with no jail time. Judy Christiansen said her son took the deal, but it came at a price to the family. Abe and Gabe are worried about their father, who is in drug treatment. Galen Boettger, who declined to comment Tuesday, also faces up to 25 years if convicted of making the drug. His trial has not been scheduled. Christiansen was grateful her son will avoid prison. Nonetheless, she said, her son had been used as a pawn in Polk County Attorney John Sarcone's case against her ex-husband. "I feel absolutely that (Abe) should have been tried on the merit of the evidence against him," and not on his willingness to testify, said Christiansen. "It's going to be hard on Abe." In exchange for Boettger's guilty plea Monday in juvenile court, Sarcone's office dropped the bid to try him as an adult. However, the county attorney could still try to move Boettger into the adult system if his testimony is false or insufficient. Sarcone insisted he was not using the boy. "Nobody forced him to do anything," Sarcone said Tuesday. "I think it's a fair resolution for him." Juvenile authorities say Boettger got what he needed: supervised probation and court-ordered drug treatment. "We feel pretty good about how this worked out," said Ed Nahas, a juvenile court spokesman. "Whatever motivated him is working." Public defenders question whether it was necessary for prosecutors to urge the boy to testify. "The basic question that I can see is: What will that testimony add in light of other evidence?" said George Arvidson, chief of the juvenile arm of the county public defender's office. Family members have contended from the beginning that the boy should have been given leniency. Boettger, who had a clean record, had carried bags of meth-making materials to a car on orders from his father. Although prosecutors often reduce charges for adults who give testimony in drug crimes, the practice is rarely used with juveniles. Kathryn Miller, executive director of the Youth Law Center in Des Moines, said that while the law often protects the confidentiality of information exchanged with spouses, doctors, ministers and lawyers, no such rules apply to parents and offspring. "I don't know if that should be or not," she said. "It's certainly creates an unpleasant situation." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D