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Thrift-store burglar draws probation

Casey

A Durango man. who with a companion was arrested when they left the Dunn Deal Resale Store one night in February with stolen goods, will not have the conviction on his record if he behaves for the next 18 months.

Under a plea agreement with the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday in District Court, Christopher Casey must spend 48 hours in La Plata County jail – Thursday and Friday nights – and then do 18 months of supervised probation, provide $734 in restitution and do community service.

Casey kept a key to the thrift shop when he left for another job in March 2014 after a year’s employment, owner John Dunn told Judge Jeffrey Wilson. Items, including a World War I military officer’s sword, an iPad, a chain saw and cash – as much as $300 – became unaccounted for starting about July 2014, Dunn said.

Of the store’s lost goods, only those items Casey and his roommate, Taylor Chriswell, were lugging when they were arrested in February, can be accounted for, Dunn told Wilson.

Casey and Chriswell, who were wearing dark-colored clothing and gloves, were spotted from the north City Market parking lot by someone who alerted police.

Chriswell was sentenced recently to one year of probation for his role in the thefts.

“It (the plea agreement) is a slap on the wrist without jail time,” Dunn said in court. He recommended six months at the state correctional facility in Cañon City.

Other than the Dunn Deal thefts, Casey has a clean record, and lately he has volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and The Garden Project, his attorney, David Greenberg, said.

Casey apologized at length but in an almost inaudible voice.

daler@durangoherald.com



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