David Rothenberg has dreaded this day since kindergarten.
The father who doused him with kerosene and set him afire seven years ago is getting out of prison Wednesday. And although Charles Rothenberg has vowed never again to hurt his son, David doesn't buy it.
He has practiced self-defense and all the best ways to flee his Orange County home. He knows the fastest routes on his bicycle from his junior high school. He has learned to use the BB gun he got for Christmas, sometimes sleeping with it propped beside his bed.
"I'd shoot his eye out if he ever came over. I'd blind him," David said, his voice rising, his brown eyes widening. "He will be out there, free. He probably has people out there right now looking for me. I will have to live the rest of my life on the line. . . . always looking behind me."
Despite repeated efforts by state corrections officials to keep Rothenberg imprisoned longer, he will be paroled Wednesday from the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, having served his time.
Rothenberg, 49, was convicted of attempted murder, arson and other crimes connected to the March 3, 1983, fire at a Buena Park Travelodge that left his son burned beyond recognition. He received a 13-year sentence, the maximum penalty allowed by state sentencing laws that have since been toughened. Were he to have been sentenced today, Rothenberg could have been sent to prison for life.
Because he was largely a model prisoner, state law allowed him a day off his sentence for every day he worked behind bars. So his clerical job in the Soledad state prison and his maintenance work at the Men's Colony reduced his sentence to 6 1/2 years. A few more weeks were tacked onto his term after Rothenberg violated prison rules last year by having letters hand-delivered instead of mailed.
Public outrage over Rothenberg's release has prompted a shroud of secrecy about his parole destination, which was not decided until Friday, said Tipton C. Kindel, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections. A desert community in Riverside County last year rejected his request to be paroled there; a family that offered two years ago to help Rothenberg upon his release claim that they have received death threats. Rothenberg himself was attacked Jan. 10 by another inmate enraged over what Rothenberg had done to his son.
So parole officials anticipating trouble if news leaks of Rothenberg's whereabouts are working with three possible locations to send the arsonist. Rothenberg will be among the last to know where he is going.
