Dr. Ronald Chase is frustrated with a mistrial in the case against Challenger founder Stephen Cartisano and remains perplexed over a state where his daughter's death is considered a misdemeanor.
Chase, in a recent interview from his home on Long Island, N.Y., learned Cartisano was granted a mistrial when he saw a small story buried in the back pages of Newsday."I practically freaked out," he said. "I was fearful the case might never make it to trial."
The judge stopped the trial in its sixth day on a defense motion. Sixth Circuit Judge David Mower acknowledged he made a mistake when he did not formally read the charges when the trial began.
Kane County authorities have vowed to retry the 34-year-old Cartisano on charges of negligent homicide in the death of 16-year-old Kristen Chase, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., who died of a heat stroke June 27, 1990, while hiking in the program.
Cartisano also faces seven counts of misdemeanor child abuse stemming from his role as director of the therapy program. Parents paid $15,900 for the 63-day program, which promised to tame unruly teenagers by forcing them to survive in the southern Utah desert.
Challenger declared bankruptcy last fall and has since shut its doors.
Chase, a New York psychiatrist, said he did not know his daughter was in the program until he was told of her death more than 24 hours after it had occurred.
He said she was placed in the program by her mother, Sharon Fuqua, formerly of Florida, who no longer has a listed number. Chase said she lives in Malta.
Since then, he has watched Utah's legal process from afar, with patience and a measure of suspicion that abated after charges were filed and the trial was on course.
Now, he's worried that tiny Kane County, with a population of just under 5,200, can't afford to bring those responsible for his daughter's death to justice.
"It raises my hackles," he said. "From the outset this thing has been a nightmare.
He's unsure who to blame. He credits County Attorney Jim Scarth with pushing the investigation and believes the prosecutor is doing all he can to put Cartisano behind bars.
Still, he remains concerned with a judicial system that says his daughter's death is a misdemeanor, and a social system that allows programs like Challenger to operate in the first place.
He pointed out that there had been complaints about Challenger and other Utah wilderness programs before Kristen died. A month earlier, a 15-year-old girl in another Utah-based program died a similar death just across the Utah border in Arizona.
Given those circumstances, Chase is incredulous that Utah licensing officials wouldn't have shut down all nine wilderness therapy groups operating in Utah that summer.
"I was shocked with that," Chase said. "I didn't understand Utah law.