Man gets probation for burglarizing home and damaging car | News, Sports, Jobs
The Maui News
WAILUKU — A man who said he “got into trouble” when couldn’t afford to buy medication was placed on four years’ probation for burglarizing his ex-girlfriend’s residence and damaging a neighbor’s car.
Christian Riese Lassen, 64, of Lahaina had pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary, second-degree criminal property damage and second-degree terroristic threatening.
Lassen had no criminal record before the end of 2019, when several temporary restraining orders were filed against him and he was arrested for various crimes, Deputy Prosecutor Ryan Teshima said at Lassen’s sentencing Feb. 18.
One arrest occurred Dec. 2, 2019, when Lassen “got into an altercation and threatened a security guard on Front Street with a set of knives,” Teshima said.
He said the security guard pushed down Lassen, who suffered a head injury and “might have gotten the worse of that encounter.”
Afterward, the security guard “decided to leave his job out of fear,” Teshima said.
He said Lassen used a wooden elephant statue to smash a neighbor’s car window in Spreckelsville on Dec. 9, 2019.
A few days later, on Dec. 18, 2019, he burglarized his ex-girlfriend’s house in Spreckelsville, damaging household property, Teshima said.
“The state does believe this is a case of the defendant’s mental illness getting the best of him and him not being able to control himself in these quite impulsive acts,” Teshima said. “We are appreciative and glad he has gotten treatment for that, and he does seem to be on the right path.”
Defense attorney Marcus Landsberg said the knives in the Front Street case were butter knives, and weren’t sharp.
“Back then, he wasn’t really committed to recovery,” Landsberg said. “He was actually deep in his neurosis. He is getting much better and doing much better.”
Lassen said he was on his medication, which had been an issue because of finances.
“I wasn’t able to buy any medication at that time,” he said. “That’s when I got into trouble.”
Lassen and his attorney appeared by videoconference from Honolulu for the sentencing.
Second Circuit Judge Kelsey Kawano followed a plea agreement between the defense and prosecution in sentencing Lassen. He was given credit for one day he had spent in jail.
As part of his probation, Lassen was ordered not to consume alcohol or illegal drugs and to complete anger management treatment.
“The court’s expectation is that you continue to do what you are doing,” Kawano told Lassen.
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