Elderly Wash. WWII Navy Vet welcomed back home after arrest in Mexico

AP

ARLINGTON, Wash. — An elderly Arlington, Wash., man is finally back home after being locked up in a Mexican prison for 65 days.

Eighty-nine-year-old Edward Chrisman was greeted by television cameras, balloons, banners and his family when his plane arrived Saturday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Said Chrisman, "I’m not used to this kind of attention."

Chrisman, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, and his grandson, Gary Chrisman Jr., a security guard in Yuma, Ariz., were accused of approaching a 13-year-old girl in her mother’s convenience store in Mexico and asking to take a sexually explicit photograph.

Gary Chrisman Jr. says he went into the store and took a few photos of fully clothed girls. Edward Chrisman was accompanying his grandson along to a dental appointment in Mexico.

Gary Chrisman Jr. told his family the girls’ mother was in the store and granted permission for the photo. He says he gave the mother $25, but she wanted more money. When he refused, he says she called police.

The Herald says Edward Chrisman won his freedom from a prison in Mexicali, Mexico, on Feb. 9 after a Mexican federal judge examined what happened in the case and ruled his rights had been violated. He was finally released from the prison March 14.

Edward Chrisman spent the past month and a half recovering from the ordeal in Arizona. His family from Arlington flew to his side.

In prison in Mexicali, Edward Chrisman says he lost 22 pounds.

"I couldn’t eat their food," he said.

He contracted pneumonia. "I didn’t think I’d ever come out and I was so sick I didn’t care," he said.

He says he has no plans to return to Mexico – ever.

The Herald reports Gary Chrisman Jr. remains in Mexico awaiting trial in May.

"We’ve got to get Gary Jr. out," Edward Chrisman said.