Juvenile Justice

Public Defender’s Program Takes Troubled Teens on Service Trips to Exotic Locales

Daniel Ybarra, San Diego deputy public defender, has visited Alaska, Hawaii and New Zealand, often with kids who’ve been through the county’s Juvenile Delinquency Drug Court. Ybarra started Stony Knoll Youth Services 10 years ago, according to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, with a plan to take local…

Mar 14, 2011 3:57 PM CDT

Jury Convicts Texas Judge on 2 Counts of Official Oppression, for Sentencing Teen Truants to Jail

A jury today found a Texas judge guilty on two of three counts of official oppression, for sending teens to jail on legally dubious grounds. Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Mary Alice Palacios will now be sentenced at a later date, reports KRGV. She could get as much as…

Mar 12, 2011 2:04 AM CST

Who Let the Tiny Monkey Into Court, in a Woman’s Bra? It Wasn’t Armed, Deputy Says

A tiny monkey wearing a flowered dress and diapers created a stir in a Virginia courthouse yesterday when a woman took it out of her bra. “I can’t understand why the deputy didn’t see her,” the unidentified woman tells the New Era-Progress, explaining that the marmoset was peeking out of…

Mar 11, 2011 4:30 PM CST

Boy, 8, Is Handcuffed and Charged with Aggravated Assault After 5th Arrest in 4 Months

An 8-year-old boy in special education classes has been criminally charged after his fifth arrest in four months for misbehaving at school. The boy, who is not identified because of his age, was charged with battery on a Riverside Elementary School employee, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disruption…

Feb 25, 2011 8:23 PM CST

Reports: Convicted Judge Proclaims Victory, Turns His Back on Mom Blaming Him for Her Son’s Suicide

Convicted on only 12 of the 39 federal criminal counts he faced, a former Pennsylvania judge and his lawyers stepped outside a Scranton courthouse on Friday and proclaimed victory in the “kids for cash” case because he hadn’t been convicted of bribery. “He never took a kickback,” attorney Al Flora…

Feb 22, 2011 11:49 PM CST

Ex-President Judge of Luzerne County Found Guilty on 12 of 39 Counts in Kids-for-Cash Case

A former president judge in Pennsylvania who was accused of pocketing millions in job-related payments and putting juveniles in jail for his own financial benefit has been convicted on 12 of 39 counts in a federal bribery prosecution. The charges on which Mark Ciavarella Jr. was found guilty by a…

Feb 18, 2011 7:42 PM CST

US Citizen, 14, Charged in Mexico as Alleged Drug Cartel Assassin, Could Get 3 Years in Prison

A 14-year-old United States citizen has been charged with homicide by Mexican prosecutors for allegedly serving as an assassin for a drug cartel. The teen, who is identified only as Edgar, was born in San Diego but was reared in Mexico by his grandmother. He is accused of calmly telling…

Feb 10, 2011 9:03 PM CST

Prosecutor: Judge’s ‘Cash Cow’ Job Milked Money Envelopes From Attorney Owner of Juvenile Facility

At first, then-Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. and a senior colleague in Luzerne County, Pa., allegedly laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks they received for sending juveniles to jail through shell companies and by disguising some of the cash as rental payments on Florida condominium owned by their wives,…

Feb 8, 2011 9:03 PM CST

Opening Statements Loom in ‘Kids-for-Cash’ Trial of Former Luzerne, Pa., President Judge

Even though she is 23 and married, Daniella Ormsby cried when she recalled the nine months she spent in a juvenile detention facility in Pennsylvania as punishment for missing a court hearing. While she has completed her general equivalency degree and is living with her husband and their two children…

Feb 8, 2011 12:20 AM CST

Youths Charged with Weapons Possession for Alleged Snowball Attack on Mailman

Three youths accused of pummeling a mailman with icy-hard snowballs have been charged with criminal possession of a weapon and assault. Walter Ward, 16, is accused of pelting the mailman with snowballs—the weapons—and then hitting him with his fists, the New York Daily News reports. Two juveniles were also charged,…

Feb 4, 2011 5:49 PM CST

Letters: Kudos for Comic Book

“Navigating the Law,” December, highlights a positive step in the right direction—the Youth Justice Board in New York City and its instructional comic book for teens, I Got Arrested! Now What? While I have not seen the actual contents, I can tell you from years of firsthand experience that far…

Feb 1, 2011 10:00 AM CST

Court Probes Whether Officials Can Pull Kids Out of Class for Questioning

Officials in Deschutes County, Ore., initially believed they had caught a break from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sure, the court held in 2009 that a deputy sheriff and a state child-welfare caseworker violated a 9-year-old girl’s Fourth Amendment rights when they went to her school, pulled her…

Feb 1, 2011 8:30 AM CST

10-Year-Old Ohio Boy Accused of Mom’s Shooting Death

A 10-year-old Ohio boy is charged with murder in a delinquency petition that accuses him of shooting and killing his mother on Sunday with a .22-caliber rifle. The victim, Deborah McVay, is a 46-year-old home health care provider, according to CentralOhio.com and ABC News. Investigators believe the rifle was a…

Jan 4, 2011 1:29 PM CST

Jailed WikiLeaks Founder Put in Segregation, as 1st Individual Is Detained in Hack Attacks

Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denies, through his legal counsel, that he had anything to do with recent hack attacks on organizations perceived as hostile to his website. And he asserts that WikiLeaks is a news publishing site, not a hack site, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News reports. However, the 39-year-old…

Dec 9, 2010 10:58 PM CST

Judge Jogging with Juvenile Offenders Would Be Unethical, Says Fla. Supreme Court

Even if it seems like a nice idea, juvenile court judges should not go jogging with adolescent offenders, says the Florida Supreme Court, in a recent ethics advisory opinion. The question was submitted by a Florida jurist who wanted to create a running program for juvenile offenders. The plan was…

Nov 24, 2010 5:46 PM CST