Juvenile Justice

Teen ‘Sext’ Messages Can Lead to Child Porn Charges

A craze among teenagers for sending sexually explicit text messages, including photos, is creating serious legal consequences for some. “Recently, teenagers have been arrested on child pornography charges, and there have been reports of high-schoolers losing jobs or college scholarships as a result of being identified in sexually suggestive pictures…

Jan 15, 2009 1:03 AM CST

Juveniles Have Right to Counsel in Truancy Cases, Wash. Appeals Court Says

Reversing a trial judge, a Washington appeals court struck down today as unconstitutional a state law permitting a juvenile accused of chronic truancy to have his or her case initially adjudicated even if the child is not represented by a lawyer. Due process requires that the school district be required…

Jan 13, 2009 12:50 AM CST

Prosecutors Agree to Exclude Murder Confession by 8-Year-Old, With a Caveat

Prosecutors say they likely will agree to exclude a confession by an 8-year-old Arizona boy questioned about the murder of his father without the presence of a lawyer or family member. Prosecutors in St. Johns, Ariz., say they have no objections to a motion to exclude the taped confession unless…

Jan 7, 2009 1:53 PM CST

Girl, 12, Mistaken for Prostitute, Sues Over Alleged Police Beating

Responding to a report that three white prostitutes were soliciting, plainclothes police officers in Galveston, Texas, wound up arresting a 12-year outside her home one August day in 2006, according to a federal lawsuit filed there against the three officers. Not recognizing them as police, the girl, who says the…

Dec 23, 2008 10:26 PM CST

Confession by 8-Year-Old Unlikely to be Admitted, Experts Say

A taped confession by an 8-year-old Arizona boy accused of shooting his father and another man is unlikely to be admitted in court. Legal experts told the New York Times the confession will probably not be admissible because the boy was never warned of his right to silence and a…

Nov 24, 2008 5:30 PM CST

In Police Video, 8-Year-Old Boy Changes Story, Says He May Have Shot Dad

In a police video released to the media, an 8-year-old boy accused of shooting his father and another man gives shifting accounts of what happened, finally telling police he may have shot the men. At first the boy denies any role in the killings, but his story changes with pressure,…

Nov 19, 2008 12:59 PM CST

Prosecutors Say 8-Year-Old Boy Methodically Shot Father, Friend

Prosecutors said yesterday that the 8-year-old boy accused of murdering his father and the father’s friend methodically reloaded a .22-caliber rifle as he committed the crime, pumping at least four rounds of bullets into each victim. Police Chief Roy Melnick of St. Johns, Ariz., originally suspected the boy had been…

Nov 11, 2008 12:30 PM CST

8-Year-Old Boy Charged with Murder; Prosecutors May Seek to Try Him as Adult

An 8-year-old Arizona boy appears in court today after being charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the shooting deaths of his father and a co-worker. St. Johns police say the boy admitted killing his father, Vincent Romero, and a co-worker who lived with them, but the boy’s lawyers…

Nov 10, 2008 2:25 PM CST

Fla. Teen Who Copied Movie Characters is Convicted of First-Degree Murder

Rejecting an insanity defense, a Florida jury last night convicted a teenager who was 14 at the time he admittedly stabbed a middle school classmate to death of first-degree murder. Assuming that the conviction stands, Michael Hernandez, who is now 18, is expected to spend the rest of his life…

Sep 25, 2008 10:13 PM CDT

14-Year-Old Florida Killer Copied Movie Characters, Expert Says

A South Florida teen who admittedly killed a middle school classmate in 2004, when both boys were 14, allegedly modeled his behavior on the movies. An expert for the defense testified yesterday that Michael Hernandez identified with the serial killers in movies including American Psycho and The Silence of the…

Sep 23, 2008 6:24 PM CDT

Judge Cites ‘Serious Problems’ at Calif. Youth Prisons

Although he stopped short of appointing the receiver sought by reform advocates, a California judge said at a hearing in Oakland yesterday that the state’s youth prisons are in serious disarray. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon Tigar indicated that his patience had worn thin with the state’s slow progress…

Aug 1, 2008 5:40 PM CDT

Jena 6 Judge is Removed from Case

The judge in charge of hearing the charges against the remaining Jena 6 defendants has been removed from the case. Saying that there was an appearance of impropriety, Judge Thomas Yeager of Rapides Parish, La., removed LaSalle Parish District Judge J.P. Mauffray from the case today, in response to a…

Aug 1, 2008 4:35 PM CDT

Teen Son to be Tried as Adult in Md. Lawyer’s Murder

A teenage son who allegedly murdered his father, a Maryland lawyer, his mother and two younger brothers as they slept earlier this year will be tried as an adult, a judge decided yesterday. Despite testimony from a psychiatrist that Nicholas Browning, who was 15 at the time of the crime…

Jul 30, 2008 4:54 PM CDT

Teen’s 1-Year Term for Judge Threat is What He Wanted, Counsel Says

A troubled Ohio teenager has been sentenced to a one-year prison term for sending a threatening letter to a Licking County juvenile judge last year punctuated with his own blood. But Corey Spears, 16, wanted to be sentenced in adult court, his lawyer says. That’s because the one year term…

Jul 22, 2008 6:30 PM CDT

En Banc 9th Circuit Strikes Girl’s Strip Search

A sharply divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with a 13-year-old Arizona girl who was subjected to a strip search in which middle school officials tried in vain to find prescription-strength ibruprofen. The 6-5 ruling (PDF) on Friday holds that the strip search of Savana Redding wasn’t…

Jul 14, 2008 7:23 PM CDT