Can We Get True Justice for Teens?

Recently, one of my teenage boys got into some trouble, though not intentionally, and is now charged with “Theft of a Person”, which was thankfully reduced from “Aggravated Robbery”.    Now, he did not take anything, has no stolen items in his possession,  had no knowledge that two boys he was with were about to commit this crime and has witnesses stating that he did not participate.  This is literally a case of being in the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time.  What started as an immature teen-aged prank quickly turned into crime when a boy fell to the ground and costume was stolen.  The boy actually committing the crime was 17 and was sent to “adult” jail, where he has been for six weeks now.  The other two boys, only 16, were sent to juvenile detention and detained for two weeks before being release on “house arrest”.   Even though both the other two boys, the police report and the prosecutor stated  that “he did not actively participate” in this crime, they recommended that he be detained “due to the violent nature of the crime” and because it was “obvious that he does not respond to discipline at home”.  Based on what????  How can a statement such as this, which is an outright lie, be presented to a judge to encourage her to detain a teenager??  But then again, I don’t remember ever witnessing an attorney, prosecutor or any court employee having to raise his right hand and swear, on the Bible, to tell the truth.  Are they not held to the same standards to which we are held?  I’m so proud of my son because of the way he has handled himself.  He did what he was told and with no attitude!  He remained on the highest behavior rating, protected the younger kids when picked on by older ones and was polite and respectful of all of the authorities in-house.  Because of this, he was released into our custody at the next hearing.

But let me tell you an even greater injustice! We, the parents, along with our child, were treated like we were scum, as if we were the worst criminals ever to stand in that courtroom.    I always believed that, as our civil rights state, “You have the right to an attorney.  If you can not afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”   However, I’ve discovered that that statement is not always true and that, without documentation as proof, one single employee within the judicial system can determine the fate of my child…..and it’s not the judge!  Because of recent financial difficulties, including the loss of both of our jobs, we applied for a public defender.  Yet because of one mis-spoken or misunderstood sentence, this court employee determined that we were lying, trying to deceive the courts and take advantage of our legal system for personal gain.  What???  I offered to show them anything they wanted  to see….tax returns, bank statements, whatever, but they refused to even let me speak.  We were denied the attorney, ordered to pay back the money for the attorney appearing at the release hearing and ordered to hire a private attorney before our next court date, the pre-trial in one month.  Well, just try hiring a private criminal attorney when you have no money!!    We had a month until pre-trial, during which time we contacted nine (9) private attorneys and not one of them would help us!  One of them we found on a free classified advertising site where he advertised to “barter” his services for work needed (work that turned out to be my husband’s profession!), yet for reasons unexplained, he refused to take our case.  Another was a friend (or so we thought) and had acted as our attorney previously but he also refused, with no explanation.