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July 21, 2005
11 Year Old Maribel Cuevas Faces Felony Rock Throwing
I hope there is a hell of a lot more to this then is obvious from the news article. If fact, I can't think of anything that could be missing from the story that would justify an 11 year old girl (or boy)
- being held in juvenile hall for five days with only one half hour visit from her parents
- and then having thirty days of house arrest with a GSP ankle bracelet and
- she now faces charges of felony assault.
for . . . for . . . for . . .
throwing a rock at an 9 year old boy who, with his friends, was taunting her and her younger brother. And guess what, the police sent three squad cars and a helicopter in response to a 911 call reporting this fight between some little neighbor kids.
Oh ye, the boy admitted to the police that he started it.
Unless something very big time is missing from this story, this appears to be a case of unconscionable police and prosecutorial overreaction with an ethical bias substrate. The girl and her family spoke little English and none of the responding officers spoke any Spanish.
According to one family member one of the officers, " . . . told my nephew (apparently Maribel's little brother) he didn't speak his kind of English." The police report says Maribel was "apologetic'' and "hysterical." That sounds about right.
I was never an eleven year old girl but I was once upon a time an eleven year old boy. One day about that age, my friend and I were crossing a field on the way to his house when we got involved in a rock fight with two other boys. As I remember it, they started the fight but I could be wrong. A police officer came. He was big, he was frightening, and he threatened us. He told us that if he ever caught us throwing rocks again he would tell our parents. We were completely chastened. As far as I can remember, we never did it again although we both told our respective parents ourselves, with our own spin, just in case the cop couldn't wait until the next time to tell them. I think this run-in with the police was at just the right level: no arrests, no juvenile hall, and no felony charges but four contrite kids.
If you are interested in more information about Maribel Cuevas check out the website that has been set up to help her and her family to help raise money for her defense. After reading the news article, if you have any plausible explanation as to why she is in this situation, please let me know.
Via Blog Sisters
Update August 3, 2005
Today Maribel Cuevas' felony trail ended minutes before it began with the DA agreeing to drop the felony charges and Maibel's family agreeing to have mediation meetings with the family of the boy she hit with the rock. According to the Los Angeles Times, "both sides will be encouraged to sit down and discuss the issues. The boy's medical bills will also be discussed."
Now here the strange part, this is what Maibel and her family thought was the right way to handle the problem to begin with. In fact, everyone but the police, the prosecutor and the mayor thought this was the way to handle a spat between children. But instead, an 11 year old child was taken to jail, then subjected to one month of house arrest with an ankle bracelet monitor and the added anxiety of the possibility of four years in juvenile hall for what most of us were involved in at one time or another in our childhood.
Posted by Duane Smith at July 21, 2005 7:53 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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