Articles Posted in Juvenile Crimes

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Middlesex Superior Court Judge S. Jane Haggerty has sentenced John Odgren to life in prison without parole. Yesterday, a jury convicted the 19-year-old, who has Asperger’s syndrome and a history of mental illness, of Massachusetts first-degree murder.

The Princeton teenager fatally stabbed Lincoln-Sudbury 15-year-old James Alenson in 2007. The two boys teens didn’t know each other but they happened end up in the high school bathroom at the same time.

Odgren’s Boston criminal defense team had mounted an insanity defense, claiming that paranoia, depression, Asperger’s, and the fear of the number 19 are what compelled Odgren to attack the high school freshman. Now, his homicide lawyer is arguing that because Odgren was a juvenile when he stabbed Alenson, the life sentence he received should come with the possibility of parole. The teenager’s legal team is calling the sentence a violation of not just the Eighth Amendment but also of an international treaty that was signed by every United Nations members except for Somalia and the United States.

Massachusetts and Connecticut are the two US states where a child can be sentenced to life in prison without a parole. Citing constitutional issues, the Odgren murder defense team has filed a motion with Judge Haggerty to sentence him as a youthful offender. She has yet to rule on the motion.

Odgren is being sent to MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum security facility in Walpole, while he waits for his permanent assignment. His criminal defense attorney wants him to stay in a mental health unit and is concerned for the 19-year-old’s well-being. People with disabilities are at risk of being victimized while in prison.

John Odgren sentenced to life in prison; lawyer concerned for safety, MetroWest Daily News, April 30, 2010
John Odgren guilty as charged, Boston Herald, April 30, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Juvenile life-without-parole sentence too harsh, reports says, Boston.com, September 30, 2009
The Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts

What’s Unique about Asperger’s Disorder?, Autism Society Continue reading

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Well, it looks like the state Legislature has unanimously approved the new state law cracking down on bullying. It must be a great thing, right? After all, it passed unanimously! How could so many politicians in the Boston area be wrong?

The legislation would require school employees to report all instances of bullying and require principals to investigate them. Now, how could that be a bad thing?

“Bullying is not new. Bullying has been with us from time immemorial”, explained Senator Robert O’Leary, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “But what has changed is that it appears to be more pervasive, more destructive By this, one would imagine he refers to the new cyber-bullying. In fact, it would appear that it used to be more violent. As for “destructive”? Well, recently two victims of bullying have tragically taken their own lives
“We’re going to send out a message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and the community needs to deal with it,” O’Leary said.

Meanwhile, Representative Martha Walz, House chairwoman of the Education Committee, said the bill was “very strong legislation that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of children in our state.”

“This is a day that we can be proud we have done something positive – to eradicate bullying and to demonstrate to this Commonwealth and to the nation that bullying will no longer be tolerated,” said Representative John Scibak, whose district includes South Hadley, where the case of Phoebe Prince drew international attention to the issue of bullying.

Both the House and Senate had previously passed versions of the bill. A House-Senate conference committee on Wednesday released a compromise version.

The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. A spokeswoman said Wednesday the governor would review the bill but considered passage of strong anti-bullying legislation “a top priority.”

And so you have it, right? Short blog today. Nothing to say. All is good in the Commonwealth, or it will be as soon as this bill is law.

Well, maybe not so short after all. I have a few concerns.
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Oboy! It’s so exciting to solve age-old presumably unsolvable problems! Here in the Boston area, we seem to be doing just that. Can it be that our government is going to come up with really well-thought-out solutions and reduce the need for lawyers running around in civil and criminal courtrooms dealing with the fallout?

Sure. We’ve also finally outlawed the Ozone Layer.

Sweeping ant bullying legislation is poised for passage after lawmakers have struck agreement on a measure that proposes to require school employees to report all bullying incidents and require principals to investigate them. And that’s just for starters!

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives and Senate, where it is expected to win overwhelming approval any minute now.

Governor Devil Patrick has also voiced strong support for the bill, which gained momentum after the highly publicized deaths of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who took their own lives after being bullied.

Representative Martha Walz, the bill’s primary author, said the mandatory reporting requirements will help deter bullying and prevent it from reaching dangerous proportions.

Gee, and I thought the indictments against 9 kids brought by certain very public super-heroic district attorney was supposed to have done that…!
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Earlier this week, when I said ” Tomorrow: Back To Bullying!” in the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog I had intended to be writing myself about the South Hadley Bullying/Indictments issue. Unfortunately, this week’s schedule made it impossible for me to do so…for a few days (sorry about that). In the meantime, though, it would appear that just about everybody else was covering for me.

In an article today, the Boston Globe puts the cap on the week’s coverage by declaring that “Witch hunts won’t bring Phoebe Prince back“.

The article went on to discuss how the local world has spent the week condemning South Hadley school administrators for the girl’s tragic suicide. Apparently, the Globe indicates that said “witch hunters” are passing such judgment without benefit of all the facts, going further to explain that, under the law, school officials are constrained in what they can say about students or the school’s actions.

Since I have spent some time over the past couple of years condemning witch hunts, the article caught my attention. Let me review some of the history of this matter for you.
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This week, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has focused on what so many in Massachusetts and beyond have been talking about. The topic is “bullying”. It is a somewhat vague term that schools and summer camps have endured since we decided to group kids together in one place.

For some reason, though, we do not care about summer camps for now, so we continue to simply focus on schools because that was the setting of the recent suicide.

Some other states are actually looking at us in wonder. They are wondering why it has taken us so long to “catch up”. You see, some other states already have laws banning bullying. By the way, some other states still have laws on the books banning “copulation” too.

I kind of like to look at Massachusetts as a Commonwealth that does not need to mindlessly follow the lead of other jurisdictions though. After all, we were the first state to legalize gay marriage. We have recently realized that having a small amount of marijuana for personal use is not necessarily a threat to humanity (although for someone to have given it to someone for their personal use is…but that is a different topic).

The point is that we, as an independent state, can think for ourselves. What I am trying to urge with this is topic is that we do actually think. Not simply act by knee-jerk and not make decisions based on publicity or political goals.

Nine kids are already indicted. Unless there is a dismissal, they are most likely already done. Once they are arraigned, their record is marked and will be for many years. I’ve kicked that dead pony enough this week. Let’s just make one last point on it before we move on to the legislature’s attempts to curtail bullying.
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People are furious in and out of Massachusetts. The people of Ireland are angry at South Hadley, Massachusetts. The people of South Hadley are “enraged” at South Hadley High School. District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, daring da from Western Massachusetts, is angry at nine kids. Oh yeah, speaking of the 9 kids who get to have their lives ruined next Tuesday…I wonder who they are made at. Maybe their attorneys will tell us during the arraignment.

You see, something that I pointed out in the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog yesterday has begun to dawn the local populace. The daring da’s annulment of criminal culpability and earlier admissions aside, it turns out that staff members at the school did know that the late Phoebe Prince was the target of harassment long before her death.

And so, not missing a beat, residents and public officials have been begun to angrily accuse the school system of neglecting vulnerable students and have called on top administrators to resign. “Now we find out they knew all along, and did nothing,” said Joe Marois, who runs a local construction company. “People are just bewildered they didn’t step in, and are wondering why they weren’t included with the students in the prosecution.”

Is the next step a superseding criminal indictment by the daring da? Perhaps the legislature will begin work on a new ANTI-TURNING-YOUR BACK WHEN PEOPLE IN YOUR CHARGE ARE BEING HARASSED bill.!
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A judge has ruled that 12-year-old Jordan Brown will be tried as an adult for the first-degree murder of his dad’s pregnant fiancé. If convicted, he would be the youngest American to serve a lifetime in prison without parole.

Jordan is accused of using a .20-gauge shotgun to kill Kenzie Houk, who was 9-months pregnant in February 2009. She was sleeping when he shot her. Her unborn baby also did not survive the shooting.

Judge Dominick Motto called the incident an “execution-style killing.” He says his decision is based on the boy’s refusal to accept responsibility for what he did.

Jordan’s lawyers had requested that the murder case be moved to juvenile court. A psychologist for the defense had testified that the child was at “low-risk” for committing future violent acts.

Prosecutors say that Jordan killed his soon-to-be stepmother because he didn’t like the fact that he was asked to move out of his bedroom. His unborn half-brother was going to be named after his father.

Jordan’s murder trial could begin in May. The 12-year-old’s criminal defense lawyers are trying to decide whether to ask the judge to let them take the case to the state Supreme Court.

In Massachusetts, persons as young as 14 can be sentenced life in prison without parole if convicted for murder. In September 2009, up to 57 people that were also first-time offenders were serving these mandatory sentences in the state’s prisons.

If your child has been charged with a crime, an experienced Boston juvenile crimes lawyer can fight to take the case to juvenile court where the penalties are less harsh. Human Rights Watch says that sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole is cruel and unfair. According scientific research, there are difference between adult and adolescent brains that explain why many teens often don’t comprehend the consequences of their actions.

Juvenile life-without-parole sentence too harsh, reports says, Boston.com, September 30, 2009
12-year-old boy to be tried as adult, UPI, March 30, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Juvenile Court Department, The Massachusetts Court System
The General Laws of Massachusetts
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After writing yesterday’s Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog, I went back to my daily business of practicing law. Then, I took a look at some of the latest news and commentaries regarding the indictments about which we “spoke” yesterday as well as the pending legislation regarding bullying.

I started with Boston.com, were I found the positive spin that, “So, finally, an adult in authority in South Hadley stepped up for Phoebe Prince.” This was, of course, applauding District Attorney Betsy Scheibel who has indicted nine youths who apparently bullied the late Phoebe Prince, 15. Ms. Prince tragically took her own life, presumably because of said bullying.

Part of the prosecutor’s stated rationale was that the bullying went far beyond typical bullying that we have seen amongst school peers since the invention of schools. Of course, yesterday, when we looked at the examples she listed…they did not seem to be very new at all.

Unspoken, of course, was any political ambitions the da might have, given that her office is a political one.

I remind you that this had already become a hot issue and one that is being kicked around by the legislature in the way of anti-bullying legislation.
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The death of Phoebe Prince, 15, the South Hadley teenager who allegedly took her own life in response to a barrage of bullying (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) is looming over Massachusetts criminal justice. It has inspired new lawmaking in the legislature and, yesterday, hit the criminal justice system hard.

Indicted felonies for 9 teenagers hard!

The charges include statutory rape, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, and disturbing a school assembly. Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced the charges today.

“Their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels,” Scheibel said of the nine teens, the oldest of whom is 18 years old.

Really? Let’s look into that.

You have probably heard about this story with a different allegation involved…bullying.
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In Massachusetts, nine teenagers have been charged in connection with the death of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year-old was found hanging in her bedroom last January.

The teenagers are accused of stalking, harassment, and bullying Prince at South Hadley High School and on Facebook. Among those charged:

• 17-year-old Sean Mulveyhill from South Hadley is charged with criminal harassment, statutory rape, violation of civil rights, and disturbance of a school assembly.

• 17-year-old South Hadley teen Kayla Narey is charged with criminal harassment, civil rights violations, and disturbance of a school assembly.

• 18-year-old Austin Renaud from Springfield is charged with statutory rape.

• 16-year-old South Hadley resident teen Flannery Mullins is charged with stalking as a youthful offender and civil rights violations as a youthful offender.

• 16-year-old Ashley Longe, of South Handley, is charged with violation of civil rights as a youthful offender.

• 16-year-old Sharon Chanon Velazquez, of South Hadley, is charged with stalking as a youthful offender and civil rights violations as a youthful offender.

Three female juveniles, all South Hadley residents, have been charged with juvenile crimes, which include criminal harassment, civil rights violations, disturbance of a school assembly, and assault by means of a dangerous weapon.

Prince had moved to South Hadley from Ireland. According to Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, one of the alleged bullying incidents occurred in front of a school staffer and other students, but no one reported what happened.

Bullying as a Crime
Many teenagers and younger children don’t realize when they’ve crossed the line that turns “merely picking on another kid” into a Massachusetts crime.

If your son or daughter has been charged with committing any crime, you should contact a Boston criminal defense lawyer to discuss your case.

9 charged in death of South Hadley teen, who took life after bullying, Boston.com, March 29, 2010
Phoebe Prince, South Hadley High School’s ‘new girl,’ driven to suicide by teenage cyber bullies, New York Daily News, March 29, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Law About Bullying and Cyberbullying, Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries
Juvenile Crime in Massachusetts, Mass.gov Continue reading

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