Two teenagers accused of making school threats in February are scheduled for dispositional hearings in Bartholomew Juvenile Court after one admitted to misdemeanor harassment, and the other was found delinquent on the same charge.
Magistrate Heather Mollo canceled a fact-finding hearing Friday morning for a 17-year-old former Columbus East student who admitted to misdemeanor harassment for sending a social media message to students at the high school Feb. 21 with “alarming content.”
The teen, who was 16 at the time of the offense, was initially accused of two felony intimidation charges for sending a SnapChat message after students had been evacuated for an accidental fire drill.
The juvenile was accused of sending a picture of himself holding a weapon on social media during the incident, court records state. The two Level 6 felony intimidation charges were dismissed in exchange for his admission to the misdemeanor, according to the court.
Defense attorney Michael DeArmitt requested that the teen be allowed off electronic monitoring to home monitoring, but prosecutors and probation officials asked that he remain on electronic monitoring.
Mollo ruled the teen will stay on electronic monitoring for the safety of the community, and as a cautionary move from the court’s information that the juvenile had failed a drug screen recently, testing positive for marijuana.
“I want to continue the status quo. I am cognizant of the amount of time he has been on electronic monitoring. But until we reach resolution, I am satisfied with the level of supervision,” Mollo said.
The dispositional hearing for the former East student is set for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 3, Mollo said. The judge is seeking a ruling from state Supreme Court officials on whether the dispositional hearing will be open to the public since the juvenile has admitted to a misdemeanor charge instead of a felony.
In Indiana, juvenile hearings involving charges that would be felonies if prosecuted in adult court are open to the public. Misdemeanor cases for juveniles are not open to the public.
In the second case, Mollo released a ruling Friday on a fact-finding hearing conducted July 27 for an Edinburgh 16-year-old also accused of a school threat on Feb. 21. It occurred at the Simon Youth Academy in Edinburgh.
Mollo ruled in the case that there was insufficient evidence for the court to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the juvenile had engaged in an act of felony intimidation. She ruled a “not true” finding entered on the intimidation allegation, but said the juvenile committed an act of Class B misdemeanor harassment and also ruled the juvenile was delinquent.
The juvenile was accused of showing a sketch depicting a shooting scene to some of his classmates Feb. 21, with the drawing containing images of a classroom, a semi-automatic pistol and bodies identified by student and teacher names, court records state.
His dispositional hearing was set for 10:45 a.m. Sept. 26 in juvenile court and Mollo’s order says the juvenile was placed on probation immediately.
The cases are among six school threats reported in Bartholomew County schools this year, including two at Columbus East, one at Columbus North High School, two at Hauser High School and one at the Simon Youth Academy.
Those threats occurred Feb. 20-21, within a week of the Feb. 14 school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died.
Two threats at Hauser High School, one on Feb. 20 and another on Feb. 21, were handled internally by school officials.
On Feb. 20, a Columbus East male student was arrested by Columbus police after students told authorities the juvenile had made a social media threat on SnapChat saying the school would be shot up in two days. The student was initially charged with felony intimidation in juvenile court, a charge that was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
In the Columbus North case, a 16-year-old student was taken into custody Aug. 7, the night before school started, accused of making a social media threat that included a photo of what appeared to be a weapon. The threat, sent to a couple of classmates, included a message about not coming to school the next day, the first day of school, Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash said in an earlier interview.
Two detectives were sent to the student’s home the night of Aug. 7 and determined the weapon that appeared in the social media post was a pellet gun, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman. The officers also determined there were no other firearms in the home.
The male juvenile was apologetic and told officers he was only joking when he sent the online message to several of his friends, Harris said. The detectives confiscated the pellet gun and the juvenile was taken into custody and transported to the Bartholomew County Youth Services Center.
The 16-year-old is facing a Class A misdemeanor allegation of intimidation in a juvenile delinquency petition filed with Bartholomew County Juvenile Court, court officials said.
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Hearings for two juveniles accused in separate school threat allegations have been set in Bartholomew Juvenile Court.
- A dispositional hearing for a 16-year-old Edinburgh student on a misdemeanor harassment charge is set for 10:45 a.m. Sept. 26.
- A dispositional hearing for a 17-year-old former Columbus East High School student has been set for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 3.
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