A juvenile court judge will take some time to review evidence before deciding whether a 16-year-old former Columbus East High School student should be waived to adult court on charges of making a threat against the school.
Magistrate Heather Mollo told the teen and his family at the end of a two-hour hearing Tuesday that she knew they were anxious for a decision. But Mollo said she needed time to consider all of the material presented in two hearings with more than four hours of testimony in total.
Mollo also will review written exhibits including police reports, juvenile probation updates and past court filings entered into evidence.
The teen is accused of sending a social media threat against Columbus East High School on Feb. 21 via SnapChat after students had been evacuated for an accidental fire drill.
He also is accused of sending a picture of himself holding a weapon on social media, court records state. The boy is accused of two Level 6 felony charges — the least serious among felonies — of intimidation, and prosecutors have asked that his case be moved to adult court.
Three juveniles have been charged with petitions alleging delinquency in regard to local school threats in February, including another one at East and one in Edinburgh. All three occurred shortly after the Feb. 14 deadly school shootings in Parkland, Florida, but only the former East student is facing possible prosecution in adult court.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Bartholomew County juvenile probation officer Hillari Yentz detailed the 16-year-old’s arrest and juvenile probation records dating back to 2011, including several instances in which the teen was taken into custody but charges were dismissed or never filed.
Among those offenses were fraud for stealing his mother’s credit card and using it to buy video games, and intimidation and battery for threats against his mother and his stepfather.
Yentz detailed a number of drop-off incidents in which the teen was taken into custody by police but then released by the Youth Services Center to the custody of his family.
A possession-of-marijuana charge was adjudicated through the juvenile court system in 2016, which resulted in a substance abuse evaluation, a psychological evaluation and a rejection from the youth services center’s day treatment program because of the teen’s lack of motivation and commitment.
The juvenile was arrested again Jan. 10, 2017 for theft and intimidation and was held at the youth services center for several stretches of time, Yentz said.
When the marijuana possession case was completed, he was ordered to a residential treatment center, Hillcrest Academy, which specializes in behavior modification. He was scheduled to be admitted in early May, but the boy was arrested May 4 after running away and then remained in secure detention until he was sent to Hillcrest.
After his Dec. 4, 2017 release from Hillcrest, he served 30 days of probation supervised by juvenile probation and was released from that Jan. 3, Yentz said.
The incident involving the East threat occurred Feb. 21, which was 49 days after his release from juvenile probation and 79 days after being released from residential treatment.
The teen’s mother testified she had seen significant improvement in her son’s attitude and behavior since his return from Hillcrest, and that the teen had completed the ninth grade and was being home-schooled to complete the 10th grade.
The teen has not had any violations on electronic monitoring while awaiting adjudication of the intimidation charges, his mother said, and the judge was shown congratulatory notes the juvenile probation department had presented for his good behavior.
The teen’s mother said she felt her son would benefit from more therapy.
On Feb. 21, when the social media threat is alleged, the woman said she had dropped her son off at a friend’s house near Parkside Elementary School for a visit and had left to visit her own mother.
Behavior patterns
In her closing argument, Deputy Prosecutor Mary Wertz said the teen exhibited a repetitive pattern of acts of intimidation and battery and that his social media threats Feb. 21 constituted an aggravated offense.
The teen’s lack of concern in sending the messages so close to the Parkland tragedy, messages received by about 300 students that caused significant disruption to the school, were evidence of an aggravated offense, she said.
Wertz asked the court to remember the taped telephone call in which the teen thinks he is calling the girl who received the SnapChat message, who is called a snitch, followed by a profanity-laced statement that Wertz said was inappropriate on any level, let alone said to a Columbus Police Department reserve officer who took the call.
Wertz said the juvenile system had tried too many things to make him understand what he should be doing and how he should be doing it. She contended the juvenile had picked up skills and knowledge from his residential treatment, and has chosen not to employ those, or only to use them when he wished to do so.
“Once again, this young man needs to understand consequences,” she said.
Franklin attorney Andrew Eggers, however, argued that the teen has changed, as the evidence from his mother and the current monitoring shows, and that most of the allegations brought up by prosecutors were either never charged or dismissed, meaning there is no repetitive pattern.
He argued prosecutors cannot prove the gun shown in the SnapChap picture sent as part of the threat was a real weapon, as no gun has been found at the teen’s home.
Eggers and the teen’s mother questioned whether it was fair for this teen’s case to be waived to adult court when two other juveniles charged in similar threats do not face the same consequence.
“Why on earth is he the only one getting waived if they all did the same thing?” Eggers asked.
After saying she would delay her ruling to review her notes and the evidence, Mollo asked the teen’s family to remember that past behavior and past contact with the juvenile system is considered in waiver requests.
Mollo said she took the decision seriously, and the law does not require her to exhaust all juvenile probation options before waiving someone to adult court.
Mentioning that behavior such as the school threat carries consequences, she said she felt the teen had made progress and obtained skills from residential treatment. But times have changed in terms of the seriousness of school threats, she said.
“I’m not sure you appreciate the consequences of your words,” Mollo said. “Some students have made those statement and acted on them.”
Addressing the teen directly, she told him that while she has a responsibility for him, she also has a responsibility beyond that for the safety of the community.
