A Bartholomew County Juvenile Court magistrate has ruled the school threat case against a former Columbus East student will remain under juvenile court jurisdiction rather than adult court.
The juvenile is now scheduled for a fact-finding hearing at 9 a.m. June 15 in juvenile court, which involves testimony similar to a trial about whether the accused teen committed the offenses he is accused of.
Bartholomew County prosecutors had asked that the two counts of felony intimidation, one Level 5 and one Level 6, among the lowest-level felonies in Indiana, be moved to adult court, alleging the felony counts are heinous or aggravated and it is in the best interest of the safety and welfare of the community that the 16-year-old male stand trial as an adult.
However, Magistrate Heather Mollo ruled that there was insufficient evidence to find that the teen is beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system.
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The former Columbus East High School student is accused of communicating a threat to another person Feb. 21 with the intent of interfering with the occupancy of Columbus East High School while drawing or using a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony, court documents state.
In the second allegation, a Level 6 felony, the teen is accused of communicating a threat to commit a forcible felony to another person to interfere with the occupancy of Columbus East, court documents state.
The incident in which the threats were alleged to have happened began early in the school day on Feb. 21, when East students moving large items in a hallway accidentally hitting a fire alarm box, activating the alarm, school officials said. East students evacuated and began taking photos and videos while outside, which they shared on social media.
The former student is accused of sending a response back to one or more of the current students via social media, making a threat of violence, Columbus police said. He also sent a photo of himself holding a firearm, police said. Police identified the juvenile from the photo and arrested him the same day, taking him to the Bartholomew County Youth Services Center.
“Sufficient evidence is presented that the act was aggravated by the proximity to the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting and the proximity to the closure of the child’s previous term of probation,” Mollo wrote in her order. She also noted the case against the teen has prosecutive merit.
But Mollo also found that the teen has one prior delinquency adjudication for possession of marijuana and had satisfactorily completed a term of probation, including a residential placement.
“After returning home from residential placement, probation supervision was closed within 30 days as the child’s probation officer assessed the child as low risk to recidivate and viewed the transition home to have gone well, without incident,” the magistrate wrote.
Mollo said the teen has engaged in prior conduct that is delinquent in behavior, involving contact with law enforcement at home and at school. Two of those incidents resulted in delinquency petitions being filed against the teen that were subsequently dismissed.
“The court declines to now consider these incidents as more serious to put the child beyond the rehabilitation of the juvenile justice system, than the state did at the time they occurred,” Mollo wrote.
Since the February incident, the teen has been on electronic monitoring without incident, Mollo wrote. The teen has never received an executed sentence to secure detention with the Department of Correction.
“There is insufficient evidence to find it to be in the best interests of the safety and welfare of the community that the child stand trial as an adult,” Mollo wrote. “The alleged act does carry a threat to the safety of others. There are adequate responses yet within the juvenile justice system to serve both the juvenile’s welfare and best interests of the state.”
Mollo ruled that the methods and facilities available to the juvenile court, some of which the teen has not had the benefit of, are adequate for purposes of rehabilitation, accountability and the safety of others.
Three active cases
The teen’s case is one of three regarding school threats making their way through the Bartholomew Juvenile Court.
A 16-year-old Edinburgh teen accused of making a threat against the Simon Youth Academy in Edinburgh is being allowed off electronic monitoring pending an upcoming fact-finding hearing in Bartholomew Juvenile Court.
The teen is facing a charge of felony intimidation in juvenile court, accused of showing a sketch depicting a school shooting scene to some of his classmates at the Simon Youth Academy at the Edinburgh Premium Outlets on Feb. 21, court records state. A part of the drawing contained images of a classroom, a semi-automatic pistol and bodies identified by student and teacher names, court records state. The teen’s fact-finding hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. July 6 in juvenile court.
In another case, a male juvenile at Columbus East High School was arrested by Columbus police Feb. 20 after students said he had made a social media threat against the school on SnapChat, suggesting the school would be shot up in two days. He was isolated from the student body and taken into custody on a Level 6 felony intimidation charge, which has since been lowered to a misdemeanor. The outcome of his case will no longer be public as it is no longer a felony case, according to state law regarding juveniles.
The three threats occurred a week after Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and 17 others injured.
State law allows the media to cover cases against juveniles who are charged with offenses that would be felonies if committed by an adult.
