Posted on 05/03/2016 6:18:59 AM PDT by Rusty0604
A Texas teenager faces a felony forgery charge all because the $10 bill he found on the floor of his high school came up as fake cash on the lunch lady’s counterfeit testing pen when he used it to pay for a ham sandwich and chips.
...the lunch lady turned the $10 bill over to a campus police officer, who later wanted a statement from the teen. The officer called his mother and she said “not without me present,” according to Hunter.
The family also received a “Consent to Deferred Prosecution” form to sign, which essentially places a minor into the juvenile justice system through probation. If probation is successfully completed, the court dismisses pending charges. In March, the Hunter family declined to consent to deferred prosecution.
Alec’s chemistry teacher wrote: “I hope and pray you will please not punish a 15-year-old so harshly that this offense will keep him from obtaining a future career. A teenager often reacts without thinking about the consequences.” She added: “In the corporate and educational careers, one serious offense can make a person unemployable.”
This is likely because college and career ready applications no longer ask if a youth was ever convicted of a crime, they ask if one has ever been charged with a crime other than a traffic offense. A juvenile’s brush with the criminal justice system creates a paper trail ...
In an April 29 email to Hunter, obtained by Breitbart Texas, Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre explained the charge to prosecute Alec was accepted by the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office through an administrative referral process apparently triggered when the teen’s mother refused to have her son questioned without a parent present.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
That a parent demanding their right to be present if police want to question their child triggers prosecution, and that college applications don't ask if the person has been convicted of a crime but whether they have been charged with one.
Wasn’t his money. He should have turned it in to lost and found.
White people who have been charged with a crime probably can’t go to college.
Probably not an issue at all for the blacks.
That’s a “resume enhancement”.
This.
Hoss
The only crime is not attempting to find the owner of the money.
This kind of thing makes a person lose all respect for the “legal justice system.”
So one small bad decision for a teenager and it’s fine with you that his life could be ruined?
Stupid kid and family.
They should have set up the Hunter Global Initiative fund. Then they could put all kinds of money in it - bribes, graft, thefts, counterfeits, hustles, taxes, contributions - and lived fat and large off of it.
Finding the rightful owner of a lost ten dollar bill in a high school would be interesting.
One thing I would believe is that this kid knew it was fake and tried to use it as a joke.
:: a parent demanding their right to be present if police want to question their child triggers prosecution ::
This is the most disturbing of your points.
I have consistently taught all my charges (children and SS students) to not answer without some type of counsel present.
Even a simple question during a traffic stop of:
“Do you know why I stopped you?” is prima facia collection of evidence and is protected by the 1st, 4th and 5th Amndt.
Don’t talk to the [currently militarized] police. Politely ask them to perform their duties as prescribed.
Search UTOOB for hundreds of lessons and examples.
Is that a felony?
Out of all the things that happen at schools these days, this just sounds trivial. I believe the kid just found the bill and didn’t realize it wasn’t real. The kid seems to be a good kid, I don’t know how it got blown out of proportion like this. He sounded like a bright kid and was well spoken, unlike the wannabe thugs that fill many of the schools today.
So if I am at a store and the clerk gives me a $10 bill as part of my change, and I use that $10 in another store that marks it positive as fake, I would get charged for forgery???
WTF????
Was the bill actually counterfeit?
A spritz with spray starch can make any bank note fail the counterfeit pen test.
Blatantly unconstitutional. If the parent doesn't waive rights on behalf of the minor, they are subject to prosecution.
I taught my kids the same thing. In Texas, probation officer is a large employer, they need to justify their existence.
“Do you know why I stopped you?”
“I’m not sure, officer, but is it because if I pulled you over it would be weird?”
No. I assume the kid told the cops a different story and they couldn’t use it without parental permission. In any case I always taught my kids that found money isn’t theirs to keep. I’d these parents instilled same teh kid would have avoided this. I know, I taught my kids lots of things that they ignored and had to suffer consequences. Respect for private property is huge Vale to instill. Hopefully the kid learns.
Counterfeit money is not a joke. Ask the Secret Service.
There are several possibilities with this situation, as I see it:
1) Kid found the bill like he said.
2) Kid got the bill innocently from someone else and he is protecting him/her.
3) Kid got the bill from counterfeiter and was passing it.
4) Kid is the counterfeiter.
I spent a $10 bill a couple weeks ago and the guy at the counter swiped it with the pen. It was the first time I’d ever seen someone test a bill smaller than a $20, so I asked if people were counterfeiting tens now. He answered, “Yes, and fives, too.”
I take that as a sign of how bad the economy is, that people are counterfeiting five and tens.
I would like to see an image of this bill, or at least know how it was produced. It used to be that counterfeiters actually made printing plates which is why they only did larger bills.
Now anyone with a good laser printer can make passable currency.
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