Posted on 04/10/2008 11:58:49 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
ERIE, Pa. - Two young girls accused of brutally attacking another girl on a playground are too emotionally immature to understand the criminal charges against them and the charges should be dismissed, their attorneys said.
The girls, ages 10 and 11, face aggravated assault and other charges for the attack on another 10-year-old girl at an elementary school playground the evening of April 3. The girls are accused of stomping on the victim and breaking her hip, police said.
Erie County Public Defender Tony Logue says he will ask a Juvenile Court judge to dismiss criminal charges against the 10-year-old girl.
"How can my attorney effectively communicate with his clients given the client's chronological age versus emotional age?" Logue said.
Attorney Bruce Sandmeyer said he has similar concerns for his client, the 11-year-old, and expects to file a similar motion in the coming days.
"My client is just 11 years old and just an elementary school student," Sandmeyer said.
The lawyers said the case should be treated as a dependency case, not a delinquency case. In legal terms, a judge who rules a child is dependent can place the child under the supervision of the Erie County Office of Children and Youth.
A delinquency case, which is what the girls currently face, is the juvenile court equivalent of a criminal case. If the girls are found delinquent, the equivalent of a guilty verdict, they could be confined in a juvenile detention facility or otherwise be under the supervision of the court until they turn 21.
Ian Murray, another lawyer for the 10-year-old girl, said she and her family feel deep remorse for the attack. "This is tragic for everyone, especially the victim," Murray said.
Family members of the 11-year-old suspect say she is an "A" and "B" student who has never been in trouble before.
The injured girl said the other girls pulled her off the monkey bars and attacked after she told the girls to stop splashing water on her 8-year-old sister in the school playground. Police said the victim was repeatedly stomped on the head and legs.
The victim remains hospitalized and is expected to undergo at least one week of rehabilitation at a hospital. She has three pins in her hip to keep the bones in place and may eventually need a hip replacement, her mother said.
Well said, sir.
the charges should not be dismissed. These kids knew what they were doing and they should have to pay in one way or another. Find some way or something they have to do to make this right. They just can’t let them walk away. I know they are minors but...still...while I’m not saying send them to prison of course but...something needs to be done here so these kids know now they have to take responsibility for an act that hurt someone else. It’s gotta start somewhere.
Sorry for my error.......
Please don't fine me........
They’re old enough to understand a good spanking, I’ll bet you.
“Another shining example of how government schools promote “socialization”—something tragically denied to homeschoolers, who are condemned to living in the narrow, confining world defined by their parents.”
This happened on a school playground but it DIDN ‘T happen during school. It happened at 7 p.m.
“If an incident like this convinces just one family to remove their own children from government schools, then this girl’s hip will not have been broken in vain.”
You really ought to check your facts. These could have been homeschooled kids on the playground.
That’s too weird...
What, flash the peace sign?
“Well said, sir.”
Since this happened well after school ended for the day, the comment makes no sense. Last time I looked, homeschooled kids also played on school playgrounds.
That’s the ticket!!! Stone the brats to death.
Oh wait, that’s what the Muslims do.
EXHIBIT: Parents who shouldn’t homeschool
DAD ARRESTED AFTER (WITH MOM) OVER WHICH GANG RIGHT FOR BABY
“When Mom wears one set of gang colors and Dad wears another, conflict over how to raise the baby can cause irreconcilable differences.”
more: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999636/posts
You might, at first read, take it the way that you have.
But then, on further examination, we have a young man who has refused correction and is a danger to society.
His parents, knowing the penalty, would not take this action lightly,
and the elders of the church provide a second layer of “non-frivolous” application of this penalty.
Examining the incentives, this prescription causes parents to make sure their offspring do not get to this point, and is also a penalty that the offspring themselves can see as a deterrent to the behavior that leads to it.
If you were to examine “he who will not work, nor shall he eat” - it might seem cruel, if you only examine the penalty instead of the incentives it engenders.
Thanks for sharing, I stand corrected, Oh Wise One.
Oops, typing malfunction — that headline should have read:
DAD ARRESTED AFTER DISPUTE (WITH MOM) OVER WHICH GANG RIGHT FOR BABY
Yeah, even as a homeschooler, my siblings and I played on public school playgrounds (but not during the school day). In fact, we’d go there and take pictures of each other to practice our photography, or my brother would go up on weekend evenings to play pickup sports, or whatever - we had our fair share of escapades on school property.
Give me a break! My daughter is 10 and she would never do anything like this, nor would her friends. They are certainly old enough to understand right and wrong!
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