Posted on 07/06/2011 2:09:59 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - When 18-year-old Tyell Morton put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall on the last day of school, he didn't expect school officials to call a bomb squad or that he'd be facing up to eight years in prison and a possible felony record.
The senior prank gone awry has raised questions of race, prosecutorial zeal and the post-Columbine mindset in a small Indiana town and around the country, The Indianapolis Star reported in its Tuesday editions.
Legal experts question the appropriateness of the charges against Morton, and law professor Jonathan Turley at George Washington University posed a wider question about Morton's case on his legal blog.
"The question is what type of society we are creating when our children have to fear that a prank (could) lead them to jail for almost a decade. What type of citizens are we creating who fear the arbitrary use of criminal charges by their government?"
(Excerpt) Read more at wsmv.com ...
Typical police state nazi bs.
My thoughts exactly. It was a prank. While the kids actions (walking into a school wearing a hoodie, carrying a large package) weren't particularly smart in the post 9/11 world, they certainly don't require prosecution.
In a saner world, the prosecution would drop the charges, write off the cost of the bomb squad deployment against their annual training budget and otherwise forget about the whole thing.
Utterly absurd he was charged with anything. Kid pulls prank, America goes insane.
I have a friend who plea bargained on a drug possession charge, no jail time in exchange for pleading guilty. Seemed a good idea at the time, particularly when he couldn't afford a lawyer. Except now he is a "convicted felon" to prospective employers.
Jail time or no jail time, an adult felony conviction means the end of any ideas of a middle-class, professional career.
Yep - like that’s real hard to do! They are doing what they always do: charging a felony so he’ll plead out on a misdemeanor thus wiping the large amount of egg off their faces. It’s standard practice.
That must have been one hell of a blow up doll. I understand the response, but why not just bring in the doll during school and blow it up there?
Why would you lock down a school if you thought a bomb was in it?
“...security footage showed a person in a hooded sweatshirt and gloves entering the school with a package and leaving five minutes later without it...”
“...Morton was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and institutional criminal mischief, a felony that carries the potential of two to eight years in prison...”
“...Prosecutor Philip J. Caviness told The Associated Press that he doesn’t intend to seek a prison term for Morton, but said school officials acted appropriately and that the charges are warranted...”
He shouldn’t be convicted but schools used to be able to employ corporal punishment to deal with these kinds of disciplinary problems. Teachers are not allowed to discipline the kids so now we have to have the police involved.
"Having a package and wearing a hoodie does not make a bomb."
So, if you observe a person wearing a hoodie, gloves; sneak into a public building (airport, school, bus stop, hospital - any building where unarmed, innocent lives will soon occupy) with a large wrapped package - what would you do? Go pick up the package? Kick it? Open it and hope it wasn't a bomb? The school did the ONLY thing they could do - with the evidence at hand.
A felony rap is a bit over the top - but this was a poorly conceived plan from the get go. If he had smuggled the inflated doll in - there wouldn't have been a problem. But sneaking a large box into a building - something should have gone off in his head saying "Should I really be doing this?". Funny? ... yup. Smart? - uh, nope. Try doing the exact same thing at an airport - and let me know how it goes.
Um, doesn’t matter - he will still lose his gun rights. Lautenberg.
I think you've nailed it, Salamander.
Wish to God I was totally wrong, though....:(
um... I’m presuming because the prank was illegal?
Thank goodness they did not handle high-school pranks this way back in my day. Otherwise I’d likely still be serving my six consecutive life sentences.
Good lord. I coulda been charged like this. Last winter for extra cash I was delivering boxes to school lunch rooms. it was cold, I had a jacket and a hoodie and a pair of gloves on.
Public schools have a zero tolerance policy alright. Zero Sanity!
Incorrect. I have been charged with many felonies, never convicted. I have a great middle-class professional career.
“The prosecutor should have declined to file charges...”
I agree. It was a senior prank and although juvenile... harmless. Why ruin a kid’s life because you had to call the bomb squad. So what? Last year, I saw a lad on my son’s football team with an ankle bracelet. Well, all sorts of horrible scenarios went through my mind. Was he a rapist? Was he violent? Turns out, he had to wear the monitor bracelet because he put some poop in newspaper, put it on a front door step, lit the “package” and rang the doorbell. The homeowner stepped on the package and it was considered arson. Dang, we use to do that every Halloween when I was a kid.
A bundle of balloons, man you are talking about an automatic assault weapon.
Declare him a terrorist.
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