Posted on 06/07/2002 7:42:32 AM PDT by Cagey
WALNUT CREEK (Reuters) - A 13-year-old California boy who was facing a possible eight years in juvenile prison for a spitball attack on a fellow student was given a much lighter sentence on Thursday -- although he will still log some time behind bars.
Jeffrey Figueroa, who made national headlines after he was convicted of two felonies for injuring a 14-year-old boy with the speedy spitball, was ordered to spend a spend a total of one week in juvenile detention -- logged on weekends -- in a case that his lawyer said showed prosecutors intent on "criminalizing childhood behavior."
"These kids aren't going to get into any trouble. We're going to keep them in the house," Jeffrey's father, Steve Figueroa, told reporters after the hearing, which also saw Jeffrey's 14-year-old brother given a slightly lesser sentence for egging Jeffrey on in the spitball incident.
In addition to their time in juvenile detention, both boys were ordered to attend anger management classes, told to obey a 7 p.m. curfew as part of home probation and instructed to undergo counseling.
They will both also be required to perform up to 150 hours of community service at a local eye bank.
Figueroa admitted that he shot the spitball -- a gum wrapper moistened with saliva -- on the first day of school last September at a middle school in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek, California.
While Figueroa said he was not aiming at anybody in particular, the spitball hit a 14-year-old boy in the right eye, requiring a trip to the hospital and surgery.
Last month Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Araceli Ramirez found Jeffrey guilty of battery causing serious bodily injury and mayhem, both felonies. His brother was found guilty on a lesser charge.
Numerous neighbors testified at Thursday's sentencing hearing, saying the boys frequently ran wild in the neighborhood and at times appeared threatening.
Ramirez, while declining to throw the book at the boys, did have sharp words for both the young men and their parents, saying they had been "in denial" about their sons' behavior.
Figueroa's lawyer, Caren Johnson, criticized Contra Costa County District Attorney Robert Burke as overreacting to the case, saying prosecutors were intent on "criminalizing childhood behavior."
"I've got little boys. They've got swords, they whack each other with swords. What if they whack a neighbor kid with a sword. Is Burke going to charge my little 5-year-old with battery?" she said.
But the principal investigator for the district attorney's office testified that both boys were frequently out of control and needed to be taught a lesson.
"Normal boy activity is responsible and does responsible things," said investigator Mark Ernst.
"Occasionally they may do something that they shouldn't do, but they generally respect authority, respect adult figures and correct their behavior."
Burke, speaking after the sentencing, said he was fairly satisfied with the sentence but that Jeffrey Figueroa's spitball victim was still being treated for damage to his eye.
"I couldn't replace that young man's eye, and that's what we'd all like to have happen. So I guess you never feel like you've done everything you could do," Burke said.
When I lived in Des Moines, a 6th grader brought 3 actual pipe bombs to school and caused the building to be evacuated while the bomb squad removed the bombs. The school Board spent a week of collective hand wringing debating wheteher they could expell the kid because he had been in a "special needs" program for his behavioral disability.
Whaaaaaaat??? A slightly lesser sentence for "egging Jeffrey on"??? Conspiracy to shoot a spitball? Wow. And it's legal to kill babies in this country, but don't even think about shooting a spitball.
Bic pens and plastic straws should be banned!
Someone please tell me...when does the statute of limitations on spitballing run out? I may need to go into hiding for a few years.
Hat-Trick
With the recent advances in DNA testing, we're all doomed.
(it needed to be said...)
OK - got that out of my system (sorta) - what are we going to do about this idiocy?
What society is this clown living in?
We expose our kids to MTV and glorify hooldum like behavior on the screen, then this clown comes along and expects kids to be saints? NO WONDER YOUNG BOYS ARE SCREWED UP!!!!
So....did they expel him or not?
Here is what I read about this case on the day it surfaced. These two punks were wearing gang colors and intimidating kids in the hallway who didn't show them the proper amount of "respect." When the victim in this case didn't acknowledge their "song" and that the Lakers, I believe it was, were the best NBA team, this individual deliberately shot the kid in the eye with what is now being called a spitwad. What it was, in fact, was a foil wrapper off a piece of gum, very tightly compacted and intended to do harm.
There was some discussion also that these kids continued to taunt the victim after he was shot and high-fived each other.
Sorry, I have no sympathy for either of them. In fact, I think they got off light, considering they intentionally harmed another person who will now have vision problems for the rest of his life.
"The "dart" went through the boy's cornea and ripped the lens of his eye in two, attorney Michael Sterrett said. A time delay caused by infection from the spat paper led to the growth of scar tissue before a replacement lens could be implanted."
I wonder why Reuters neglected to mention the extent of the injuries?
But guys can be gals, and vice versa.
Man, that's one HELL of a spitball. The surgery MIGHT explain the prospective 8-year sentence...
Obviously a spit ball foul is not 'go to jail' criminal, but gez, these kids are going to be in prison in 20 years IF all that is said about them is true AND the parents can't get them turned around.
Anyway, food for thought from a father of 5 (who shoots the end of the straw wrappers at this kids in resturants)
This should have been something that was taken care of by the principal at school, then later by the firm hand of the parents!
Let's all thank the lawyers.
He was getting his cornea sewn back together.
From Post #14:
Here is what I read about this case on the day it surfaced. These two punks were wearing gang colors and intimidating kids in the hallway who didn't show them the proper amount of "respect." When the victim in this case didn't acknowledge their "song" and that the Lakers, I believe it was, were the best NBA team, this individual deliberately shot the kid in the eye with what is now being called a spitwad. What it was, in fact, was a foil wrapper off a piece of gum, very tightly compacted and intended to do harm.
'Hall' time for spitball shooters
Judge also admonishes the parents; brothers face three weekends at facility
By Claire Booth
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
MARTINEZ - A judge sentenced 13-year-old Jeffrey Figueroa to a week in Juvenile Hall Thursday for damaging a classmate's eye with a pointed spitball and reprimanded his parents for taking the confidential case to the media.
The Figueroas, along with family and friends who testified about the boys' good character, maintained that the spitball's direct hit was an accident. A child can't just be a child anymore, mother Yvette Figueroa testified.
"This family needs a lot of help," Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Araceli Ramirez said. "Mr. and Mrs. Figueroa, you're in a great deal of denial about your children."
Jeffrey made national headlines last month after his conviction for felony mayhem and battery. He shot a pointed gum wrapper that tore the lens of the 14-year-old victim's eye.
His parents -- worried about the maximum possible sentence of eight years in juvenile prison -- went public.
They did not mention, however, the numerous run-ins Jeffrey and his 14-year-old brother Stephen have otherwise had with police, neighbors and school officials.
Ramirez also convicted Stephen last month of one count of misdemeanor battery, because during the Sept. 5, 2001, incident at Walnut Creek Intermediate School, he went down a line of classmates hitting those who said they didn't like the Oakland Raiders.
School officials said Stephen had been disciplined 49 times and Jeffrey 28 times.
After a daylong hearing that included glowing character testimony, Ramirez decided the boys' sentences will make them wards of the court. "I've never seen a case where there have been this many discipline contacts," she said.
Twenty neighbors were in court, all willing to testify that Jeffrey and Stephen dart into traffic, block vehicles with their bikes and throw things at cars.
Instead, senior district attorney inspector Mark Ernst told the neighbors' stories, including one in which one brother took a water bottle from an elderly woman and dumped the liquid on her.
Jeffrey's attorney, Carin Johnson, argued that he was under strict home supervision by the probation department at the time.
Figueroa friends and family packed the other side of the courtroom. The boys' parents, in the front row, blanched as Ramirez laid into them for presenting their version of events to the press.
"If the intent was to influence my decision ... out of fear or intimidation or public pressure, I need to tell you that has failed miserably."
She said getting "wined and dined" by national news could have no beneficial effect on their sons. "You lost focus of what's really important here."
The sentencing hearing normally would have been confidential as well. But after the Figueroas went on television, the District Attorney's Office asked that it be opened to the public, over defense objections.
The victim's mother talked publicly for the first time Thursday, telling Ramirez that her son has been threatened at school since the publicity started. "I trust that whatever you decide will be the best because nothing will give him back his vision," she said.
Both brothers originally were charged with battery, mayhem and two counts of assault.
Deputy district attorney Jim Picco, who filed the charges, said outside court that he believed the boys committed all the crimes, but that his office never intended to ask for incarceration.
Ramirez, however, ordered Jeffrey to spend six days in Juvenile Hall, to be served on weekends. Stephen, she ruled, will spend five days there, also on weekends. She ordered the brothers to report to Juvenile Hall at 5 p.m. today.
She also ordered both boys to take an anger management course and Yvette and Stephen Figueroa to take a parenting course. The boys also must volunteer at the Lions Blind Center of Diablo Valley.
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