A little background. 3 years or so ago I became a certified foster parent. All well and good, I have since adopted the girl who was my first placement. She's now 14, probably doing as well as she can. She has an older brother, though, one who's been involved in the juvenile justice system since I've known him, and her. I've gotten to know him well, including his placement in my home a year and a half ago for 10 weeks, until he got into trouble again, and picked up another juvenile sentence.
His next placement was actually very good for him, a therapeutic residential facility, where he finally began to deal with his past abuse, PTSD, and multiple losses. He did so well there he was placed in a community halfway house, still with a therapeutic focus, but much more freedom. Probably too much freedom, too quickly, in retrospect. He started dropping dirty UAs, brought spice into the facility, etc. He had just turned 18, and was given one last chance, a two-week probation, on an ankle monitor. If that didn't work, then probably back to a much more secure facility to finish out his sentence (which is through 8/2016)
Well, 10 days into this probation, as an adult, he got overwhelmed with something that was going on with the staff, cut his ankle monitor and ran. Was picked up four days later, at his girlfriend's apartment. Not sent back to a juvenile facility, but the adult county jail, an eye-opener for me (diaried before but I couldn't figure out how to get a link to work).
he's eventually transferred to the county where he escaped from, and formally charged with an adult felony, level 4. There are at least three hearings, and the DA makes him the best offer he says he'll get, a felony level five, to be served concurrent with his juvenile sentence. No extra time, but an adult felony charge on his record at age 18.
After the third hearing (none of which took longer than 5 minutes) I met up with his public defender. It just doesn't seem right that he's hit with a felony at age 18 for doing something stupid and impulsive, but not harmful to anyone. I mentioned to him that I was thinking of hiring a private attorney to try to get the charges dropped to a misdemeanor, and he agrees that he's very busy and it would be good to get a second set of eyes.
So, I call around, get a referral, and charge up my credit card for a private attorney. She agrees it's worth it to pursue lowering the charges, given the extenuating circumstances, etc.
Ten days ago, I get a call from her, major development. She's researched the statute he was charged under, is convinced he was charged under the wrong statute, that he should have been charged with a misdemeanor to begin with. It's a Friday afternoon, she's trying to get the DA's attention, as we head into the Labor Day weekend. She gets approval for an emergency hearing before the judge on Wednesday, the DA has also checked the statute now (for the first time?), agrees with her reading of it, then moves to dismiss the case and drop all charges. Judge agrees to drop all charges.
meanwhile, I'm out of pocket the legal fees, and my young friend has spent 115 days in an adult jail he didn't need to.
WTF???? By the way, I also read the statute, and it couldn't be clearer that it applied in this situation (the law was changed in 2013, and one of the co-sponsors appears to be my state senator. Note to self - send her a thank you note asap). In fact, it appears to have specifically been written for situations when a young person runs from a community-based juvenile facility, even if over 18. It just boggles my mind to think of how different the end result could be without the benefit of a private attorney.
I now have a call into another set of attorneys to see if I have any recourse about suing the county for the legal fees. Not hopeful, but want to at least check into it. And my young friend has promised me yard work and house upkeep chores for life.
But yes justice was served and I'm thankful for that. My friend, who has such potential, has been given a second chance at realizing that potential. It is just so so sad that it took what it did. and the obvious question is - how many more errors, affecting lives in such a tremendous way, are there out there, undiscovered by our overwhelmed public defender system?