Attorney: Playground case should be dropped

Two young girls are accused of brutally attacking a classmate in Pa.

 

 

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.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24052416/

 

As a mother of a 9 year old girl.  I HOLLAR!  BULLSHIT!  I don't care what state, I don't care if the girls are purple or mauve colored skinned, I don't care if the girls are Pagan, Christian, Muslim, Buddist, or what have you............they KNEW what they were doing!  I don't care if they were "good girls"  and got straight A's or if they were "bad girls" and got straight F's.  They KNEW what they were doing.  So they don't understand the court system and all the big words.  Got news for folks, unless your in a profession of the justice system, NOBODY knows the court system and the big words because it is all sooooooooooo complicated.

 

Their parents get lawyers for them, the lawyers and the parents EXPLAIN things to them in words they can understand!  They need to be held accountable NOW or they are going to continue this behavor of snapping for stupid shit!

 

I didn't read the whole story to my kids, but I think it is awfully interesting that I explained the jist of the story to my 9 year old daughter and 8 year old son.  I asked them what would happen to them if they were stupid enough to do something like this.  If my 9 and 8 year old can look at me in a shocked manner and go:

 

"We would go to jail for hurting another kid that badly.  And if we didn't go to jail we would be someplace for just kids in jail, having to correct our naughty behavor."

 

I also asked them if anything else would happen to them besides going into jail.  And this is what they said.

 

"Well, since we aren't old enough to pay for everything like lawyers, our parents would probably get told to pay for our laywers and pay for the other kid's operation if she had one.  And their parents might have to pay the other girl's family some money to say sorry."

 

So notice they don't completely understand the process of the court system, but they do understand a good portion of it.  And before anyone says I told them, WRONG!  I cleared some things up after they proved that they could understand the situation and that is it.  Make those lil girls accountable NOW for their behavor.