RiShawn Biddle
Expresso, July26 2006
Why was Shawn even in
juvenile court? This is just one of the questions being raised by public
defender Patricia McMath in the 8-year-old's case, now before the state Court
of Appeals. And it should be the central question that everyone, including
those working in the juvenile justice system, should be asking themselves.
For all the revelations about the woeful state of
Such a future is likely being set up for Shawn, who didn't have a criminal
record until this past January when he was sentenced to probation by Marion
County Superior Court Magistrate Danielle Gregory. As evidenced in a
psychiatric report conducted on behalf of the Public Defender's Office obtained
by The Star Editorial Board, he doesn't have a criminal profile; an average
student who doesn't like to sit still, has a temper and occasionally asks for
his mom to be by his side, he's just a typical little boy.
Shawn landed in juvenile court in March 2005, after a day in which he was
playing around with Noah, a six-year-old neighbor, around the apartment complex
where they lived when Shawn placed a stick on the handle of a door to a shed
into which Noah had wandered. Apparently Shawn though, as most kids might that
the younger Noah would be able to get out according to a police report obtained
by The Star Editorial Board. So he left him there.
When Noah's father couldn't find him a few hours later, he called the Marion
County Sheriff, who then found the youngster -- as one would expect, crying and
a little cold -- and began combing the neighborhood for Shawn. After finding
and questioning him, a detective arrested Shawn and brought him down to the
detention center to be booked on charges of what would be felony confinement
for an adult.
Any adult who has some memory of their childhood would realize that what
happened was typical mischief. Most of us, after all, have done everything from
pull the ponytail of a schoolmate to tossing water balloons at cars. Such
activities, as in Shawn's case, are deserving of parental discipline. But a mugshot, a drug test and
ultimately, a criminal record? Come on.
Shawn's case, in which several continuances were issued before it went to trial
in September 2005, didn't have to happen. Juvenile court magistrates could have
simply dismissed it as could have the juvenile probation department, on whose
word cases usually proceed. Prosecutors could have also simply rejected the
matter outright right before the initial hearing, even joining together with
the public defender to ask the court for the case's dismissal.
Instead, the case crept along to an apparently foregone conclusion: Shawn was
going to get probation -- which until recently, lasted until a child turned 18
-- and be forced to get therapy, which he may have needed, but not for this
particular incident. Given that children tend to get into mischief, Shawn would
likely end up facing charges for violating probation, which could ultimately
lead to a stint in state juvenile prison.
By any reasonable understanding of the juvenile justice system, Shawn was
sentenced to a criminal's life for no good reason at all. As Bob Marley would
say, he's the victim of a system trying to kill the
seeds of a man before he grows.
Judging from McMath's appellate brief, there are plenty of reasons to toss out
this case. The sheriff's detective on the case allegedly didn't read Shawn his
Miranda rights and advised his mother than he was a suspect before questioning
him; Shawn's alleged confession should have been tossed out by Magistrate
Gregory. She allowed it anyway. As is, the prosecution didn't have any evidence
outside of the detective's testimony because neither Noah nor his father showed
up for their deposition hearings.
Even if it were admissible, argues McMath, Shawn's statement doesn't show that
he "knowingly or intentionally" confined Noah; all it shows is that
Shawn behaved like, well, an eight-year-old boy playing with one of his peers.
There should never be anything criminal about behaving like a child when
there's nothing about the mischief that rises to criminality.
The three-judge panel has more than enough legal justification to toss out his
conviction. While they're at it, they should simply declare to juvenile court
judges both in Indianapolis and the rest of the state through a published
opinion that it's high time they stop accepting cases in which children are
behaving in the horse-playing, teasing, sometimes naughty manner as they will
naturally do.
Shawn deserved a spanking from his mother, not a criminal rap sheet. Sadly, he
isn't the only one who deserved the former and got far worse.