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Thread: Lancer spared having to go throw rocks at Mayor and Police Chief

  1. #1
    Senior Member Lancer's Avatar
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    Lancer spared having to go throw rocks at Mayor and Police Chief

    11-year-old Fresno girl who threw rock spared felony trial


    LISA LEFF

    Associated Press



    FRESNO, Calif. - An 11-year-old girl charged with assault with a deadly weapon for throwing a rock at a boy during a water balloon fight was ordered to attend a mediation program with her young victim after her trial was scrapped in juvenile court.

    Maribel Cuevas was prepared to face a felony trial Wednesday when lawyers reached a deal behind closed doors that allowed her to escape detention and avoid pleading guilty.

    Cuevas was arrested in April for throwing a two-pound rock at a neighborhood boy, Elijah Vang, who had pelted her with a water-filled balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.

    Since then, the girl's behavior and law enforcement's response to it has become water cooler and editorial page staples far from Fresno. The girl's parents joined church leaders and the state chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in a vigil last week. They say the felony charge in no way matches her childish crime.

    But Fresno's mayor and police chief say Maribel's case was handled appropriately, and that assault with a deadly weapon is the proper charge for an act that might have had fatal consequences.

    The defense had planned to show that Maribel's action was provoked, and that she had been subject to harassment before, said Lisa Bennett, a legal assistant for defense attorney Richard Beshwate Jr. "This has occurred more than once so Maribel's reaction may have not been unwarranted," she said.

    The girl maintained she was playing on the sidewalk with her 6-year-old brother on April 29 when Elijah rode by on his bike with a half-dozen neighborhood boys, who splattered them with water balloons.

    The girl threw a rock that police later described as "jagged" and measuring 5.5 inches by 3.75 inches and it hit Elijah on the head, opening a gash that required stitches. While she ran to find Elijah's parents, a neighbor called 911.

    Elijah's family, which has since moved away, was to testify for the prosecution but was not expected to be hostile to the defense, Bennett said. The parents declined to press charges.

    In a statement issued shortly after The Associated Press published a story about the case, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer defended his department's decision to arrest the girl and seek a felony charge in the Juvenile Delinquency Division of Fresno County Superior Court.

    "The simple fact is that we have an 11-year-old girl who struck a boy in the head with a jagged-edged, two-pound river rock, that required him to have stitches," Dyer said. "That is a felony, assault with a deadly weapon, and we are very fortunate that that act did not cause a more serious injury, even death."

  2. #2
    Senior Member Lancer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lancer
    The girl threw a rock that police later described as "jagged" and measuring 5.5 inches by 3.75 inches and it hit Elijah on the head, opening a gash that required stitches.
    Sign her up! Is she as good up at bat as she is pitching?

  3. #3
    clmrt
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    When I was, say, 5 and my brother was 7, we were riding our Big Wheels around suburban Burnsville, a block from home. A neighbor kid, John, came walking out of his back yard with a 2x2 tomato stake, and whapped my brother across the top of the head. Screaming all the way home, I remember crying and being scared as hell that my brother was going to die, watching the blood run out of his head and down his shirt.


    If I ever see John again, I'm going to kick the living shit out of him.

    What this has to do with the OP, I dunno.

  4. #4
    Senior Member LE15-Thumper's Avatar
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    Sounds like one of those internet hoaxes
    LE15-Thumper
    "Give me JBL, or give me death"

  5. #5
    Senior Member tomt's Avatar
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    i read something about there being more than one boy (4) and the boys were throwing rocks as well
    ``````````````````````````````````````
    neighbor kids were throwing rocks at my sisters dogs
    so she goes out side and says what the hell do you think
    your doing?
    the most drunk one seys somthing smart.
    she only hit him once,knocked him out
    then the cops came and took her away
    she had the money to bond out but they
    (the police) would not let her go back home
    said some body else could pick her up and spend the night elsewhere
    when she did get home the neighbors had packed their sh** and split

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