Juvenile Court

A 14-year-old Francis Scott Key High student has been placed on community detention for 30 days for sharing an anti-depressant prescription drug with five other students at school last week, authorities said.The students, who were not named because of privacy laws, all sought medical treatment for an adverse reaction to a generic form of Paxil, authorities said.One student was admitted overnight to Carroll County General Hospital on Tuesday, hospital officials said.The students are OK and have been referred to juvenile authorities for further action, state police said.

A newborn baby either drowned in the toilet where he was born or smothered in the trash bag where his 17-year-old mother placed him before stuffing the bag in a can outside, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor said yesterday. Megan Rene Patria was alternately portrayed in a hearing as a liar so self-absorbed that she touted her slimmer figure a day after the Dec. 3, 2005, birth, and as a scared teen who panicked when her mother - who didn't know she was pregnant - came home after the delivery.

HOUSTON -- The district attorney in the racially charged Jena 6 case in Louisiana agreed to a plea bargain yesterday that sharply reduced the charges against the first of the six black teenagers who faced trial. Attorneys for other defendants said the prosecutor appeared eager to avoid taking their cases to court as well. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, whose initial decision to charge the black teens with attempted murder for beating a white youth was widely condemned as excessive, dropped a conspiracy charge against Mychal Bell, 17, and agreed to let him plead guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery, with a sentence of 18 months and credit for time he has served in jail.

A 16-year-old from Laurel, accused of trying to pull a shotgun on police officers, had his case transferred to juvenile court Monday. After reviewing reports from the state's Department of Juvenile Services and a psychological evaluation, Howard County Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure granted Joshua A. Alvandi's request to have the juvenile justice system handle the gun, attempted assault and reckless endangerment charges. Alvandi's lawyer, Clarke Ahlers of Columbia, argued that his client would be better served with the help of the juvenile system.

Two teenage girls detained this month on explosives charges after a threatening note led to the evacuation of their middle school were released yesterday to await trial. The girls - both 14 years old and eighth-graders at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School in the Pikesville area - had been scheduled for trial yesterday. But when those court proceedings were postponed, a Baltimore County juvenile court judge ordered that the teenagers be released to their parents' custody pending trial. Both girls shuffled into the courtroom yesterday afternoon with their ankles shackled.

Kristopher Olenginski, a Westminster juvenile who was convicted as an adult for selling heroin to a schoolmate who died of an overdose, lost a bid yesterday in Howard County Circuit Court to have the case returned to juvenile court.Olenginski, now 17, was sentenced to 18 months in the Carroll County Detention Center in September 1998. He remained free pending an appeal of the waiver decision made by Carroll Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold that allowed Olenginski to be tried as an adult.In June, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded Olenginski's case, saying Arnold should have explained why he granted the waiver and state on the record his basis for rejecting the recommendation of Department of Juvenile Justice caseworkers to deal with Olenginski in the juvenile court system.

A state appellate court has ruled that a Carroll circuit judge should have explained why he did not follow the recommendation of juvenile authorities last year when he waived a 16-year-old boy to adult court. The Westminster teen-ager was charged with selling a fatal overdose of heroin to a schoolmate.In its unpublished 27-page decision, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded the case of Kristopher Olenginski, now 17, saying that the court "must carefully consider the recommendation of the [Department of Juvenile Justice]

ON FEB. 13, The Sun ran an article under the headline, "Boy pleads guilty to murder solicitation; Teen asked classmate to kill, Arundel court told."The article was about a 15-year-old youth who offered a Glen Burnie teen-ager $100 to kill a classmate who annoyed him by asking too many questions in class. No one was hurt by the threat made on a bus outside Old Mill Senior High School. But the incident took an unexpected twist when the Glen Burnie boy tried to extort $500 from the teen who asked him to commit the crime.

A 15-year-old former Old Mill Senior High School student pleaded guilty yesterday to solicitation to commit murder for offering another teen-ager $100 to kill a classmate who annoyed him by asking too many questions in class.The Millersville youth, who was described by his attorney as having a learning disability, could be given probation when Anne Arundel County Juvenile Court Master James McCarthy sentences him April 13.No one was hurt by the threat made March 26 on a bus outside the school, in part because the "hit man," a Glen Burnie teen-ager, never intended to complete the assignment, said Assistant State's Attorney Michael Bergeson.

A Juvenile Court judge decided yesterday to monitor the Millersville teen-ager convicted of offering to pay an Old Mill Senior High School classmate to kill another student, but he declined to rule the 15-year-old a delinquent in need of the services of juvenile authorities.Anne Arundel County Juvenile Master James McCarthy said anything juvenile authorities would have done "has been done and initiated by the parents" who closely supervise the teen-ager.McCarthy ordered the youth, a special education student receiving psychological and psychiatric help, to continue in therapy while McCarthy keeps tabs on the case for two years.

A Baltimore judge has granted a request by The Baltimore Sun to allow a reporter to view a video recording of a juvenile court proceeding, a decision that could lead to a new policy. Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon said the state legislature has decided that juvenile delinquency hearings should be open unless there is a specific reason to close them, and he determined that the same standard should apply to viewing video recordings of such hearings. Though juvenile court records and hearing schedules in Maryland are sealed, the hearings themselves are open to the public.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys argued Tuesday over whether a 17-year-old who police say admitted raping a 7-year-old in his Crofton neighborhood March 20 should be tried as a juvenile or an adult. The distinction is crucial for David B. Raszewski of the 1700 block of Granite Court, who was charged as an adult with second-degree rape, assault and related charges. If convicted as a juvenile, he could be held for treatment until he turns 21. If convicted as an adult, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

The woman whose townhouse was firebombed June 3 in retaliation for the homicide of a Crofton teenager said Thursday that the family has been so traumatized by the blaze that even after they moved, they feel uneasy and their younger child wakes up at night terrified of every sound. "They took from us the most important thing, our peace of mind," Slavica Mahmutagic told Anne Arundel County Juvenile Court Master John F. Gunning during a hearing Thursday in which the 16-year-old driver of the car involved - the only one in the vehicle who knew where in Odenton the family lived - was placed on probation for first-degree arson.

A 16-year-old boy who has admitted that he took part in the firebombing of a Piney Orchard townhouse that was intended as retaliation for the homicide of a Crofton teenager was sentenced Friday to serve the remainder of the summer in juvenile detention. Anne Arundel County Juvenile Court Master Cynthia Ferris ordered the boy, whom The Baltimore Sun is not naming because he is a juvenile, held at the Western Maryland Children's Center until Aug. 20. The judge, who also ordered the boy to pay $1,800 in victims' restitution, said she took into account the boy's cooperation with prosecutors and the two months he has already served in detention.

At 17, Lamont Davis has been arrested 15 times since age 10, including charges of drug dealing, carjacking with a handgun and assaults. Yet he's spent just a handful of weeks in juvenile treatment facilities over the years and was sent home in July after admitting to charges in a robbery. Days later, the Baltimore teen was arrested on charges that he critically wounded a 5-year-old girl as he shot at another youth. That Davis now faces more serious criminal charges than ever, city prosecutors and some public officials say, highlights a dangerous problem in the juvenile justice system: Because it emphasizes rehabilitation over punishment, teens who are lightly sanctioned for early offenses sometimes graduate to more violent crimes.

The family of 5-year-old Raven Wyatt, who was struck in the head by a stray bullet last week, said in a brief interview that they believe the girl's condition has stabilized, and they are optimistic she will survive. Though the family requested that hospital officials not release information about the girl's condition, Raven's mother, Danielle Brooks, met a reporter outside Johns Hopkins Hospital on Monday night to dispel rumors spreading through the community that the girl had died. She also said relatives hope that her condition will improve.

A 16-year-old boy admitted Wednesday that he took part in the firebombing of a Piney Orchard townhouse that was intended as retaliation for the recent homicide of a Crofton teenager. In the equivalent of a guilty plea, he admitted in Juvenile Court his involvement in conspiracy to commit arson. The deal requires him to testify against three others, two juveniles and 22-year-old Jonathan R. Myers, also accused in the June 3 crime that charred the front of the home but did not injure anyone.

Ex-church deacon arrested in molestation case A 48-year-old former church deacon was arrested Wednesday and charged with sexually molesting a boy who had been a member of his church, according to city police. Curtis Allen, 48, of the 5200 block of Cuthbert Ave. faces 13 charges of sexual abuse of a minor, rape and sexual assault. Allen is a former deacon at Beth-El Temple Church of Christ, in the 3900 block of W. Rogers Ave. Police began investigating the case after the 16-year-old contacted the department last year, a spokesman for the department said.

A 17-year-old girl accused of assaulting her grandmother so severely that the 69-year-old woman had a heart attack and died moments later will be tried as an adult on a charge of murder, a Baltimore judge ruled yesterday. Jabreria Handy and her mother burst into tears as Circuit Judge John P. Miller denied the teen's request to send the case to juvenile court because of her history of "behavior problems" at Samuel L. Banks High School. During the hourlong hearing, prosecutor Jennifer Rallo described how Handy had been suspended nine times during the past two school years, including once for throwing a large textbook into a door, causing glass to break and scatter over a teacher's arm. Handy also had refused to attend counseling and had been diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder, Rallo said.

Maryland State Police troopers and nine drug-sniffing dogs swept through the city juvenile lockup yesterday as part of an investigation into a recent drug problem in the secure facility. A three-hour search of the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center turned up one cell phone but no narcotics - evidence, one juvenile official said, that tighter facility policies are working. Searches last week, without the dogs, revealed enough marijuana to roll five to eight joints, plus cigarettes and three cell phones, said John Dixon, deputy secretary of the state Department of Juvenile Services.