Teen accused in attack to stay in juvenile system

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2000 | 11:46 a.m.

After lambasting the prosecuting attorney who is handling the case, Juvenile Judge Robert Gaston decided a teenager accused of trying to stab his guard with a homemade knife should remain in the juvenile system.

Gaston told Deputy District Attorney Frank Ponticello he was "irresponsible and unprofessional" for trying to tie the knife attack in with an earlier unrelated court decision.

Ponticello told Gaston that on June 18, the 16-year-old boy tried to stab a corrections officer at the juvenile detention center in the neck with a shank. The officer was able to fend off the knife, but in the process got bitten on the chest and was left with a huge bruise on his bicep and chest.

The attack came just four days after Gaston decided another boy who attacked a corrections officer should not be sent into the adult system, Ponticello said. In that case, the female officer had multiple bones broken in her face and has had multiple reconstructive surgeries.

Ponticello told Gaston he believes the boy should be sent into the adult system not only because of the detention center attack, but because of the school assault that sent him to the juvenile detention center to begin with.

The boy was arrested after he attacked a much smaller boy at Durango High School, breaking his jaw, injuring his nose and knocking out several teeth, Ponticello said. The victim has undergone surgery and a metal plate was placed in his chin.

The boy's criminal history goes back to June 1993 and includes malicious destruction of property, curfew violations, drug charges and petty larceny, Ponticello said.

Ponticello said he is worried about the community's safety and that of the boy's classmates.

"Our schools are out of control, our schools are dangerous places, and it's because of kids like him," Ponticello said.

The district attorney's office will continue to take a strong stance on children who commit acts of violence in the schools and against corrections officers, Ponticello said.

"I guarantee I will file a petition (to certify children as adults) on every kid who pulls a shank on a corrections officer in the juvenile detention center," Ponticello said.

Deputy Public Defender Mike Gardner told Gaston that the boy did not stomp on his fellow student, nor was the incident unprovoked. The boy punched the victim once and kicked the victim once. It was just bad luck that his blows did as much damage as they did, he said.

The detention center incident was an impulsive, rather than a planned attack, Gardner said.

Ponticello argued that Gaston's decision in the earlier detention center attack led Gardner's client to think he could escape a harsh punishment were he to attack a guard. But Gardner said his client didn't even know the other boy nor did he know he could face being sent to the adult system.

In explaining Wednesday's decision not to send the boy to the adult system, Gaston said he doesn't have a "tough, hardcore" record and a learning disability makes it impossible for him to think about the consequences of his actions.

The boy's IQ is 72 and a psychiatrist who examined him doesn't believe he is a danger to the community, Gaston said.

When Ponticello stood up during Gaston's decision, Gaston told him he had already been given a chance to comment.

"I just want to point out what hogwash this report is," Ponticello said.

Gaston again told Ponticello he had had his turn.

"You're silencing me?" Ponticello asked in disbelief.

Gaston continued and told Ponticello he was upset that he had tried to draw a correlation between his refusal to certify an earlier child as an adult with the most recent attack.

"There is not one scintilla of fact in any of these reports and in this file," that connects the incidents, Gaston said. "That is just total fiction perpetuated by the district attorney."

As for Ponticello's vow to try to get every kid accused of detention center attacks transferred to adult court, Gaston said it was "self-serving."

After the hearing, Ponticello noted that a juvenile detention center official has testified in Gaston's courtroom that the use of pepper spray at the facility has increased 40 percent since Gaston's decision not to transfer the earlier attacker to the adult system.

That boy was sentenced to Rite of Passage, a private, for-profit youth correctional camp in Northern Nevada.