Judge denies 17-year-old’s release from house arrest

Erica D. Johnson and Christina Littlefield

Friday, Nov. 14, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

A District Court judge this morning denied a motion to allow one of the alleged 311 Boyz to be released from house arrest.

"I don't want to fix something that isn't broken," District Judge Michael Cherry said this morning in denying the motion on behalf of 17-year-old Jeff Hart.

Attorney Sean Sullivan had argued that Hart should be released from electronic surveillance because he has complied with the terms of his supervision and he does not pose a threat to the community.

"He's been in full compliance, he hasn't fled the jurisdiction and he has no prior record of violence," Sullivan said Thursday.

Cherry had placed Hart on house arrest while he and eight other defendants await a May trial on charges that several members of the group maimed 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen with a rock.

Department of Parole and Probation officials from Clark County Juvenile Court track Hart's location through an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Hart is due in Juvenile Court next week for a hearing to decide whether to certify him as an adult on face battery charges in connection with a videotaped fight in which two teenage boys were injured.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent told Cherry this morning that Hart had been heard on the Clark County Detention Center phones before his release telling a girlfriend that he planned to flee to Canada.

Prosecutors have alleged that Hart is one of several teens who hopped a wall in a gated Summerlin community and hurled rocks at the truck in which Hansen was riding.

Hansen was seriously injured when a rock crashed through the window and crushed one side of his face. He has had to undergo several reconstructive surgeries.

Hart was released on his own recognizance, and he and one other teen, Brandon Gallion, 16, were placed on house arrest pending the trial. The other teens each posted $40,000 bail and were given evening curfews varying from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. None of them are under electronic surveillance, however.

Jerome Bowen, the attorney representing Hansen's family and the families of Craig Lefevre and Joe Grill, the two teens who were in the car with Hansen, has called the boys' house arrest and curfews too lenient.

"Obviously (the families) would oppose any attempt to alter what we already consider generous and light restrictions on these nine wanna-be adult offenders," he said.

Bowen said he believes Hart and the other teens still represent a threat of violence.

"Given fact that these boys have already proven a propensity to commit attempted murder, we believe they, and the other 311 Boyz, continue to be a threat to the community," he said.

In a motion filed earlier this month, Sullivan argued that Hart has complied with all of the necessary requirements of his supervision. Hart lives with his parents in Las Vegas.

Hart, who is being home-schooled, has returned to work full time and his hoping to be allowed to return to his studies at night, Sullivan said in the motion.

Sullivan would not comment on where the teenager is employed, citing the media coverage of the case.

A Juvenile Court judge last month dropped a robbery charge against Hart stemming from a home invasion robbery in which a homeowner was held at gunpoint. Hart was cleared after Sullivan proved Hart was in school at the time of the robbery.

Sullivan said his client does not have a prior history of violence.

The teen's only run-in with the law came after an incident in which Hart was convicted in Juvenile Court with shooting a paintball at a vehicle, Sullivan said.

After the hearing this morning, Sullivan said, "We respect the judge's decision. Based on the history of this case, we can respect where the judge is coming from."