What is the name of your state? California
I'm living with a woman with a 17 year old teenager who has large mood swings and issues with his girlfriend, no...ex-girlfriend...oh wait, girlfriend...well, you get the picture. He blames, somehow, his mother for his girlfriend breaking up with him. Anyway, he's thrown three temper tantrums in two weeks, destroying various and sundry parts of his bedroom. The last time was when no one but his older brother was home, who phoned their father, who told him to call the police, who came and then called their mother.
The police deduced the damage to the room exceeded $1000 (closet, walls, etc). Per the mother's request, the son was arrested. The hearing was today and the boy was charged with felony destruction of property, a trial date was set, and the mother needs to talk to her attorney about defense.
The great thing about children is that you try to "teach them a lesson" and you end up with more hassle than you started with. Basically, we're hoping to get him to go to counselling and actually talk. We can't force him (tried), but the courts can. We'd much prefer to settle this at home, but he seems...reluctant...to follow our rules, and any rules we set now will be much stricter.
My question is two-fold:
What will be his likely punishment, this being his "first offense" and that we don't want to see him in juvenile hall, just getting help he doesn't want from us?
If we can settle this at home, somehow, before the trial date in a month, can we choose to drop the charges? Or is it him against the city and only they can drop the charges?What is the name of your state?
I'm living with a woman with a 17 year old teenager who has large mood swings and issues with his girlfriend, no...ex-girlfriend...oh wait, girlfriend...well, you get the picture. He blames, somehow, his mother for his girlfriend breaking up with him. Anyway, he's thrown three temper tantrums in two weeks, destroying various and sundry parts of his bedroom. The last time was when no one but his older brother was home, who phoned their father, who told him to call the police, who came and then called their mother.
The police deduced the damage to the room exceeded $1000 (closet, walls, etc). Per the mother's request, the son was arrested. The hearing was today and the boy was charged with felony destruction of property, a trial date was set, and the mother needs to talk to her attorney about defense.
The great thing about children is that you try to "teach them a lesson" and you end up with more hassle than you started with. Basically, we're hoping to get him to go to counselling and actually talk. We can't force him (tried), but the courts can. We'd much prefer to settle this at home, but he seems...reluctant...to follow our rules, and any rules we set now will be much stricter.
My question is two-fold:
What will be his likely punishment, this being his "first offense" and that we don't want to see him in juvenile hall, just getting help he doesn't want from us?
If we can settle this at home, somehow, before the trial date in a month, can we choose to drop the charges? Or is it him against the city and only they can drop the charges?What is the name of your state?