Son made very stupid choices and we need help Please!

[govtdog]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I called my son around 8pm to touch base and see if he had made it to Chris's house where he and a few of his friends were sleeping over. He said he was on the way and would call me when he got there.

My 15 year old son is a straight A student and athlete and has never been in trouble with the law before.

Twenty minutes later, I got a call from the Sherriffs dept notifying me that my son and his friend were arrested for stealing bikes.

It seems my son and a friend of his decided to steal(borrow according to him)some bikes to ride to a Chris's home where they were sleeping over.
As they were riding, police were notified and the policeman who took the theft report from the other kids, saw my son and his friend and arrested them.

The sherriff explained that my son would be processed and I could pick him up in a few hours.

One hour later, the sherriff called me and he asked if they needed to be aware of my son being on any prescription medications for safety. I said, not that I know of, unless his mom(who was not home at the time) took him to the doctor without telling me. I said he might have taken some OTC Ibuprofen since he is always hurting somewhere due to his daily workouts and track practice. They thanked me and said they'd be in tough with me as to when to come and pick him up.

Twenty minutes later, the Sherriff called again to notify me that my son was being charged with posession of drugs and would not be released tonight. He said that while they were processing him, they found a single Restoril(sleeping pill) on his posession. They said my son told them that he took the pill from my legal prescription in my bathroom in order to help him go to sleep that night at a strangers house. He hardly ever sleeps at other kids homes and usually comes home afterward and sleeps for most of the day. He also recently recovered from being hit by a car which broke his rib and leg and during that time, pain kept him from sleeping at home and my wife gave him an OTC Tylenol PM to help him sleep.
He now claims that he thought that taking the Restoril sleeping pill was okay since my wife had given him a sleeping pill one other time.

Well, as much as he may be telling the truth and I want to believe him, I wasn't born yesterday, and I am assuming that he took the Restoril to use recreationally at the sleepover. I'd guess that the judge will assume the same thing.

So, my son whose future looked so bright suddenly is in jail on charges of bike theft and possession of a controlled substance.

We have a hearing in front of the judge on Monday morning to determine if we get to take him home with us while he awaits his juvineille hearing/trial.
When I asked the lady at the juvineille facility whether or not we need an attorney for Monday's hearing, she said no, that the hearing is just to allow the judge to determine if our son would be better off at home with us or in the juvi facility.

I have been mostly out of work since taking an early retirement package 4 years ago, and our financial situation has grown worse by the day. My wife has a good job which allows us to stay in our home and pay our living expenses and any money I can make at part time jobs pay for other expenses for the kids involving school and the occasional movie.

What should we do as far as our son's legal situation is concerned?
Are there any free legal help we can access locally?

Can someone please help us?

Thanks,
John

 

[BOR]

IF you as parents are indigent, that is, if Texas works that way, a public defender will be appointed to represent him.

Most states do not have jury trials for juveniles for any charges, so if he pleads not guilty, it would be a trial before a Judge. Don't quote me on that, as I don't live in TX.

I suspect some type of plea deal will be arranged if he pleads not guilty??

Free Legal aid in your area is not likely to help, as it is a criminal case, and the federal constitution "most generally" requires a public defender if indigent. They usually only help in Civil matters.

If he pleads not guilty, you will be given indigency forms to fill out to see if he qualifies.

 

[govtdog]

Thank you very much.

What should we do/say at the hearing on Monday morning to ensure that our son gets to go home with us?

We are not indigent according to most measures because my wife makes good money and we won't sell our home until the kids are out of High School. We would have declared bankrupcy a few years ago if we wouldn't have been required to sell our home.

Since we have no way to pay for our kids college tuition, we realize that the only way they will get to go to college is via scholorships, and it now looks like this stupid choice has cost my son his future.

 

[BOR]

Thank you very much.

What should we do/say at the hearing on Monday morning to ensure that our son gets to go home with us?

We are not indigent according to most measures because my wife makes good money and we won't sell our home until the kids are out of High School. We would have declared bankrupcy a few years ago if we wouldn't have been required to sell our home.

Since we have no way to pay for our kids college tuition, we realize that the only way they will get to go to college is via scholorships, and it now looks like this stupid choice has cost my son his future.

There may be a little talk by the prosecutor before hand in open court where before he is aksed to enter a plea before th Judge, the prosecutor asks him how he will plea?? At that time, or before the judge/magistrate, he may ask IF the parents are present. If so speak up.

In the meantime, the best course of action is to plead NOT guilty.

 

[govtdog]

Thank you again very much for your help!

According to the nice lady at the juvi detention center, Monday is strictly a detention hearing as to determine whether or not my son will comply with the terms of the court and if he is a flight risk. Supposedly, no declaration of guilt or innocence will happen and no attorney will be necessary?

 

[Indiana Filer]

I'm a juvenile probation officer, just not in Texas.

Thank you again very much for your help!

According to the nice lady at the juvi detention center, Monday is strictly a detention hearing as to determine whether or not my son will comply with the terms of the court and if he is a flight risk. Supposedly, no declaration of guilt or innocence will happen and no attorney will be necessary?

He can have an attorney at the Detention Hearing, and you will have the choice of hiring an attorney, or asking the Court to appoint a Public Defender. Be aware, however, if you ask for a PD to be appointed, the PD will not be there immediately. They may reset the Detention Hearing to give the PD time to be there, and your son might be returned to the detention center until the reset hearing date (which would probably be within a few days.)

In my jurisdiction, there are some cases where an attorney is necessary for a detention hearing. For a first time offense, you'll probably do just as well without one at the detention hearing.

You and your family will have to decide about the attorney for the actual Initial Hearing, which is after they have charged him.

There will be no admission or denial of guilt on Monday. The prosecutor's office will not have charges filed yet, in most cases, since the offense just happened last night. Depending on what is decided as to continued detention dictates when the Initial Hearing (when he admits or denies the allegations) will be set. If he is returned to the detention center, they will set the hearing quickly. If he is released to you, it might be longer until it's held.

I called my son around 8pm to touch base and see if he had made it to Chris's house where he and a few of his friends were sleeping over. He said he was on the way and would call me when he got there.

OK

My 15 year old son is a straight A student and athlete and has never been in trouble with the law before.

So? I've had the student with the second highest GPA in the senior class (who would have been the salutatorian if she hadn't stolen) on my case load. Good students and athletes don't get a pass on breaking the law because they are good students and/or athletes.

Twenty minutes later, I got a call from the Sherriffs dept notifying me that my son and his friend were arrested for stealing bikes.

It seems my son and a friend of his decided to steal(borrow according to him)some bikes to ride to a Chris's home where they were sleeping over.
As they were riding, police were notified and the policeman who took the theft report from the other kids, saw my son and his friend and arrested them.

If he took the bike without permission, it's theft. He can try to say borrow, but...

The sherriff explained that my son would be processed and I could pick him up in a few hours.

And he probably would have been released if not for the drugs.

One hour later, the sherriff called me and he asked if they needed to be aware of my son being on any prescription medications for safety. I said, not that I know of, unless his mom(who was not home at the time) took him to the doctor without telling me. I said he might have taken some OTC Ibuprofen since he is always hurting somewhere due to his daily workouts and track practice. They thanked me and said they'd be in tough with me as to when to come and pick him up.

Twenty minutes later, the Sherriff called again to notify me that my son was being charged with posession of drugs and would not be released tonight. He said that while they were processing him, they found a single Restoril(sleeping pill) on his posession. They said my son told them that he took the pill from my legal prescription in my bathroom in order to help him go to sleep that night at a strangers house. He hardly ever sleeps at other kids homes and usually comes home afterward and sleeps for most of the day. He also recently recovered from being hit by a car which broke his rib and leg and during that time, pain kept him from sleeping at home and my wife gave him an OTC Tylenol PM to help him sleep.

He now claims that he thought that taking the Restoril sleeping pill was okay since my wife had given him a sleeping pill one other time.

Well, he obviously knew he was taking someone else's prescription medicine since he took it from a bottle with your name on it. Sounds like your son needs random drug screens, and like you need to keep any and all medications locked up so that your son can't get them. Include OTC meds because some kids get high by taking high doses of OTC meds.

Well, as much as he may be telling the truth and I want to believe him, I wasn't born yesterday, and I am assuming that he took the Restoril to use recreationally at the sleepover. I'd guess that the judge will assume the same thing.

Well, since your son doesn't have a prescription for the Restoril, that's a pretty fair assumption. I'd make the same assumption.

So, my son whose future looked so bright suddenly is in jail on charges of bike theft and possession of a controlled substance.

He screwed himself by his own actions.

We have a hearing in front of the judge on Monday morning to determine if we get to take him home with us while he awaits his juvineille hearing/trial.
When I asked the lady at the juvineille facility whether or not we need an attorney for Monday's hearing, she said no, that the hearing is just to allow the judge to determine if our son would be better off at home with us or in the juvi facility.

See top of post.

If the probation officer and/or prosecutor recommends your son be returned to the detention center, ask if Electronic Monitoring would be a viable choice. You'll pay for this, and probably for every day he spends in juvenile detention, but it's a way to make sure he doesn't do anything wrong. He'll be able to go to school while on EM, in most cases.

I don't know how much detention and EM would be in your locality. Here, it's $100 a day (even if only 1/2 an hour of the day is spent there) for detention. EM is $100 to get hooked up, and $8-12 a day for each day on EM, depending on what sort of equipment is needed.

 

[BOR]

I'm a juvenile probation officer, just not in Texas.

Are there jury trials for juveniles in Indiana, out of curiousity.

 

[govtdog]

Thank you very much for the information... and unfortunately, it wasn't what I was praying to hear.

We have NO money and can neither afford to pay for detention nor EM. I have had to spend (or lost in market downturns) all my retirment which I saved during my 30 years of working, and since I have been for the most part unemployed for the last two years, we barely can pay our utilities and house payment on my wifes paychecks.
All our credit cards have been closed and the banks are suing us for what we owe and cannot pay.
Our vehicles are a 10 year old SUV with 190K miles and a 17 year old car which I am driving on bad brakes and ruined brake rotors.
We live on generic mac and cheese and various hamburger helpers which we make with any marked down ground beef we can find in the markdown bin. Our vegis come in dented cans, when we can find them. The klids drink milk which we buy for half price when their expiration date comes due.

Still, before my son did such a stupid thing, we realized how lucky we have been and are. Our lives were/are our kids and family, and no matter how financially desperate our lives got, we tried to shield our kids from the stress and just tried to count the days to their HS graduations when they could move onto college via scholorships.

Now, it looks like even that hope is gone.

I can't ever remember feeling this depressed, helpless and hopeless.

Maybe the judge will allow me to go to jail and serve a day for each $100 we'll owe that we don't have. $100 a day is certainly more than I can expect to make at any job I could possibly get, if I could get a job.

 

[Indiana Filer]

Thank you very much for the information... and unfortunately, it wasn't what I was praying to hear.

We have NO money and can neither afford to pay for detention nor EM. I have had to spend (or lost in market downturns) all my retirment which I saved during my 30 years of working, and since I have been for the most part unemployed for the last two years, we barely can pay our utilities and house payment on my wifes paychecks.
All our credit cards have been closed and the banks are suing us for what we owe and cannot pay.
Our vehicles are a 10 year old SUV with 190K miles and a 17 year old car which I am driving on bad brakes and ruined brake rotors.
We live on generic mac and cheese and various hamburger helpers which we make with any marked down ground beef we can find in the markdown bin. Our vegis come in dented cans, when we can find them. The klids drink milk which we buy for half price when their expiration date comes due.

Well, that ought to make it a definite that your son would qualify for a public defender.

Still, before my son did such a stupid thing, we realized how lucky we have been and are. Our lives were/are our kids and family, and no matter how financially desperate our lives got, we tried to shield our kids from the stress and just tried to count the days to their HS graduations when they could move onto college via scholorships.

Now, it looks like even that hope is gone.

There are still some scholarships and grants he might qualify for. Once he gets that PD, talk to the PD about him/her negotiating with the prosecutor to just have your son admit to the theft charge with the drug charge dismissed. He might be able to get that done, especially if your son is in agreement to do any drug treatment that might be recommended.

I can't ever remember feeling this depressed, helpless and hopeless.

Maybe the judge will allow me to go to jail and serve a day for each $100 we'll owe that we don't have. $100 a day is certainly more than I can expect to make at any job I could possibly get, if I could get a job.

I doubt they'll let you serve the time. There's a chance it might be put as a judgment against you and your wife, which you could then ask to have transferred to your son's credit when he turns 18. And this is debt that probably can't be dismissed in bankruptcy, just in case you were wondering.

Don't give up yet. Get the treatment for your son, and see what the Court recommends.

 

[Indiana Filer]

Are there jury trials for juveniles in Indiana, out of curiousity.

Nope, not unless the juvenile has been waived to adult Court, at which point the juvenile is considered an adult by the criminal justice system.

Juveniles can't get a jury of their peers since juveniles don't get put on juries. They can't put them in front of a jury of adults since most juvenile criminal cases are confidential and details can't be released.

 

[govtdog]

Thanks again Indiana for the help and advice.

Even if we do qualify for a PD, I wouldn't want my asking for one to delay by one second us getting our son out of jail. Every second he is in there makes me one year older. We miss him sooooo much and I doubt I'll be able to stop from crying when I see him on Monday in court. Usually, I am a bit macho but not when it comes to my kids/family.

My wife's job(she takes care of terminal cancer patients at a major cancer center) has free help for families with drug problems, so getting him help won't be a problem. In fact, I have already made contact with her employee assistance department to arrange for his first interview with a psychologist who specializes in substance abuse. I also asked that a juvenille law attorney contact me since her job also provides free phone advice from lawyers.

We bought a locking cabinet for the prescription drugs and OTC drugs which we have left(I tossed out(via disposal in sink) most of the old, way outdated stuff which we had in our bathroom cabinets). The script from which he took the Restoril was from a script I got more than a year ago but still had in my travel ditty bag for when I used to travel for a job I used to have.

Anyway... thank you very much again for all the help and advice!