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View Full Version : 11 year old Stone-throwing girl escapes trial?


C-Mac
08-04-2005, 09:45 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4744025.stm
An 11-year-old US girl has been spared a felony trial for throwing a stone at boys pelting her with water balloons.
Maribel Cuevas was given informal probation and ordered to talk through what happened with the boy she injured, in a deal agreed by lawyers.
She spent five days in detention and a month under house arrest after being detained in a major police operation.
Police in California said it had been a serious assault, but others said it was no way to treat a childish crime.
The girl's lawyer, Richard Beshwate, said the deal had been agreed ahead of her felony trial on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, which was due to start on Wednesday.
Under the deal, she will not be required to admit to a criminal offence.
But she will have to attend a Victim Offender Reconciliation Programme, part of which would involve sitting down with eight-year-old Elijah Vang, whom she wounded, and talking about what happened.
"I think everything will be fine," said Maribel's father, Martin, after the proceeding. "This way she'll be able to stay with my wife and me and go to school normally".
Police responded with three cars and a helicopter after the 11-year-old threw a stone at a group of boys who rode by on their bikes and pelted her and her brother with water balloons.
Cuevas supporters said police were criminalising childish behaviour
Maribel, who speaks little English, was read her rights twice in English before being detained.
Police defended their actions, describing the stone as a "jagged-edged, two-pound river rock" that left Elijah Vang with such a deep gash he needed to have stitches.
During her five days in detention, Maribel was reportedly granted one 30-minute visit by her parents.
At the time, Mr Beshwate accused the authorities of "treating her like a violent parole offender."
"It's not a felony, it's an 11-year-old acting like an 11-year-old," he said.
The confrontation happened in late April in a poor district of Fresno, central California, where the girl lives with her Spanish-speaking family.

What am I missing here?
Number one, would this not be a form of self defense?
Second, haven't we all commited this crime, just not being as good a shot as a her?
Must be more to this for this is bizazare, the girl is only 11.

Dartgod
08-04-2005, 09:52 AM
Yeah, especially this part:
Police responded with three cars and a helicopter after the 11-year-old threw a stone at a group of boys who rode by on their bikes and pelted her and her brother with water balloons.

Isn't that a little excessive for a rock throwing incident? Something's missing here.

beer bacon
08-04-2005, 09:53 AM
The kid had to get stiches?!?! Lock that 11 year-old up for life judge!

onescrewleftuntwisted
08-04-2005, 09:53 AM
that is so f*cked up, i cant realy compare it to anything else

Lzen
08-04-2005, 09:55 AM
Yeah, especially this part:


Isn't that a little excessive for a rock throwing incident? Something's missing here.

Well, the event did occur in the People's Republic of Kalifornia, after all. :rolleyes:

Rain Man
08-04-2005, 10:02 AM
They should have tried her as an adult.

C-Mac
08-04-2005, 10:04 AM
Well, the event did occur in the People's Republic of Kalifornia, after all. :rolleyes:

But she will have to attend a Victim Offender Reconciliation Programme, part of which would involve sitting down with eight-year-old Elijah Vang, whom she wounded, and talking about what happened.

Bingo!

onescrewleftuntwisted
08-04-2005, 10:05 AM
death sentence no questions asked
shes guilty she did it

Chiefnj
08-04-2005, 10:08 AM
I for one do not feel safe going to Fresno knowing that there is an 11 year old girl capable of hurling boulders at me with the accuracy and speed of Nolan Ryan. I think I will write the prosecutor a letter telling him to push for a criminal trial and the death penalty.

MOhillbilly
08-04-2005, 10:09 AM
street justice has its limits in 49 states.
if someone punched you,you have a right to defend yourself but not deal out justice in the form of a beatdown.
I dont think this warrants all the BS,a slap on the wrist and a good scare is punishment enough.

morphius
08-04-2005, 10:10 AM
Yeah, especially this part:


Isn't that a little excessive for a rock throwing incident? Something's missing here.
Maybe the 3 boys were also taken into custody for assault, so they needed the extra cars?

Thig Lyfe
08-04-2005, 10:17 AM
This is actually the inspiration for the next GTA title, Grand Theft Auto: Boulder.

jynni
08-04-2005, 10:30 AM
I for one do not feel safe going to Fresno knowing that there is an 11 year old girl capable of hurling boulders at me with the accuracy and speed of Nolan Ryan. I think I will write the prosecutor a letter telling him to push for a criminal trial and the death penalty.
That's what I was thinking
Police defended their actions, describing the stone as a "jagged-edged, two-pound river rock" that left Elijah Vang with such a deep gash he needed to have stitches.
I don't think I could hurl a two pound rock very far and she's only 11?

onescrewleftuntwisted
08-04-2005, 10:35 AM
maybe she is on the little leage shotput team

C-Mac
08-04-2005, 10:36 AM
That's what I was thinking

I don't think I could hurl a two pound rock very far and she's only 11?

Ya.... and couple that with being all wet.

Rain Man
08-04-2005, 10:40 AM
Police defended their actions, describing the stone as a "jagged-edged, two-pound river rock" that left Elijah Vang with such a deep gash he needed to have stitches.


Encyclopedia Brown can prove that this girl is innocent. Show him a river rock that has jagged edges, and he'll show you a river where erosion doesn't exist. This is all a lie, and she's being framed.



On a more serious note, they detained her for five days? That's insane.

Dartgod
08-04-2005, 10:52 AM
...a slap on the wrist and a good scare is punishment enough.
Exactly. But from her parents, not the fricken police. :shake:

Rain Man
08-04-2005, 10:53 AM
The only reason we're bringing Mexicans up here to throw river rocks at people is because Americans no longer want to do that type of work.

C-Mac
08-04-2005, 10:56 AM
Encyclopedia Brown can prove that this girl is innocent. Show him a river rock that has jagged edges, and he'll show you a river where erosion doesn't exist. This is all a lie, and she's being framed.

A google search under images for "jagged river rock" produced 15 images and not one was a picture of a rock, clever insite Mr. Hawking.

morphius
08-04-2005, 11:03 AM
Encyclopedia Brown can prove that this girl is innocent. Show him a river rock that has jagged edges, and he'll show you a river where erosion doesn't exist. This is all a lie, and she's being framed.



On a more serious note, they detained her for five days? That's insane.
I thought the same thing about the river rock when I read it, but figured it was just someone trying to do the old fish story type of thing.

BIG_DADDY
08-04-2005, 11:13 AM
Exactly. But from her parents, not the fricken police. :shake:

Exactly, what a joke.

Chiefnj
08-04-2005, 11:32 AM
http://www.freemaribel.org/

C-Mac
08-04-2005, 11:37 AM
http://www.freemaribel.org/

Pathetic :shake:

oldandslow
08-04-2005, 11:56 AM
Exactly, what a joke.

Amazing...

this case is so ridiculous that we actually find Big Daddy and Al Sharpton on the same side. The whole planet must be out of sync.....

From SFGATE:

"Since then, the girl's behavior and law enforcement's response to it has become water cooler and editorial page staples far from Fresno. The girl's parents joined church leaders and the state chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in a vigil last week. They say the felony charge in no way matches her childish crime."

KC Kings
08-04-2005, 12:30 PM
Encyclopedia Brown can prove that this girl is innocent. Show him a river rock that has jagged edges, and he'll show you a river where erosion doesn't exist. This is all a lie, and she's being framed.


Fricking racist. The little hispanic girl has a rock and they automatically assume she picked it up while crossing over. :shake:

Rain Man
08-04-2005, 01:00 PM
Fricking racist. The little hispanic girl has a rock and they automatically assume she picked it up while crossing over. :shake:

ROFL

whoman69
08-04-2005, 04:05 PM
Maybe the cops heard she was throwing donuts. When they found out it was rocks, they went way overboard.

Baby Lee
08-04-2005, 04:52 PM
What am I missing here?
The two pound rock and the gash on the kids forehead that was as big as or bigger than his eye. I'm not saying she should get the book throw at her, but a 2 pound rock is a little more than a piece of gravel. And I've seen the gash it produced. Seriously, as long as two knuckles and split open down to the white meat. She was provoked, but there has to be someone establishing that her response was WAY out of line. I've seen smaller knife wounds.
Maybe the 3 boys were also taken into custody for assault, so they needed the extra cars?
The 3 cars and the helicopter arose after the fact. Initially, there was one car responding, then the families and the neighborhood folk started agitating, and there was the threat of an impending neighborhood riot. The extra officers were called in for crowd control, not solely to apprehend the girl.
That said, in effecting arrest, the girl put up a fight that was uncalled for with officers. Kicking and punching, followed by kicking the interior of the squad car and the windows after being secured in the car.
Like I said, I don't want here langering into old age behind bars, but she did open up a kids face with a boulder, then fought with police in the course of arrest.

Rain Man
08-04-2005, 05:13 PM
I wonder if the Islamic fundamentalists think she should be stoned to death.

Frazod
08-04-2005, 05:49 PM
What a bunch of crap. The morons who actually tried to prosecute this little girl should be hit in the head with much larger rocks than the one she threw.

A when I was a kid, on two occasions I was hit in the head by other kids with what these asshats would consider "weapons" - one was a rock that was a helluva lot bigger than two pounds, and one was a steel pipe. In both instances blood was drawn, and while I didn't require stitches, I did have to get tetanus shots. Also, in both instances, I shook it off and beat the crap out of the offender. These things are called LIFE LESSONS, for both the offender and the offendee. They are the building blocks of experience and wisdom. Sometimes they leave scars, as do many other things in life, most of which can't be brought to trial by dickless-wonder cops and lawyers.

Dayze
08-04-2005, 07:43 PM
if it were a boy throwing the stones, he would have been in juvenile detention until he was 18.