Teen Gets Probation, Pleaded Guilty to Abusing 6-year-old boy

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-02-09-0095.html

Probation for teen in sex case

Youth pleaded guilty to abusing 6-year-old boy in Heights incident

Saturday, Feb 09, 2008

COLONIAL HEIGHTS -- A Circuit Court judge ordered yesterday that a teenager

who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 6-year-old autistic boy serve three

years of probation without detention.

Judge Harold W. Burgess did not grant a prosecutor's request to add the

youth's name to the state sex-offender registry.

The Times-Dispatch is withholding the boy's name because he was tried as a

juvenile.

At the final sentencing yesterday, Burgess said he found the 16-year-old

guilty of sexual battery, but said he suspended detention after taking into

consideration that the boy had done community-service hours, had

successfully completed a sexual-offender treatment program and is not

considered by experts at high risk of committing more sex offenses.

In December 2006, the judge ordered the boy to complete 300 hours of

community service, which he completed in five months working with the

Colonial Heights Office on Youth. His community-service supervisor said in

court that the boy did not have contact with children during his work there.

The youth also was ordered to receive therapy, pay for the victim's

counseling treatment, and to have no contact with the victim or his family.

He also was ordered to have no contact with children 12 or younger without

adult supervision.

The teenager, who was 15 at the time he was charged, was in detention for 57

days and under house arrest for about three months as he awaited a court

hearing in 2006.

Commonwealth's Attorney William B. Bray argued yesterday that the youth

broke the court's order. He called two witnesses who said they had seen the

boy around children without adult supervision. Bray also asked Burgess to

order the youth's name to be entered into the sex-offender registry.

Defense attorney Melvin E. Yeamans Jr. asked the court to dismiss the

matter. He said his client had admitted he did something wrong, but "he

suffered for it . . . he has had some consequences. He has done everything

the court has ordered him to do and he has done it with a good attitude."

Burgess said the boy had broken the court order by being around children

without supervision, but he was going to suspend his detention "in exchange

of three years of good behavior." In his ruling, the judge did not mention

the sex-offender registry.

"I think . . . [he and the victim] need some closure," Burgess said.

The teenager was first charged with forcible sodomy in July 2006. But he

later agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge.

"This is a serious offense," Bray said, noting that an adult convicted of

sexual battery can face up to 20 years in prison. A minor could be committed

until he or she reaches 21, he said.

The boy and the 6-year-old played together when the victim's parents visited

the teenager's house, according to the victim's mother. One day, she said

she found the teenager on top of her son and she called police.

The victim's mother said she was disappointed with the judge's ruling.

"Three hundred hours of community service is not enough," she said. "We

wanted him to get punished for what he did."

The victim, who is 8, is still going to counseling every week, the mother

said.

"The court system has really let us down."