BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
An 8-year-old boy was about to admit to a juvenile court judge Wednesday that he was with a group of friends who sexually assaulted a girl in his neighborhood, when the tiny victim whispered to her mother that he was the wrong boy.
He was the one, she said, who tried to help her.
It was the latest twist in a case already unusual because of the ages of the children involved and the serious charges they face. A group of boys allegedly took the girl into the woods in their Westwood neighborhood Aug. 12, pulled down her shorts and underwear and sexually assaulted her.
The victim -- a skinny, pony-tailed girl -- sat in the back of the courtroom and sucked her thumb during part of Wednesday's hearing. The first-grade victim -- who just turned 8 -- watched as boys not much older answered to the biggest trouble of their lives.
Three of the four boys charged -- two 10-year-olds and a 9-year-old -- filed into Hamilton County Juvenile Court with their mothers, most dressed in church clothes, and sat at tables that seemed oversized for their pre-teen frames.
The charges were much more adult: gross sexual imposition, abduction and -- for one of them -- rape.
Even if they are found guilty, the question of what to do with suspects so young remains.
In Ohio, the maximum would be placement in a program such as Hillcrest School, where the average stay is seven to nine months. The Department of Youth Services does not take offenders younger than 12.
"Mercifully, we don't have a lot of these cases," Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Hendon said. She looks to community resources such as counseling and treatment programs for young offenders. "It's challenging, to say the least."
Those challenges include maintaining the presumption of innocence. In some cases, that means leaving suspected sex offenders in the same home as the victim, Judge Hendon said.
In this case, it means leaving at least one of the suspects in the same school as the victim.
"It ain't fair," the victim's mother shouted when she learned the boys are allowed to go to school instead of being sent to juvenile detention. "It's not fair that my child's afraid to come out."
Her daughter covered her face as her mother told Magistrate Catherine Kelley that she's afraid to go to school. Court records indicate the children are split among four schools -- Roberts, Gamble, North Fairmount and Quebec Heights elementaries.
But Magistrate Kelley said all she could do for now is to order the boys to stay away from the girl.
In a quick first appearance in court, three of the boys were there simply to ask Magistrate Kelley to continue their cases until their parents could find attorneys.
The magistrate essentially grounded them until their next court date, Sept. 4. She ordered them to wear electronic monitoring units -- bracelets that keep track of their whereabouts -- and go outside only for school.
When the fourth boy -- the 8-year-old -- entered the room with his mother and attorney for his first court appearance, the girl whispered to her mother that he was the one who tried to help her.
His attorney had been prepared to enter an admission on a charge of gross sexual imposition, but the girl's mother interrupted and told the court what her daughter had said. His attorney asked for a continuance. The boy is scheduled to be back in court Wednesday. In the meantime, he is released to his mother without an electronic monitoring device.
For the 8-year-old victim's mother, waiting is the hardest part. She said her daughter is in therapy but is having nightmares. She said it's hard for her to see the boys in the neighborhood.
"They raped my daughter," she said. "They need to be punished -- not just go home and play the video games."
The community should be watching whatever happens to them, because there are many more children who are young offenders, said Patricia Myers, director of social services at Children's Hospital Medical Center and associate director of its child-abuse team. In the last few years, she has seen a growing number of children charged in sex offenses.
"We're getting reports of kids as young as 8, 9, 10, 11," she said.
The Ohio Juvenile Sentencing Commission is looking at alternatives in sentencing, said Jim Ray, Hamilton County Juvenile Court administrator. Among the alternatives is lowering the age that children can be sent to the state juvenile system from 12 to 10. But the legislature won't begin considering alternatives until next year, Mr. Ray said.
