Saturday, March 25, 2000
Mason rape suspects to be tutored
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — In a compromise, two Mason eighth-graders accused of sexually assaulting three female classmates will be tutored at home instead of going to jail until their cases go to trial.
The agreement came Friday as Warren County Prosecutor Tim Oliver asked a judge to overturn Magistrate Erik Peters' earlier decision to release the boys from detention, place them under house arrest and allow them to attend Mason Middle School.
Mr. Oliver said he wanted the boys sent back to jail, if that was the only way to keep them out of school.
He had objected to Magistrate Peters' decision, saying the boys' presence at school was unfair to the 14-year-old girls, who also are eighth-graders there.
“Our primary goal was to make sure they were not in school,” Mr. Oliver said after Judge P. Daniel Fedders suggested that defense lawyers and prosecutors try to strike a compromise.
The boys, two of three 13- and 14-year-olds charged in
the alleged sexual assault March 11, will remain under house arrest until their cases are heard in two to three months, Judge Fedders said.
The third boy, who was initially freed from detention with the others March 17, has remained jailed since Monday after he was accused of phoning one of the girls in violation of a court order barring contact with them.
His case comes up for a hearing Tuesday to determine whether he can be released.
Because Friday's proceedings concerned juvenile suspects, the judge barred all reporters and photographers from the courtroom. The boys sat with their parents inside while lawyers were in a jury room off the judge's chambers to negotiate the agreement.
More than a dozen family friends, who also were kept out, milled around the courthouse hallway in a show of support for the suspects.
Many said they thought the boys were being treated unfairly and that the accusations are distorted.
The boy who is in detention faces charges of sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The others face charges of rape, sexual battery and corruption, Mr. Oliver said.
Authorities said the incident occurred at the home of one of the girls after her mother left the residence. The boys were at the home earlier in the day and returned after the mother left.
“We've been praying for a week that the truth comes out. In the end, I think we'll find that everybody did things they probably weren't supposed to do. We just want to see all the facts come out — the facts and the truth,” said Jim Hendley, whose son is a close friend of the three suspects.
Lori Short, another supporter whose daughter is a friend of one of the boys, said she thought the suspects should be allowed in school.
“It's like they are convicted. I don't feel they did this. It's just very hard to believe, and I can't,” she said.
After Magistrate Peters' ruling, Mason school officials had said they could not keep the boys from school. They said state law obligates them to teach all students in their district, and in most instances bars them from suspending or expelling students who are accused of wrongdoing off campus.
Magistrate Peters and Mr. Oliver's first assistant prosecutor, Mike Powell, are among three lawyers seeking the governor's appointment to fill the vacant juvenile judge's seat in Warren County.
“We're here so the prosecutor can get one of his employees appointed to juvenile court bench by suggesting that Magistrate Peters made a bad decision,” said Jeff Meadows, a defense lawyer who is representing one of the suspects.
Mr. Oliver responded that he is handling the case properly.
“It's absolutely an outrageous statement by someone who clearly doesn't know what he is talking about, who doesn't know me and obviously is trying to say anything to protect his client,” he said.
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