A Hamilton County judge Monday ruled that a 15-year-old accused of ethnic intimidation during the April riots will be tried as a juvenile.

        “There is plenty we can do to respond to this in a just way — in a proper way,” said Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Thomas R. Lipps.

        The boy was caught on videotape April 10 damaging and looting hot dog carts and helping to attack a white Louisville truck driver who was delivering safety glass to a business in Over-the-Rhine, police said.

        Prosecutor Mike Allen said he was disappointed.

        “From the beginning it was our position that the seriousness of the acts warranted his prosecution in adult court,” Mr. Allen said of the African-American teen.

        The boy, who is not being named because of his age, faces seven felony charges: three aggravated riot charges, three robbery charges and an ethnic intimidation charge.

        The truck driver, Robert Stearns, testified last month that he still has medical problems and suffers nightmares.

        Character witnesses for the teen described him to Judge Lipps as a generous boy who gave away the only money he had, and who had dreams of going to college and playing basketball.

        The teen's pastor, the Rev. Al Mosley of Revival Healing Temple in Walnut Hills, said he works with the teen at the Lord's Gym, in Over-the-Rhine.

        “I baptized him myself,” he told Judge Lipps. “He mentors younger kids at the Lord's Gym. ... I've seen this kid weep in my arms. This kid has a positive impact on his community. He is not a menace to society.”

        The teen was originally charged along with a 14-year-old defendant, but prosecutors dropped the charges against the younger teen when witnesses could not identify him.

        Prosecutors have appealed to Judge Lipps to reinstate charges against the 14-year-old. The judge's decision is pending.

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