11-Year-Old Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

July 15, 2005
Calif. Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- An 11-year-old girl who threw a rock to defend
herself as neighborhood boys pelted her with water balloons is being
prosecuted on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

Maribel Cuevas says she didn't mean to hurt the 9-year-old boy -- who
acknowledged to officers that he started the fight in late April. He
was released from the hospital after getting his head stitched up.

Maribel already has spent five days in juvenile hall with one half-hour
visit from her parents. She then spent 30 days under house arrest,
wearing a GPS ankle bracelet to monitor her whereabouts and is now due
back in court early next month.

"They're treating her like she's a violent parole offender," said her
lawyer, Richard Beshwate, Jr.

Assistant Fresno County District Attorney Bob Ellis said he couldn't
comment on the case because it involves children.

Police sent three squad cars and a helicopter in response to a 911
call. But authorities deny that their response was influenced by the
setting -- a low-income, largely minority neighborhood -- or by
language difficulties. Maribel's first language is Spanish and she and
her family members speak limited English.

"We responded. We determined a felony assault had taken place and the
officers took the actions that were necessary," said Fresno Police Sgt.
Anthony Martinez.

The police report said an officer read Maribel her Miranda rights
twice, in English. The 11-year-old said the officers grabbed her by her
shirt from behind.

"I was so scared," she said in Spanish. "I didn't know what they were
doing."

MrPepper11 wrote:

July 15, 2005
Calif. Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- An 11-year-old girl who threw a rock to defend
herself as neighborhood boys pelted her with water balloons is being
prosecuted on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.




I find it hard to believe that Americans could be this stupid, but then
this supposedly happended in California.

Briar Rabbit wrote:
MrPepper11 wrote:

July 15, 2005
Calif. Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- An 11-year-old girl who threw a rock to defend
herself as neighborhood boys pelted her with water balloons is being
prosecuted on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.




I find it hard to believe that Americans could be this stupid, but then
this supposedly happended in California.

I'm not sure I understand.

A rock is a deadly weopon. A water balloon is not. Unless there is more
to the story (for example if the boys were holding her down or she is
mentally disabled, or they were making threats), then the girl should
have been able to leave the situation and go home. I was in alot of
water balloon fights as a kid. Getting a little wet isn't going to kill
you. The girl did not handle the situation well and seriously hurt
another person. She could have killed him.


annette

Briar Rabbit wrote:
MrPepper11 wrote:

July 15, 2005
Calif. Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- An 11-year-old girl who threw a rock to defend
herself as neighborhood boys pelted her with water balloons is being
prosecuted on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.




I find it hard to believe that Americans could be this stupid, but then
this supposedly happended in California.

Bush is the first retard to be voted President of the United States.
Yes, Americans are this stupid.

Throwing rocks are dangerous, even they do it for fun. Her punishment
is appropiate.

the girl should
have been able to leave the situation and go home.

Bullying exists because dangerous people like you, annette, are
not willing to enforce one of the basic clauses of the social contract:
if you start a fight, the other guy might just finish it, AND raise the
ante

people like you, annette, are accessories-after-the-fact in bullying.
Fortunately, the USA is full of creative attornies who know how to
render justice by bringing your dangerous and anti-social behaviour to
bar. tolerating bullying is encouraging it.

The girl was assaulted by a mob. She did what she had to do to even
the odds.

i salute the young girl. Too bad she wasn't trained in self-defense
tactics. One thing about bullies..... they're scared of a REAL fight.

wrote:
the girl should
have been able to leave the situation and go home.

Bullying exists because dangerous people like you, annette, are
not willing to enforce one of the basic clauses of the social contract:
if you start a fight, the other guy might just finish it, AND raise the
ante

people like you, annette, are accessories-after-the-fact in bullying.
Fortunately, the USA is full of creative attornies who know how to
render justice by bringing your dangerous and anti-social behaviour to
bar. tolerating bullying is encouraging it.

The girl was assaulted by a mob. She did what she had to do to even
the odds.

i salute the young girl. Too bad she wasn't trained in self-defense
tactics. One thing about bullies..... they're scared of a REAL fight.

It took three squad cars and a helicopter to subdue the girl....

On 15 Jul 2005 23:35:24 -0700, "MrPepper11" wrote:

"We responded. We determined a felony assault had taken place and the
officers took the actions that were necessary," said Fresno Police Sgt.
Anthony Martinez.

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/84407.php

Her family says Maribel was simply defending herself when 9-year-old
Elijah Vang and several other boys pummeled her with water balloons
outside her home in a poor Fresno neighborhood in April. They say she
quickly sought help and tried to apologize to the boy and his family.
The Vangs have since moved away.

"She's 11 ... they're treating her like she's a violent parole
offender," said Richard Beshwate Jr., Maribel's lawyer.

Maribel, who speaks limited English, spent five days in juvenile hall
with just one half-hour visit from her parents. She then spent about
three weeks under house arrest, forced to wear a GPS ankle bracelet to
monitor her whereabouts. She's due in court Aug. 3.

Officers denied that their response was influenced by the setting, a
low-income, largely minority neighborhood, or language difficulties.
Maribel's family speaks limited English, and the responding officers
don't speak Spanish.

With help from their church, the family hired Beshwate to represent
Maribel at her upcoming trial. The lawyer says prosecutors aren't
interested in a deal. Assistant Fresno County District Attorney Bob
Ellis said he couldn't comment on the case because it involves
children.

Maribel's family said the soft-spoken girl, who turned 11 in March,
remains terrified - she's a good student who struggles sometimes
because English is her second language, but in a neighborhood where
kids grow up fast she keeps close to home, helping her mother take
care of her four younger siblings. Maribel attends school with the
boy, and says she's been taunted by him in the past.

She says she was playing on the sidewalk with her 6-year-old brother
and other younger children on April 29 when the boys rode by on their
bikes. They started teasing her, calling her names and hitting her
with water balloons, she said, holding her 1-year-old brother in her
lap in her family's modest living room, where a couch and a dining
table share space with a crib and a bed.

When the boys refused to leave, Maribel threw a rock at them, hitting
Elijah.

The aunt of one of Maribel's playmates saw the boy's forehead was cut,
got him a towel to stop the bleeding and called 911, the family said.

Maribel ran to the boy's house, two blocks from her own, to tell his
parents she was sorry, she said.

Police responded to the call ready to tackle a hardened criminal.

The officers "grabbed me from behind, by my shirt" the girl said in
Spanish. "I was so scared. ... I didn't know what they were doing."

Maribel panicked. The officers had the slight girl down on the ground,
and one of them put his knee to her back to restrain her, her mother
said in Spanish.

Guadalupe Cuevas couldn't communicate with the officers because she
doesn't speak English, and was pushed away when she tried to reach her
daughter.

Maribel was crying, the police report said, but Officer Christopher
Green, who handcuffed her, wrote, "We were able to get Cuevas into the
back of the patrol vehicle."

Guadalupe Cuevas said she didn't understand what was happening. "The
officer was just saying, 'I don't care, I don't care,' " she said in
Spanish. "He told my nephew he didn't speak his kind of English."

The police report said Green read Maribel her Miranda rights twice, in
English. The report also lists the girl's emotional state as
"apologetic" and "hysterical."

Maribel's mother and her father, Martin, were able to see their
daughter for half an hour the day after the incident. The girl's
wrists were bruised, her mother said.

Maribel was kept in juvenile hall without seeing her parents again for
five nights. When released, she had to wear an electronic monitoring
bracelet that kept her under house arrest for about three more weeks,
leaving school early to get home before the 3 p.m. curfew.

This is a case where the Police Department "overreacted and won't back
down," Beshwate said.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

wrote:
the girl should
have been able to leave the situation and go home.

Bullying exists because dangerous people like you, annette, are
not willing to enforce one of the basic clauses of the social contract:
if you start a fight, the other guy might just finish it, AND raise the
ante

people like you, annette, are accessories-after-the-fact in bullying.
Fortunately, the USA is full of creative attornies who know how to
render justice by bringing your dangerous and anti-social behaviour to
bar. tolerating bullying is encouraging it.

The girl was assaulted by a mob. She did what she had to do to even
the odds.

i salute the young girl. Too bad she wasn't trained in self-defense
tactics. One thing about bullies..... they're scared of a REAL fight.

need to see the context beside description of events. this girl is
provoked by water, not by malicious physical acts, her action is not
acceptable, can cause injury and draw her parents to legal and
financial lawsuits.

you are partially right, tolerate bully is encouraging them to bully
more. true bullies are social cowards afraid of real fights. but it is
not fit in this situation, I think it is the girl who is bullying.

the girl is provoked by water, not by malicious physical assaults. her
action is unacceptable, can draw her parents to legal lawsuits.

you are partially correct that tolerate bullies allows them to bullying
more. Bullies old or young are disturbed cowards and scared of real
fight. I agree that bullies need to get whipped well in public, they
can make their victims become cowards, but it doesn't fit in this
situation.