Sentenced to VisionQuest Program : Cement Hurler Gets Youth Camp

A Juvenile Court judge on Monday ordered a 14-year-old boy to spend at least a year in the VisionQuest program as his sentence for dropping a chunk of concrete off a freeway overpass and critically injuring a motorist.

Judge Sheridan Reed sentenced the youth to the “wilderness experience” program as an alternative to placing him in the custody of the California Youth Authority, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert O. Amador. After 12 to 18 months in VisionQuest, the teen-ager will return to court, where it will be determined whether he should be placed in a 24-hour school for juvenile offenders, a foster home or his parents’ home in Golden Hill, Amador said.

Pleaded No Contest

The court has jurisdiction over the boy until he is 25 years old and could choose to keep him on probation until then, Amador said.

The boy pleaded no contest April 14 to three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. San Carlos resident Kurt Meyering was struck in the head Feb. 29 by a 6-pound concrete chunk that crashed through the sunroof of his girlfriend’s Corvette as they drove north on Interstate 5 near Balboa Park. Jane Casey, who was in the passenger’s seat but escaped injury, had purchased the car 15 minutes earlier.

Amador said Monday that putting the youth in the VisionQuest program would be “the safest place for the community.”

“A kid his age could show some benefit from the program,” Amador said. “For a 14-year-old who has conduct-control problems but hasn’t gone out and done a specific act like rob somebody or stab somebody . . . (there is) a chance of success.

‘Different Type of Kid’

“Here he did an incredibly stupid, senseless act, where he had no real concern or appreciation for just how criminal that could be,” said Amador. “Even though there was a terrible result, there’s a difference between that and robbing and raping. In terms of delinquency, it’s a different type of kid.”

In the VisionQuest program, juvenile offenders are sent to a camp in the desert, where they are taught self-discipline, self-control and basic survival skills, Amador said. After they succeed in the first phase, the juveniles are sent on a “quest,” during which they are counseled to resist negative peer pressure and encouraged to develop positive self-esteem.

Jeffrey M. Reilly, defense attorney for the 14-year-old, said in court that his client was extremely remorseful and thought of Meyering every day, according to Amador. Attempts to reach Reilly for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

A 16-year-old companion of the 14-year-old was convicted in April of the same charges. He was sent to the California Youth Authority for a 90-day evaluation, after which he will be returned to Juvenile Court for further sentencing.

Both boys were charged with three counts of assault, one each for Meyering, Casey and Billy Wilson, the driver of another car that also was struck on the roof with a rock at about the same time.

During the 16-year-old’s trial, a tape of an interview with police was played in which the older boy said the rock throwing was the 14-year-old’s idea. The older boy told detectives that he did not throw anything, and said that, after the younger boy dropped the rock and saw it strike a car, “he just started laughing and walked away.”

Bet Between Boys

But a Juvenile Hall inmate testified that he had been told by the 16-year-old that he had bet the younger boy $1 he wouldn’t throw the rock onto the freeway.

Amador said in his closing argument that the 16-year-old lied to detectives to put the blame on his companion. The prosecutor also said he believes that the teen-agers had an agreement to drop rocks onto the freeway together, based on statements by the younger boy.

Meyering, 24, who was in a coma for several months, now recognizes his friends and family members and sometimes responds to his name, according to Casey.