Youth Who Dropped Block Is Recaptured : Probation Revoked in Freeway Incident

A Superior Court judge Tuesday revoked the probation of a juvenile convicted of dropping a concrete block onto a freeway, seriously injuring a passing motorist.

Lance Patrick Hough, 17, appeared in court Tuesday, one day after he was recaptured in San Diego following his escape from reform school, police said.

Hough escaped Feb. 19 from a Palm Springs reformatory, where he had been committed for his part in the Feb. 29, 1988, incident.

Hough and another juvenile were convicted of dropping a 6-pound concrete block from an Interstate 5 overpass onto a passing car, severely injuring Kurt Meyering, 24, of San Marcos.

Violation Admitted

In a hearing before San Diego Superior Court Judge Larry Kapiloff, Hough admitted that he violated his probation. Kapiloff had imposed the probation after the rock-throwing led to Hough’s conviction last year on charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

On Tuesday, Kapiloff revoked Lance’s probation and ordered a psychological exam for the teen-ager.

The judge set sentencing for Sept. 5. Hough could receive a maximum of six years in a California Youth Authority facility. The boy is being held at Juvenile Hall.

Hough was recaptured Monday after a civilian spotted him and his mother, Sharon Hendricks, at a restaurant on Sports Arena Boulevard and notified police. A San Diego police officer arrested Hough there shortly after 9 p.m, said San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson.

Allegation Denied

Robinson said police are still investigating allegations that Hendricks helped her son escape from the Palm Springs juvenile facility. But Hendricks denied the charge in Tuesday’s court hearing.

“That’s not true,” she replied when Kapiloff suggested that Hough escaped in February shortly after seeing Hendricks.

Kapiloff then repeated his order that Hendricks avoid all contact with her son. The previous order, made at Hough’s original sentencing, was misinterpreted by juvenile authorities, he said.

Meyering, an aspiring actor, was critically injured when the rock tossed from the overpass went through his car’s sunroof and struck his skull. He is undergoing extensive physical rehabilitation and is believed to be living with his parents in Washington.

The second youth convicted in the case, who was 13 at the time of the assault, is in custody in the VisionQuest program, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John L. Davidson.