D.A.’s Filing Deadline Policy for Juveniles Attacked

Upset over the premature release this week of seven teenagers from custody, police and probation officers Thursday blasted a recently adopted policy of the district attorney’s office that they allege is allowing dangerous youths to go free.

The seven teens--who include gang members arrested in stolen cars--were released Wednesday from the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall courthouse in Sylmar after police failed to file crime reports by 11 a.m., a deadline imposed by the juvenile division of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

In four of the cases, officers were less than a half-hour late with their paperwork, authorities said.

Charges can still be sought against the juveniles but “it can take months--sometimes it’s never filed,” once youths are released from custody, one probation officer said.

Christopher Icenbice, a Los Angeles County probation officer, sent a letter Thursday to Sylmar Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Morton Rockman, calling the deadline “arbitrary and capricious,” as well as a “threat to the safety of the community.”

Rockman said he was unaware of the problem but would review it immediately. The Sylmar juvenile court handles cases from the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

The 11 a.m. filing deadline was imposed last summer by the district attorney’s juvenile division to give prosecutors more time to review police reports and prepare charges, said Laura Foland-Priver, the deputy district attorney in Sylmar. “It’s improved our ability to file [charges] . . . it’s not a matter of making our lives easier, but we have time constraints,” she said.

Under state law, charges must be filed within 48 hours of an arrest. Otherwise, the person arrested must be released. The 11 a.m. deadline means juveniles are often released early.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Higgins, who oversees five of the nine county juvenile offices, said each of the offices have discretion over how to enforce the deadline policy. Some are strict, others are less rigid, he said.

Its purpose is to help manage the large number of juvenile cases, he said.

“It’s unfortunate that sometimes minors get released, but from our approach we do the best we can to accommodate a lot of conflicting interests,” Higgins said. “We don’t want bad guys out on the streets like anybody else.”

One probation officer, who declined to be named, said the policy is being too strictly enforced in Sylmar. “Yes, the police are sometimes five minutes or two hours late . . . but are we going to let criminals go free?” he asked.

The mother of a 17-year-old who was prematurely released Wednesday said her son should have been kept behind bars.

Fed up with the boy’s past troubles--including the latest incident, an arrest for punching a convenience store clerk who allegedly caught him stealing--the woman said her son needs some time in jail “so he could decide what to do with his life.”

The boy’s mother, who asked not to be named, complained in an interview: “They’re letting my son out and they’re letting all these kids out--some with guns. It doesn’t matter what they did--they’re walking.”

Of the seven teenagers released from Sylmar Juvenile Hall, police said four were gang members arrested for allegedly driving a stolen car. They said one was armed with a gun. Another teenager was arrested at 4 a.m. on suspicion of carrying burglary tools and violating his probation, one was arrested on suspicion of robbery, and another was a passenger in a stolen car that police said had been used in an armed robbery.

Several police detectives said they are overburdened, and need all the time the law allows to prepare their cases. Last weekend, for instance, West Valley police arrested 10 youths who were taken to jail.

Of those, four were released Wednesday.

Said Det. Bud Mehringer of the West Valley Division: “We do the best we can. But we had a very busy weekend and we’re trying to meet the needs of the D.A. . . . We may get backlogged.”

Foland-Priver said officers can call her office to say they will be late. “I can’t have my staff calling every police department asking, ‘Where are your petitions? Are they coming? Are they coming?’ ”

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She was fed up with her son’s traffic tickets, the late nights and, in the latest incident, an arrest for punching a convenience store clerk who caught her boy stealing. She was ready to tell the judge that her son needed some time in jail. Instead, she ended up taking him home.