2 Preteen Accusers to Stay in Custody

In a decision that surprised legal experts, an Orange County commissioner on Wednesday ordered two 12-year-old girls to remain in custody while they await trial for making up a story that wrongly sent a homeless man to jail for eight months.

A third girl in the case will also remain at Juvenile Hall but could be released to her parents as early as today, pending the approval of probation officials.

Shirley MacDonald Juarez, the lawyer for one of the girls, said she had gone into the morning hearing expecting that Juvenile Court Commissioner Michael Cassidy would release the children.

But after Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Fell argued that the three posed a risk and couldn’t be trusted, Cassidy decided not to free them, Juarez said.

“He kept saying, ‘They have told terrible lies,’ ” Juarez said. “He felt [my client] was a danger to society and that her lies were the worst crimes in the world.”

The girl and her mother cried when the girls were led away after Cassidy made his decision, Juarez said.

Fell could not be reached for comment.

The three Garden Grove girls were arrested at school Monday and taken away in handcuffs. All three were charged with conspiracy. One was also charged with perjury. The girls allegedly concocted the story about the homeless man last spring so their parents would not punish them for returning home later than expected.

The girls told police and prosecutors that Erik Nordmark, a 38-year-old drifter, had beckoned and then attacked one of them in a park as they walked home from school. The girl who claimed to have been attacked testified at Nordmark’s trial last month but afterward confessed to her mother that the story was untrue. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Nordmark, but only after he had spent eight months in jail. He has since left Southern California.

Cassidy approved the release of one of the girls to her family for house arrest, but probation officers must first determine whether her family is able to care for her and enforce the terms of the release, said Paula Drake, the child’s attorney.

Drake said she tried to persuade Cassidy that her client was less culpable but added that in handing down his decision the commissioner did not explain why he was treating her client more leniently than the others. “I am very hopeful that [the probation officers] will release her,” she said. “I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t.”

The other girls will remain in custody at least until a pretrial hearing Feb. 20, when Juarez said she might ask Cassidy to reconsider the girls’ detention. However, it would be unusual for him to reverse his decision, she said.

Barring a settlement, a trial is scheduled to begin March 3, but both Juarez and Drake indicated that a delay was possible in light of the large amount of case material that prosecutors handed over during Wednesday’s hearing.

Any punishment ultimately imposed by Cassidy could vary from girl to girl and would be determined, in part, on recommendations by juvenile probation officers.

Punishments could be as severe as time in Juvenile Hall, a work camp or a group home. The girls could also be placed on probation, a sentence that could include community service or a ban on the girls associating with each other.

Jack Earley, a seasoned defense attorney and president of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, said he was surprised the girls were kept in custody. Based on what has been made public about the case, he said, it seemed the girls would not present any inherent risk to society.

“I don’t know what danger they could be,” he said.

Juarez agreed. “Are they going to go out and accuse someone right now of something?” she said. “And if they did, would anyone believe them?” she said. “It’s not as if this is a murder case.”

Newport Beach attorney John D. Barnett also expressed surprise the girls were kept in custody but believes they are being treated fairly, considering that their accusations deprived a man of his freedom for eight months. “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it,” he said. “But I agree that very serious consequences are called for in a case like this.”

Barnett once defended a Newport Beach fifth-grade teacher who was accused but later acquitted of fondling four girls. Barnett argued at the time that it was a clear case of the girls conspiring to make up a story to get their instructor fired.

Cases that involve allegations of child molestation are “the scariest” for criminal defense attorneys, he said, because “people want to believe children, even though children lie.”