Juvenile Court

A 12-year-old boy made his first appearance in Juvenile Court on Wednesday after being charged with murder in the death of his 8-year-old sister, Leila Fowler. Attorney Mark Reichel said his client, who did not enter a plea, faces a second-degree murder charge along with a special allegation that he used a dangerous weapon in the Valley Springs, Calif., stabbing. Reichel declined to go into detail about the case until after he and his legal partner have reviewed the evidence, but said they "have the same questions as everyone.

A 12-year-old boy made his first appearance in Juvenile Court on Wednesday after being charged with murder in the death of his 8-year-old sister, Leila Fowler. Attorney Mark Reichel said his client, who did not enter a plea, faces a second-degree murder charge along with a special allegation that he used a dangerous weapon in the Valley Springs, Calif., stabbing. Reichel declined to go into detail about the case until after he and his legal partner have reviewed the evidence, but said they "have the same questions as everyone.

The case of a 16-year-old girl accused of torturing and beating an elderly woman to death last July will return to adult court, a San Bernardino Juvenile Court judge ruled Thursday. "She has no compassion, no empathy, no morality or decency," Judge John P. Wade said, explaining why he determined that Christy Phillips, who was 15 at the time of the crime, is unfit to be tried in Juvenile Court.

Marcus Bell knows how important Los Angeles County courts are for at-risk youths. Bell, a gang intervention and prevention worker in South Los Angeles, has worked hard with young people, trying to get them not to run from police. He has worked to get them to deal with their legal issues responsibly instead of avoiding court appearances so they don't end up with warrants issued against them at a young age. On Saturday, Bell said he worries about the Los Angeles County Superior Court's cost-cutting plan that includes closing Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center in South L.A. In the coming months, the juvenile court will be one of eight regional courthouses closing as the court system struggles to close an $85-million budget shortfall by July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.

Marcus Bell knows how important Los Angeles County courts are for at-risk youth. Bell, a gang intervention and prevention worker in South Los Angeles, has worked hard with young people, trying to get them to not run from police. He's worked with them to get into the courts when they have legal issues, to deal with them responsibly instead of not showing up and having warrants issued at a young age. On Saturday, Bell said he worries about the Los Angeles County Superior Court's cost-cutting plan that includes the closure of the Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center.

Los Angeles County Juvenile Court will be opened to press coverage regularly, with certain exceptions intended to protect the interests of children, under an order issued Tuesday by the court's presiding judge. FOR THE RECORD: Juvenile Court: In the LATExtra sections of Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, articles about a decision to open Los Angeles County children's courts to reporters erred in some instances in headlines and in text by referring to access by media. The order by Judge Michael Nash specified that those courtrooms be open to the press.

Frankfurt officials said today that Mohammed Ali Hamadi, charged with air piracy and murder in the 1985 TWA hijacking to Beirut, will be tried before a juvenile court because he was only 20 at the time. The decision means Hamadi faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment if convicted rather than life imprisonment. In the hijacking, Shia Muslim gunmen seized a TWA jetliner on an Athens-to-Rome flight and forced it to Beirut. A U.S.

When former Juvenile Court Judge Steven Z. Perren traveled to Sacramento five years ago to ask for $40 million in state funding to help pay for a new juvenile justice complex in Ventura County, he wasn't convinced he would win his case. On Friday, Perren joined county officials at a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new courthouse at the El Rio site where the sprawling complex is under construction.

Lawyers for a 14-year-old Oxnard boy accused of gunning down gay classmate Lawrence King are mounting a novel defense, saying the district attorney's process for charging youths as adults is so flawed that the case should be dismissed and refiled in Juvenile Court. Ventura County prosecutors last year charged eighth-grader Brandon McInerney as an adult, two days after he allegedly walked into English class, took his seat and shot King, 15, twice in the back of the head.

Harry Simons, 83, Los Angeles County probation officer, juvenile court referee and commissioner for 39 years. Simons began working for the county during summers as a UCLA and USC student deputy probation officer. After serving in the armed forces during World War II, he became a full-time probation officer. Moving into administration, he eventually became director of the Santa Monica office of the Probation Department.

Marcus Bell knows how important Los Angeles County courts are for at-risk youth. Bell, a gang intervention and prevention worker in South Los Angeles, has worked hard with young people, trying to get them to not run from police. He's worked with them to get into the courts when they have legal issues, to deal with them responsibly instead of not showing up and having warrants issued at a young age. On Saturday, Bell said he worries about the Los Angeles County Superior Court's cost-cutting plan that includes the closure of the Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center.

SAN JOSE - Audrie Pott thought everybody at her high school knew what happened that night. The 15-year-old had been drinking during a Labor Day weekend party at a friend's house in the pricey Silicon Valley suburb of Saratoga. She either fell asleep or passed out. And she woke up to something her family's lawyer described as "unimaginable. " "There were some markings on her body, in some sort of permanent marker, indicating that someone had violated her when she was sleeping," attorney Robert Allard said Monday.

Two high school athletes charged with raping a 16-year-old girl in a case that has gained national attention for the role social media played in exposing the incident will face trial in open court, a judge ruled Wednesday, rejecting requests it be closed to the public and media. Judge Thomas Lipps also refused defense motions seeking to move the trial out of Steubenville, Ohio, to another county, but he did agree to delay its start one month, until March 13. On that day, Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond, both 16, are to go on trial in juvenile court for the alleged rape of the girl, who witnesses and prosecutors say was too drunk to speak coherently or stand up on her own. During some of the alleged assault at a high school party last August, the girl was unconscious, according to witnesses who testified at a hearing in October to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to press charges.

NEW DELHI -- Minutes after the suspects were whisked past reporters into a closed court, the high-profile trial of five men accused of the rape and murder of a 23-year old physiotherapy student opened Thursday. The woman and her 28-year-old male friend, both officially unnamed, were attacked last month after they watched the film "Life of Pi" in a glitzy shopping mall and boarded what they assumed was an ordinary commuter bus heading home. The curtains were then reportedly drawn and the two victims were beaten with metal rods.

A Riverside County judge on Monday found a 12-year-old boy responsible for murdering his neo-Nazi father, taking a swipe at both the family and social workers for failing to protect the troubled youngster before he felt compelled to reach for a gun. "There were so many warning signs," Superior Court Judge Jean P. Leonard said from the bench. But the judge said the evidence showed that the Riverside boy, who was 10 years old when he pulled the trigger, possessed the mental capacity to know that killing his father was wrong.

Re "Punishing parents, unfairly," Editorial, July 10 Thank you for speaking out against the unjust decision by the California Supreme Court in the case of William C., a father who had his children taken from him after his 18-month-old child, whom he was driving to the hospital, was killed in a car accident. The child was sitting on a relative's lap because a car seat was not readily available. The Times supported the opening of L.A.'s dependency courts to the public.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich predicted Wednesday that the Antelope Valley, with what some have characterized as the most serious child abuse problem in the county, will get a satellite court soon to handle juvenile dependency cases.

Stephen Baccus' brilliance shone early in life. While most of his classmates in Miami were entering grade 5, Baccus took a short cut to his high school diploma. He jumped from grade 4 to grade 9, and then, at age 11, scored 1,420 out of 1,600 on the college boards. Well, the brilliance shines even brighter today. Baccus on Thursday was sworn in by Circuit Judge Gerald Wetherington in Miami as a lawyer--at age 17. That makes him the youngest lawyer in Florida, and maybe the country.

Judge Michael Nash, who presides over the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, has long argued that public access to the court's proceedings would improve its accountability and the accountability of those who appear before it. Last week, he set out to prove it. Nash, along with this page, had supported state legislation that would change the presumption that dependency court hearings, in which the fate of children in foster care is decided, should...

Los Angeles County Juvenile Court will be opened to press coverage regularly, with certain exceptions intended to protect the interests of children, under an order issued Tuesday by the court's presiding judge. FOR THE RECORD: Juvenile Court: In the LATExtra sections of Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, articles about a decision to open Los Angeles County children's courts to reporters erred in some instances in headlines and in text by referring to access by media. The order by Judge Michael Nash specified that those courtrooms be open to the press.