Posted: 10/15/2008 9:30:29 AM EDT
26 Days of detention?  How can they be so mean?! He's just a product of an unfair system and the man trying to keep him down!  Tacoma boy, 11, gets 26 days detention An 11-year-old Tacoma boy who made headlines by sneaking past airport security twice and once conning his way aboard a plane, pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements to police. By Christine Clarridge Seattle Times staff reporter An 11-year-old Tacoma boy who made headlines by sneaking past airport security twice and once conning his way aboard a plane, pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements to police in an unrelated case. Semaj Booker also admitted to stealing $11 from his case aide's purse and to running away from his foster home on at least one occasion since he and his four siblings were removed from their mother's custody in August. He was sentenced Tuesday to 26 days in Remann Hall juvenile-detention center. He had already served the time after being arrested July 5 in connection with a residential burglary that resulted in the false-statement charge. He also was fined $100, ordered to perform four hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the Tacoma police officers he lied to, according to Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Fred Wist. Wist said prosecutors intend to ask a judge to revoke a deferred sentence the boy received when he was 9 after pleading guilty to stealing a car and eluding police. "Semaj has had countless chances to prove to the court that he can comply with his current probation, but he seems unwilling or unable to do so," said Wist. "This isn't about detention. It's about Semaj understanding there are consequences for his actions." Semaj was 9 on Jan. 14, 2007, when he ran away from home, stole a neighbor's car and led police on a high-speed chase. He was taken into custody but returned home because Remann Hall deemed him too young to incarcerate. The following day, he rode a bus to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he made it past security checkpoints and conned his way onto a Florida-bound plane that stopped in Phoenix and in San Antonio, Texas, where Semaj got off, hoping to catch a flight to Dallas to visit his grandfather. Airline employees turned him over to police when he was unable to provide information that matched the passenger manifest. Earlier this year, Semaj again made it through airport security and tried to follow passengers onto a Southwest Airlines flight, but was turned away at the gate because he didn't have a boarding pass, airport officials said. King County prosecutors declined to press charges in that case and a Pierce County judge did not revoke his deferred prosecution at that time. On July 5, police arrested him and booked him into Remann Hall after he was discovered in the home of a Tacoma family and he repeatedly lied to police about his name, age and address. Prosecutors had originally sought to additionally charge Semaj with residential burglary and malicious mischief. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson found, however, that Semaj has impulse-control problems that may have prevented him from knowing the difference between right and wrong when he broke into the apartment. WTF? Cuthbertson said that Semaj still should have known lying to the police was wrong. Semaj could face an additional 30 days in detention, 12 more months of probation and 150 hours of community service if the judge were to revoke his deferred prosecution. Semaj and his four siblings were taken from their mother's home in August after Cuthbertson ordered a dependency hearing. The youngest child has since been returned to Sakinah Booker, and a trial concerning the fate of her other children has been postponed. |
We gonna have riots now?
They should hire and send him to Huachuca and/or FLETC and use him in surveillance/counter-surveillance training. |