What the hell???!!!!?!?!

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:46 am

I'm surprised that the boys were not arrested as well. After all, isn't throwing water balloons assault? And since she's hispanic (a fictional ethnicity), the boys are guilty of a hate crime (another term I hate - smacks of thought police).

I'm with you on this one, Scrat.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:53 am

Wait a second!!

Isn't a child's identity supposed to be hidden in cases like this? I even found it in a Washington Times article. Does that mean they're charging her as an adult?

washingtonpost.com

Calif. Girl Faces Felony Assault Charge

By JULIANA BARBASSA

The Associated Press

Friday, July 15, 2005; 10:10 PM

FRESNO, Calif. -- An 11-year-old girl who threw a rock to defend herself as neighborhood boys pelted her with water balloons is being prosecuted on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

Maribel Cuevas says she didn't mean to hurt the 9-year-old boy _ who acknowledged to officers that he started the fight in late April. He was released from the hospital after getting his head stitched up. ...

And what's the 9-year old's name?

[Added a few minutes later]

Found it! The boy's name is Elijah Vang.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2005 ... 08383.html

I could have sworn it was illegal to release minors' names.

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 8:52 am

i would really be interested in what the police have to say about this incident, how it was justified. there's bound to be an IA investigation.

Peg · Post by **Peg** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:23 pm

I think this is a case where the girls family and attorney brought this to the publics attention

I'm glad they did. I wonder how much of this b.s. goes on that we don't know about.

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:46 pm

I have the latest statements from both Maribel's attorney and Fresno PD at the site www.FreeMaribel.org which is kept updated as new information comes in. Judge for yourselves.

Mike.

BTS · Post by **BTS** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:12 pm

MikeFM wrote: I have the latest statements from both Maribel's attorney and Fresno PD at the site www.FreeMaribel.org which is kept updated as new information comes in. Judge for yourselves.

Mike.

Is this your site?

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:37 pm

Absolutely. It has an opinion but frankly I would rather put the facts up there than reply to loads of seperate emails. The pictures are there, Fresno PD's statement in it's entirety and Maribel's attorney's comments on it. I just got off the phone this morning with Fresno PD and am following up some questions with the DA trying to get information as close to the source as possible.

One way or another it's all there. The cut in the picture (4" long in the original police report, 1.2" in the hospital records) is nasty but that's what you get on a forehead wound. There's so little there and the skin's so tight that it's either that or a scratch. I've had a couple myself growing up (one from my step brother and one from someone at school) and gave one to my cousin.

Fortunately, nobody thought to charge us with Felony assault with a deadly weapon.

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:51 pm

Hey, MikeFM, welcome to FG.

In your last post you say "Fortunately, nobody thought to charge US with Felony assault with a deadly weapon."

You are directly involved with the case, or know the girl? Not to be nosy, just curious. I'll check out your site, this girl being charged with anything is completely ludicrous. She defended herself against bullies. She stood up for herself. If we tell her that's wrong, what kind of message are we sending for her to take with her the rest of her life??

:-5

BTS · Post by **BTS** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:58 pm

Please keep us informed MikeFM...... OK?

I just sent you a spanish translation thru the e-mail.

Hope it will help the cause. For I was a kid once and had to defend myself with a pitchfork one........ but that is another thread.

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:05 pm

Sounds like a story from your rancher days, BTS. Still waiting for that post, by the way.... :yh_wait

Mike, do hang around and tell us what's happening with this case, will ya please?

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:08 pm

Actually, I've never met her or her family. Like everyone else, I read the details online. I then checked the facts (as best I could in the early hours), registered the domains, left a message for her attorney and threw the first version of the site together. I also offered him the domains for free if he thought someone else should do this.

Since then I've kept in touch with him and other sources. I saw a job that needed doing and nobody seemed about to do it so I did. Perhaps not the perfect candidate but the best I could come up with at the time!

Mike.

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:12 pm

Why does anyone have to be punished? The boys were going at her, she asked them to stop, they wouldn't, she made them stop. They got exactly what they had coming to them. No one died, no one was even seriously hurt. Kids break bones, get stitches and suffer worse injuries than this just by being kids. That's what this boils down to: kids being kids. I'd expect my son to stand up for himself in a similar manner. He knows I don't approve of violence, but I also don't approve of pacifism. Stand up for yourself. Maribel did that. I applaud her.

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:13 pm

MikeFM wrote:

Since then I've kept in touch with him and other sources. I saw a job that needed doing and nobody seemed about to do it so I did. Perhaps not the perfect candidate but the best I could come up with at the time!

Mike.
Damn.

It's too bad more people don't do things the way you do, Mike. I like the way you think. :yh_clap

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:26 pm

Scrat wrote: There are a lot of innaccuracies there between the AP and the lawyer, anybody that can think critically has to wonder.

The parents did not want to press charges (according to an interview with "Primer Impacto" before this went national "the father of the boy stated they were upset about the boy's injury, which was minor, but not seeking charges against Maribel and in fact thought that this was just a childhood issue"), an ambulance was called and the police turned up charging her with FADW. The PD has passed on the question of Elijah's age to the DA (I'm trying to get their comment now). They had difficulty translating (apparently) and came up with 6. AP contacted the school and found that he was in the grade below Maribel.

The police story of "no evidence of other attackers" (clarified in a call this morning that they didn't ask) didn't fit. Water balloons are to humiliate the victim and I couldn't see a younger kid on his own trying to humiliate an older one.

When deciding whether or not to set up the site, I did a lot of thinking. Not knowing any fine details, I figured a girl was tormented by a group of boys and threw a rock hitting one of them. I then experimentally filled in the blanks in the worst possible light and still came up very short on the felony charge.

I think lessons have been learned all round (except perhaps by Fresno PD and DA) and that should have been the end of it. I wasn't there and wasn't involved, but nobody who was seems to want this.

Mike.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 5:09 am

Scrat wrote: You also have to ask what kind of a society produces situations like this.
What kind does not? They're kids. Or are you referring to the authorities' overreaction? In which case, never mind.

LottomagicZ4941 · Post by **LottomagicZ4941** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:13 am

The loss of human potential in jails is sad.

Hopefully we start to do more restoritive justice.

Lotto

http://www.flalottomagic.net/?sponsor=Z4941

MagicZ4941A

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:34 am

LottomagicZ4941 wrote: The loss of human potential in jails is sad.

Hopefully we start to do more restoritive justice. [...spam deleted ...]
True statement, but I don't see the connection.

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:40 pm

There isn't one - he's just trying to sneak a link to his site as his "signature".

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:50 pm

Hi all,

sorry I haven't posted earlier but when the trial was over, I ended up wading through a sewer of racist hate-mail which was bombarding the site and my email. I'm trying to sort it into good, bad and ugly.

We made it! Richard, Maribel's family, myself and anyone who has been involved in this is so exhausted right now. For me, the last straw was when I spent the whole morning trying to keep the petition up and keep the spam-bombs away and someone posted a comment as to where the details were. I closed the petition, handed the latest statements to the B team (ie Sarah) and slept until this morning!

Who'd have thought it - activism works?!

Thanks for everyone's help.

Mike.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:01 pm

So was it kids being kids and adults being ... well ...

MikeFM · Post by **MikeFM** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:14 pm

Yes, after all this the solution was for them to get together and say they're sorry. :yh_doh