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Common Crimes Juveniles Commit

(The content below was transcribed from an interview done with Acacia Law. We think you'll find it much easier
and more enjoyable to read this way.)

Interviewer: Let’s go back the most common crimes that juveniles will commit like minor in consumption, you know, possession of drugs, or things like that.

Acacia Law: Yes.You run into again, theft as I described it, which can even include, if you think about it, let’s say you stole five or six school books. Each valued at say $50 each. Well, once you hit $250 plus you’re going into felony territory. The dollar amount as we discussed when we were discussing thefts is relatively low in terms of, you know. On top of those types of cases every single crime that is listed as such pretty much for adults apply to juveniles and minors.

That means that basically all of the crimes that you see as adults, even serious crimes, all I’ve experienced is some form or another whether it be at the college level or at the high school level. There’s the common crimes as I’ve described them and then basically every other crime that is listed in the adult criminal statutory code in Arizona comes into play. In terms of common crimes a lot of them are what I’ve previously described but all the serious crimes whether it be robbery, murder, and you have bullying too which is essentially various forms of assault and if they’re carrying weapons, a misconduct with weapons, and possession of weapons is another common one.

Interviewer: Did you say bullying was a form of assault or intimidation or what is that?

Acacia Law: Yes, there’s different ways they can charge it depending on how a kid is bullied. It could be assault if he’s hit. It could be threatening and intimidating. It could be extortion. All the felonies, the major felonies, the kid sets fire to a basket full of tissue in a waste basket of tissue in a bathroom in a high school as a joke, something that occurred when I was in high school.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: That’s Class 2 arson. That’s very serious. You’re talking if they charge you as an adult, and you’re in deep, deep trouble. I mean you’re looking at prison. It’s basically I run into everything from murder down to simple trespassing. But what I think people misunderstand is that basically what they probably perceive of 20 years ago or 10 years ago for themselves as things that would be considered no big deal now are very big deals and can be extremely damaging to, not only the child in their future records, but the family as a whole because of all these various agencies which will come at them simultaneously.

Interviewer: Let’s focus on two seem to be, well, that are unique to juveniles that’s both bullying and minors in consumption. I hear it all the time in the news about bullying and cyber bullying and threatening and things like that.

Acacia Law: Sure. Right.

Interviewer: What kinds of things would be considered that and when is it a problem?

Acacia Law: Well, it’s almost always going to be a problem if the conduct is such that it would be offensive to a judge. Here’s the thing most judges grew up without cell phones. They grew up without Facebook. They grew up without Google. They grew up without YouTube.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: They have a completely different perspective on what’s appropriate and what’s inappropriate. Okay? So, a lot of the times when they see somebody is being cyber bullied, for example, several people are texting somebody on their phone, threatening them or making insulting comments, or what could be deemed threatening. I’ve seen some judges go completely ballistic and, basically, I have to do everything I can to present this defendant in the most favorable light because they’ve really have serious issues with that type of what they consider to be misuse of technology to further criminal activity in a much faster and much more personal format than was the case when they were kids.

Interviewer: They actually, well, I thought you were going to say that they would see it as not as big of deal, but they understand the technology enough to understand to them it’s a very big deal.

Acacia Law: Yeah. They actually are more, in my opinion, what juveniles or minors, or even sometimes the parents, take for granted is not taken for granted by court, they obviously are familiar with the technologies. They use them themselves. They recognize how lethal they can be because it’s a little different if you have someone bullying, if you have a group of kids bullying somebody, if you go up to them in person that takes time and effort and there’s the possibility of getting caught. If you have 20 or so people jumping on somebody's back or trying to publicly humiliate them and all they have to do is punch in a few nasty words on their phone an text it to that person, judges find that to be extremely repugnant and are very tough on a lot of those activities. And of course as I’m sure you’ve read and seen their no strangers to the news and they have programs where they’ve had kids who’ve been cyber bullied texted or sex texted or pictures of them nude have been post in the school and they’ve committed suicide.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: Now you’ve put the situation into a whole new light wherein the people who actually engage in this activity may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder or some sort of manslaughter or negligent homicide.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: So, again, technology has actually made things so that the consequences of certain actions are enhanced on account of the accessibility and ease of getting to somebody.

Interviewer: And the documentation, and we talked about it once before, once you put something on Facebook it’s not going away. It’s subpoenable [inaudible 45:13] once you text somebody, all this extraneous evidence against you essentially that’s very easy to pull back up and look at. It’s not just hearsay.

Acacia Law: Oh, sure. It’s very easy. As I think we were discussing in terms of the technology. I’ve had people with cell phones where the police can trace on account of GPS in their phone exactly where they were, when they made a phone call, what time, to whom. I have a pending armed robbery case were in fact the evidence used for the conspiracy to commit the armed robbery is a few texts on a phone. That is the sum and substance of the evidence against the defendant.

Acacia Law: And he’s in custody with an extremely high bond. Was a lettered varsity high school football player and ended up without be able to, at a young age 18 or 19, being held in custody based on a few text messages on a phone.

Interviewer: Wow.

Acacia Law: Again, it’s one of those things where people don’t realize that everything they put on the airwaves, whether it is by Internet or iPhone or Facebook any sort of tweet all those type of instant messaging services all that stuff is public domain material. In essence, everything that you put out there electronically you can assume is going to be considered public.

Interviewer: Okay. Understood. Let’s talk a little bit about the minor in consumption. In Arizona I know that, we were talking about this before, I’ve seen like Circle K obviously has beer and stuff like that, but they’ll also have some of these energy drinks with alcohol in them like Four Loko and kids are buying that or they’ll, you know.

Acacia Law: Red Bull, Red Bull, all those energy drinks mixed with alcohol are very popular right now. In conjunction with that you have prescription pills are very popular with juveniles and on college campuses.

Interviewer: [inaudible 48:07] like Adderall and things like that, Ritalin.

Acacia Law: Yeah, even the anti-anxiety medicines like Alprazolam, Xanax and then you have the pain killers like Percocet, Oxycotin. These are morphine, morphine sulfate and then you also have the smoke shop type drugs like spice and bath salts, which are also very commonly shared in the juvenile community and basically, essentially, create all these different types of crimes which have to be addressed at some point if the person gets caught. But these are the most common things and again these are also what you’ll find is very common on college campuses as well because [inaudible 49:09].

Interviewer: I’ve got a couple of specifics actually. This is actually in regards to alcohol. I’m just curious about this is why I ask. I’m sure there’s many cases where a minor will either present a fake ID to buy it like from Circle K or they’ll have someone go buy it for them or they’ll be just be sold it without being ID’d.

Acacia Law: Yeah.

Interviewer: What happens in those [inaudible 49:33] pretty common. What’s the consequences there?

Acacia Law: Well they're pretty serious depending on what the circumstances. Here’s an example that I see a lot of; two major ones. One is you mentioned, IDs. There is rampant falsification of IDs or presentation of people who are not actually the owners of an identification card or driver's license making the person appear to be a particular age, usually 18 or 21 depending on what they’re seeking to obtain.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Acacia Law: So, you have a lot of false identification, false identity, using the identity of another. All the crimes associated with mis-identity or trying to defraud or deceive either law enforcement or a bar establishment with respect to the persons age is a crime and it’s very common because again a lot of kids who are under 21 go to the bar and drink or they want to have somebody buy alcohol for them if they can’t use a card.

What happens is the person whose 21 or over who furnished alcohol is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, believe it or not. Basically because the person’s not, is under age. So, it’s considered in it of itself a crime. I’ve had a lot of 21 year old plus, well, I say kids, they’re in college or their in grad school, you know, who get in trouble for those types of crimes.

Again, those things can impact on you not only at the university or college level but these are going to be adult charges and they just don’t look good on your record. If you picture it from a perspective employer's point of view, Okay. When they see a charge contributing to the delinquency of a minor that is such a generalized allegation that it could mean almost anything. It could be that some employers would take that is being possibly sexual. Again, that’s the allegation that’s made, that’s what goes on your permanent record, that’s what a potential employer or grad school sees and they’ll judge you accordingly. So, again . . .

Interviewer: Quick question for alcohol, you have to be 21 to have it, but we keep talking about minors and non-minors and 18, but what if a 21 year old buys alcohol for a 20 year old or a 19 year old? Are they buying it for a minor?

Acacia Law: That’s considered contributing to the delinquency of a minor, believe it or not. That’s essentially what it is. Yes, no, is the 19 or 20 year old a minor, no, but for purposes of the alcohol statute, which means you have to be 21 years of age or older in order to legally consume it, you are a minor.

Interviewer: Oh, okay.

Acacia Law: So, under those circumstances that is where, again, from the college level and even 21 year olds purchasing it for a younger sibling or for a neighborhood kid, whatever, it doesn’t really matter, the point is if their 21 or older and the person is 20 years or younger it’s a crime and it’s going to be charged accordingly. Again, it all has to stem from they’re treated as an adult contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: Simply as that.

Interviewer: How about possession of alcohol are you allowed to even possess it even if it’s sealed in a bottle?

Acacia Law: Nope. Have that happen all the time especially on college campuses. I’ve seen roommates who one or both will have a bottle of, say, vodka or gin or whisky or some sort of hard liquor or one of their favorite sweetened liquors in their refrigerator and figure that if an RA comes in or the university police go in they can’t identify who has possession of the alcohol in the refrigerator.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: They’re wrong because remember how we talked about constructive possession when it came to drugs how we had... it’s the same thing here. If you have alcohol in the refrigerator that you both use an you’re under 21 it’s gonna be considered constructive possession. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t have your hands on the bottle when they came in. It doesn’t matter if you were anywhere near the refrigerator. If you live there and there’s alcohol in there and you’re under 21 the presumption is that you’re in possession of alcohol illegally.