Teen sentenced to youth prison system

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A teen who was arrested a couple weeks ago on a months-old warrant has been ordered to serve a period of time in the state’s prison system for youth.

The now 18-year-old, who was 17 at the time of the offenses and when the charges were filed, admitted on Friday in Highland County Juvenile Court to third-degree felony grand theft and fifth-degree felony breaking and entering. A fourth-degree felony count of safecracking was dismissed.

On Friday he was ordered to serve a minimum of six months on each count, consecutively, at the Department of Youth Services (DYS). By law the teen can remain at DYS until age 21, but after the year has been served, whether he serves any more time will be up to the institution.

After his Oct. 12 arrest on a warrant issued by the court earlier this year when the teen failed to appear for a hearing, judge Kevin Greer ordered that the teen was to remain in the county jail until his case was resolved.

At the time, the reasons the judge cited for the teen to remain in jail were that he had been at-large since April, the seriousness of the charges, and the teen’s criminal history that the Greer said included theft, breaking and entering, and criminal trespass charges.

In other hearings this week, a 16-year-old received a second six-month driving suspension after a traffic violation.

In August, the teen received a six-month license suspension for a traffic violation, assistant prosecutor Molly Bolek said, and at the time the court granted him limited driving privileges. But the teen recently got a speeding ticket and was found to be driving outside the privileges previously granted by the court.

An additional six-month suspension was imposed and is consecutive to the current suspension. Also, since the teen violated an order of the court, he has a suspended 30 days in detention that will remain suspended so long as he does not violate any court orders or laws.

Also, given the closeness of the traffic violations, the 16-year-old will have to retake his driver’s exam after the suspension period before he can regain full driving privileges, according to the court.

Temporary custody of three children previously in the county’s custody has been granted back to Children Services until February.

While the children had been reunified with their mother, she relapsed and the children were recently removed by emergency order of the court, according to Bolek.

She said the county resuming custody of the children until February gives their mother a chance to re-engage in services.

Another case this week saw temporary custody of three children go to Children Services for a period of a year.

According to the complaint, the mother recently gave birth and at that time tested positive for marijuana.

Reach Angela Shepherd at 937-393-3456, ext. 1681, or on Twitter @wordyshepherd.

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16-year-old gets second driving suspension

By Angela Shepherd

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