SAN JOSE
– Three Gilroy High School students accused of making a prank
death threat against their cooking teacher cannot be charged as
adults, according to the prosecutor who supervises juvenile
cases.
SAN JOSE – Three Gilroy High School students accused of making a prank death threat against their cooking teacher cannot be charged as adults, according to the prosecutor who supervises juvenile cases.
“These offenses, while serious, are not – when compared with murders, rapes and carjackings – fit to be heard in adult court,” deputy Santa Clara County district attorney Kurt Kumli said.
Gilroy police say one of the suspects, a girl masking her voice to sound like a male, called 9-1-1 from a stolen cell phone Friday and told emergency dispatchers she had a gun, was at GHS and planned to shoot her teacher. In fact, police said, the two girls and one boy did not have any weapons and were using the stolen cell phone to call from a fast-food eatery on First Street.
The prank, as Gilroy police described it, prompted heavily armed police to swarm the school and lock it down for nearly three hours Friday morning.
To charge the three 17-year-olds as adults would require a “fitness hearing,” Kumli said, in which the following criteria would be considered:
• criminal sophistication
• the gravity and circumstance of the alleged crime
• the defendants’ prior contacts with the justice system
• their success in previous efforts at rehabilitation
• whether they could be rehabilitated before they turn 21.
This crime does not meet these criteria, Kumli said – an assessment he said was based on “decades of experience.”
Superior Court Judge Richard Loftus was scheduled to inform the students of their charges in court this morning and decide whether to keep them in the county’s Juvenile Hall or release them to their parents. The students have been in Juvenile Hall since Friday afternoon, when Gilroy police arrested them.
Police, prosecutors and court officials are withholding the students’ names because they are minors. Kumli and court officials also are withholding the nature of the charges his office filed against the students Monday.
Each of the three faces felony charges, Kumli confirmed, but these charges are not on the list of offenses that, for juveniles, require disclosure under state law. Most of those on the list involve violence, weapons or sexual assault.
A judge has the power to release this information, Kumli said, but Loftus has decided to keep proceedings confidential at this time, according to Superior Court spokeswoman Debra Hodges.
Gilroy police arrested the three students on suspicion of three charges each: making terrorist threats, possession of stolen property – both felonies – and misuse of the 9-1-1 system, a misdemeanor.
City police say they will try to force the students’ parents to repay the cost of responding to the 9-1-1 call, which they feared could have resulted in a slaughter similar to that at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999.
City police administrators currently are adding up the cost of Friday’s lockdown and investigation, which involved more than 30 police officers, a California Highway Patrol helicopter from Napa and a CHP airplane from Paso Robles. Assistant Gilroy Police Chief Lanny Brown said police will seek compensation for staff who were on duty at the time as well as those called in.
“All resources dedicated to this, whether on or off duty, will be included in the bill,” Brown said.
If the parents cannot pay, Brown added, Gilroy police would consider using the civil courts to get liens on any property they might own.
“The parents are responsible for anything that the minor child does,” Brown said. “We want to send a very powerful message that this is not acceptable. It won’t be tolerated.”
The arrested boy’s mother said she does not think she can afford to pay any amount.
The boy and the girl who police say called in the threat are juniors at Gilroy High. The other girl is a sophomore.
