Ohio Teen Jailed After Avoiding Trial (police refuse to allow lawyer until prosecutors approve)

Washington Post ^ | May 16, 2006 | The Associated Press

[freepatriot32]

AKRON, Ohio -- A 14-year-old girl who ran away to avoid testifying against a man accused of molesting her has been jailed for a week and denied access to an attorney, officials and court records said.

The girl failed to show up May 8 at the trial of 20-year-old Galo Sanchez-Pesantes. She was taken into custody a day later when her mother found her and called police.

[Oztrich Boy]

Well she has denied that they had sex, so unless they can force her to change her story what kind of testimony does the prosecution expect to compel her to give?

It's the Mike Nifong system of finding witesses. "You have given our suspect an alibi. Is there anything about your story you would like to change before we throw you in jail on a trumped-up charge?"

[GovernmentShrinker]

It's not clear that this was a "demand" from the parents. The girl is involved in, and a material witness to criminal activity, and authorities want to both keep her away from that and try to persuade her to testify. The parents are apparently seeing eye to eye with the authorities. The two parties (court/police and parents) are cooperating with each other, not making demands of each other. But if my minor child was running away from home and participating in criminal activity, I'd sure expect the taxpayer-financed police and courts to take action -- if they didn't do so, I wouldn't hesitate to demand it.