Lawyer hopes court will parole 15-year-old rape accused
ATTORNEY-At law representing the 15-year-old boy who has been held as suspect in at least two of the several sexual assault cases that has rattled sections of Queens, New York said he was hopeful that the court will today grant his client parole.
The boy who is of Jamaican parentage is to today appear in the Queens County Family Court where a probable cause hearing is to determine whether or not there is sufficient cause to require the matter to go forward for trial will take place.
“I am hopeful that the court in its infinite wisdom will grant him parole to be released in the care of his parents,” Defence Rodger Archibald told the Observer in an interview yesterday.
The 15-year-old Queens youth was arrested on charges that he tried to rape two women, part of what the authorities say is a pattern of five attacks that began in late September.
The teen suspect has been charged with two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sex abuse and one count of sex abuse.
Prosecutors have since suggested that they chose to charge the boy in Queens criminal court rather than family court because of the severity of the crimes.
Defence Attorney Roger Archibald has since disagreed, saying police improperly collected statements because of his age and has since convinced the District Attorney to adopt to his view.
“I think at the core of this is the fact that a 15-year-old doesn’t belong in criminal court. He belongs in family court and I am comforted by the fact that the District Attorney as well as the Criminal Court adopted to this view and consented to the matter being removed to the Queens County Family Court,” Archibald told the Observer.
He also said he felt the Criminal Court was ill-equipped to adjudicate offences against 15-year-old juveniles.
“These children belong in Family Court where they will receive appropriate social services and mental health intervention in the event they are found legally responsible for their actions,” he told the Observer.
The teen defendant remains jailed on $150,000 bail.