tessaturtle
New Member
Ugh, so after many, many incidents with police intervention, they finally agreed to file on difficult child to get him access to additional services and to try to nip his behaviors before he gets older and there would be no turning back. One of the bad things is the incident they filed on is so minimal, it almost didn't even make it to arraignment (he stole $6 from his sister). Anyway, the JPPO (juvenile Probation and parole officer) was amazing and read through the lines and picked up on difficult child's history and future and convinced the prosecutor to go forward anyway. difficult child wanted to plead true at arraignment and waive the atty, but because he has an IEP, he HAD to get an atty and couldn't plead until talking to his atty.
Now, I have extensive experience through my job in the Court system, but for abuse and neglect of children, not delinquency and in our state, they are two separate statutes. We are quickly finding that it appears that parents have no rights in this case! We are beside ourselves! THe JPPO tried to give us an idea of the police report that was filed, but said she can't hand it over to us, but that we could get if from the police themselves. We asked the police and they said we had to get it from difficult child's attorney! Well, difficult child met his public defender yesterday and she said we could not have a copy due to client confidentiality! He is a minor and we are his parents - yet it appears that we have absolutely no rights at all in this process. His atty is also not letting him plead true, which is what HE wants to do, and is now insisting he is not competent and is going to ask for an evaluation (which is complete BS because even the JPPO said he clearly is competent, his IEP is for EMOTIONAL HANDICAP, his IQ has always tested at completely normal/average)!! Of course Kids don't know all that there is to know about Court until they have to experience it - he is no different!They are also saying that easy child has to testify against difficult child since his atty is pushing this, so she has been subpoened....besides being a kid and nervous about being in Court, she is also scared of retaliation by difficult child. We also want to explain or tell the JUdge that there is much more than just this one incident, but now we have no method of doing that since it appears we have no say in this process. We are not 'out to get our kid' but yes we did ask for this to finally be done because he is getting worse and worse so this was the next step to get him help.
So, besides venting , I do have a question for any of you who have been through this process....is this really the way it is? DO parent's have no rights in these cases?! Very stressed......
Now, I have extensive experience through my job in the Court system, but for abuse and neglect of children, not delinquency and in our state, they are two separate statutes. We are quickly finding that it appears that parents have no rights in this case! We are beside ourselves! THe JPPO tried to give us an idea of the police report that was filed, but said she can't hand it over to us, but that we could get if from the police themselves. We asked the police and they said we had to get it from difficult child's attorney! Well, difficult child met his public defender yesterday and she said we could not have a copy due to client confidentiality! He is a minor and we are his parents - yet it appears that we have absolutely no rights at all in this process. His atty is also not letting him plead true, which is what HE wants to do, and is now insisting he is not competent and is going to ask for an evaluation (which is complete BS because even the JPPO said he clearly is competent, his IEP is for EMOTIONAL HANDICAP, his IQ has always tested at completely normal/average)!! Of course Kids don't know all that there is to know about Court until they have to experience it - he is no different!They are also saying that easy child has to testify against difficult child since his atty is pushing this, so she has been subpoened....besides being a kid and nervous about being in Court, she is also scared of retaliation by difficult child. We also want to explain or tell the JUdge that there is much more than just this one incident, but now we have no method of doing that since it appears we have no say in this process. We are not 'out to get our kid' but yes we did ask for this to finally be done because he is getting worse and worse so this was the next step to get him help.
So, besides venting , I do have a question for any of you who have been through this process....is this really the way it is? DO parent's have no rights in these cases?! Very stressed......