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Girl, 13, unlikely to be charged

The State Attorney's Office has reviewed a video of the school bus incident of her being handcuffed.

ST. PETERSBURG - Criminal charges appear unlikely against a 13-year-old Clearwater girl who was handcuffed aboard a Pinellas school bus last month.

"She did nothing wrong; let's put it that way," Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, said Wednesday.

Bartlett said he based his opinion on video from the bus shown by local news media. He cautioned that he hoped to view an unedited version of the tape but said he didn't expect to see anything that would change his mind.

Ashley Marie Mitchell has been told she faces a possible charge of disorderly conduct, but it's up to prosecutors to decide if such a charge is warranted.

"It would be a very big stretch" to charge her with disorderly conduct, Bartlett said.

He also frowned on the demeanor of arresting officer Roberto Rolon in the Nov. 11 incident.

"It certainly didn't set a good example for the other kids on that bus to see such a hotheaded reaction," Bartlett said.

Rolon, a St. Petersburg police officer, boarded the school bus in Safety Harbor after a student threw a hard object from a window, causing a motorist to swerve. The car almost hit Rolon, who was driving his police motorcycle home from work.

As Rolon and the bus driver pressed for a confession from a bus full of Safety Harbor Middle School students, Ashley stood up and shouted that she did not do it. Rolon walked to the back of the bus, pulled Ashley out of her seat, twisted her right arm behind her back and handcuffed her to a rail at the front of the bus.

Rolon turned her over to Pinellas sheriff's deputies, who have jurisdiction in Safety Harbor. At some point - it's not clear when - a 13-year-old boy confessed to throwing the object, believed to be a golf ball.

St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said any comment from the department would be premature. He said prosecutors usually consider all reports submitted by law enforcement officers before deciding whether to charge someone.

After the incident, the sheriff's office notified Ashley's family that she faced a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The office also offered her the chance to participate in a "diversion" program that allows qualifying juveniles to have the offense erased from their record if they concede their guilt and make amends.

Ashley's parents declined the offer, saying the officer overreacted and they wanted their daughter cleared. That prompted the Sheriff's Office to refer the case to the state attorney.

To be guilty of disorderly conduct, state law says a person must have committed acts that "corrupt the public morals, or outrage the sense of public decency, or affect the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them." The statute also lists "brawling or fighting" and "such conduct as to constitute a breach of the peace."

Pinellas school officials reviewed the video and found Ashley did not violate the district's code of student conduct. An eighth-grader at Safety Harbor Middle School, Ashley is an honors student who plans to attend Clearwater High next year, her parents say.

Her attorney, Melissa Miguel of McGuire Law Offices in Clearwater, said Bartlett also shared his views of the video with her. But she said there was no cause to celebrate until prosecutors officially clear the girl.

"I don't know what their decision is going to be," she cautioned. "It could change. They haven't seen the whole video."

Ashley's father, Luis Mitchell, said Wednesday he was ecstatic about the prosecutor's comments and hoped the case could be resolved quickly.

"That's what it's all about - just clearing her of these criminal charges," he said. "The sooner, the better."