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Boy, 7, arrested after throwing backpack

By REBECCA CATALANELLO and COLLEEN JENKINS
Published January 12, 2007

TAMPA - A deputy arrested a 7-year-old boy at school Wednesday after the boy flung a backpack at an 11-year-old's head at a bus stop, authorities said.

The Hillsborough County deputy did not put the second- grader in handcuffs, but he put the boy into the back of a sheriff's cruiser outside Lopez Elementary School in Seffner after he investigated a complaint from the 11-year-old's mother.

Prosecutors say they had advised against arresting the boy. And the county's Juvenile Assessment Center wouldn't take the 7-year-old, so he was returned to school.

Authorities withheld the names of all the children involved.

The incident was part of an ongoing feud between neighborhood kids at a Seffner-area mobile home park, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

The most recent episode started when the 7-year-old urinated at the bus stop, Carter said. Other children began calling the boy names, and he eventually threw a backpack at the 11-year-old's head.

The 11-year-old did not appear to be injured, Carter said. And the children boarded the bus and went to school.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi described the backpack that hit the 11-year-old as light, being filled with papers.

But when the 11-year-old's mother heard about the incident, she called deputies and demanded that they press charges, Carter said.

Deputy Gary Craig was sent to check out the complaint. He contacted Bob Petschow, deputy chief of intake for the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office. Petschow told the deputy that there are many problems with charging a 7-year-old and advised him against arresting the child, said Bondi, the assistant state attorney.

"The deputy did anyway," Bondi said. "We explained to the deputy the competency issues with even attempting to charge a 7-year-old."

But Carter said the deputy's account is slightly different from what the State Attorney's Office says. According to Carter, the deputy talked to the 7-year-old's mother, who consented to her son's arrest.

"The mother said, 'Take him,' " Carter said.

The deputy went to Lopez Elementary, talked with witnesses and took the 7-year-old into custody. Carter said the boy showed no emotion as he was escorted out by a uniformed officer.

When Craig reached the Juvenile Assessment Center, the holding facility for children charged with crimes, the intake workers there refused to take him because of his age.

According to Carter, it wasn't until that point that Craig called the State Attorney's Office and was told to write a report but return the child to school.

The state attorney will now decide whether to charge the child with misdemeanor battery.

Carter said the Sheriff's Office is reviewing the discrepancies between Craig's account and Bondi's.

Asked whether Craig did the right thing, Carter pointed out that the victim's mother was insisting that charges be filed.

"Any arrest is a judgment call by the deputy," she said.

[Last modified January 12, 2007, 01:14:53]