Troubled teen goes from 'bad to worse'

In its bid to keep her from prison, did the justice system fail Victoria Rupple?

By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published January 20, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Victoria Rupple tried to drown her brother, officials say. Her path to recovery has been rocky.

The system thought it knew what to do with 16-year-old Victoria Rupple.

The Wesley Chapel teen has battled emotional and mental problems since her mother's 2003 suicide.

In 2006, authorities say Victoria tried to drown her little brother. He survived. She ran away to Tampa.

When deputies found her weeks later she had cuts on her wrists. Victoria was charged as an adult with attempted murder. She faced up to 30 years in prison.

The system, though, chose another path. She was sentenced as a juvenile and put on probation until her 21st birthday. And she was sent to live at a facility where she was supposed to get counseling and help.

But that's not what Victoria got at all.

Six months and two facilities later, she returned to a Pasco County courtroom this week - in handcuffs.

Victoria had tested positive for drugs.

And authorities fear she is pregnant.

So what does the system do with her now?

"My daughter went from real bad to even worse," said father Shane Rupple. "At this point I don't even know how she's going to get better."

***

On Aug. 12, 2006, Victoria lured her brother Michael into the bathroom. She was 15, he was 9.

She was his babysitter. They were alone. The bathtub was full. They were playing cops and robbers.

Their older stepbrother found the boy lying facedown in the tub. Michael was taken to intensive care, but made a full recovery.

He told deputies that his older sister held him underneath the water.

Victoria pleaded guilty in August 2007. Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa approved the deal between the state and defense that kept her from being incarcerated.

Her lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Dillon Vizcarra, hopes his client can still avoid that fate.

"The girl's dead if we send her to prison," he said.

Facility 'with addicts'

Victoria was first sent to AGAPE House, a residential adult program in St. Petersburg. Days later, the judge ordered Victoria taken to another facility her lawyer found in St. Petersburg.

Vizcarra said there was gang activity there and Victoria's safety became an issue. AGAPE House could not be reached for comment.

Victoria was sent to another facility - for adults.

Still Standing is what the Rev. Edward Leftwich calls a "transitional facility," 80 beds for those who need help with drug and alcohol and mental health issues.

It is not a secured facility. Curfew is 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Otherwise residents come and go as they please. But they must follow the rules and go to their meetings.

"You can get in trouble if you choose too," Leftwich said.

The average age of residents there is in the 30s. Leftwich said they accepted Victoria as a "favor" to the Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender's Office.

Shane Rupple can't believe his daughter was ever sent there in the first place.

"From day one I knew it was bad news," he said. "It's a halfway house filled with crack addicts and people with alcohol problems

"No supervision," added his wife Kori. "No guidance."

Bid for ankle monitor

Victoria used drugs and got pregnant during her stay at Still Standing, according to her father.

Leftwich said these latest incidents occurred off-site and did not involve anyone affiliated with the facility. He said the facility had asked that Victoria be put on community control - house arrest, with an ankle monitor - but the process takes months.

The Department of Juvenile Justice could not comment on a specific case but said it is not affiliated with the facilities Victoria was put in. The state does offer programs and medical care for pregnant offenders.

The father said he was told that a 27-year-old man impregnated his daughter. He may pursue a criminal case against that man. The state told Shane Rupple it would test his daughter again to confirm the pregnancy.

What if it's positive again?

"I don't even want to face that right now," the father said.

No place for Victoria?

Shane Rupple can't believe anyone thought that it was a good idea to let his daughter roam - on her own, unaccounted for - in an urban environment.

"You give her an inch and she'll take a mile," he said. "I don't how you can expect her to improve."

The real problem, her lawyer said, is there was never any where to send Victoria to in the first place.

Secured juvenile treatment facilities that could keep Victoria from walking out the door were scared off by the attempted homicide charge, Vizcarra said.

She wasn't even allowed to be near other children until the judge changed that condition of her probation.

"No one has found anything else," the public defender said, "no other alternative."

A quick turnaround

Victoria has been in the Juvenile Detention Center since she was taken from Still Standing.

In a Dade City courtroom on Friday, she admitted to violating her probation.

"Why am I in juvenile detention?" Victoria asked the judge in a soft drawl. "Why can't I be held under house arrest at Still Standing?"

"That's not a safe location given what happened there," Judge Siracusa told the teen. "I want to make sure you're with age-appropriate people."

Victoria is back on her medication. Her lawyer said she has made a quick turnaround and is working on her GED. Now the system needs to make a quick turnaround. The judge ordered that officials meet Feb. 7 - with the family this time - to work on a new treatment plan for her

"This has affected our family in every way imaginable," Shane Rupple said. "Emotionally. Financially. All we can do is face it one day at a time."

If there is one bright spot in this whole morass, he said, it is the brother who nearly drowned, Michael.

The 10-year-old is thriving. His last report card:

"All As," dad said, "and one B."

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or 727 869-6236.

[Last modified January 19, 2008, 20:28:24]