“Delinquent: Our System, Our Kids” is a special series examining Cuyahoga County's juvenile justice system through the eyes of the kids who go through it. Unlike mandatory bindovers, discretionary transfers require a juvenile judges’ approval, based on an assessment of whether youth can be rehabilitated in the juvenile system.
During an “amenability hearing” to determine whether a youth can be rehabilitated by the juvenile system, judges consider the child’s social history, education and family situation, as well as a mental health examination by the court’s diagnostic clinic. Many believe that discretionary bindovers are a fairer form of justice than mandatory bindovers. But waiting for an amenability hearing can still thrust a kid into limbo.
“Everything happens for a reason, but–” John pauses. It’s not easy to make sense or find meaning in the situation John finds himself in and how ruinous it might be for his future. This week, we focus on the process of discretionary bindover – when prosecutors request the transfer of a kid to the adult docket, and the decision is left in the hands of a judge. Some advocates argue that no child should be sent to adult court without the approval of a juvenile judge, who considers the full scope of the kid’s life and prospects for rehabilitation. But the approach is not without its complexities. Making an informed decision about a youth’s case takes time.
the research arm of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, which was founded, incidentally, by a Cuyahoga County judge in 1937. During a hearing last October, Sweeney seemed impressed with his progress. It persuaded her to release him from his ankle monitor. But one misstep, she warned, could set him back significantly and impact the bindover decision.A few days later, John was lounging at home, his ankle bare as he shook off seven months of cabin fever. His amenability hearing was scheduled for January, three months away.
“Football is like a getaway from everything,” he explains. “You know if you have a long workday, came home and showered and got into bed and went to sleep? That’s the feeling football gave me, that peace feeling.” At the same time, John’s construction company cut back on winter hours. He applied for a DoorDash job to fill the void, but it didn’t pay as well.The 18-year-old still wanted to play college football in the fall, but with his swirling legal issues, it was hard to see a path forward. It had been more than a year since he strapped on shoulder pads.
Authorities accused John of being one of the assailants. Now 18, he was indicted in adult court for aggravated robbery, felonious assault and other felonies. He spent several days in jail before posting bond. Right now, though, John’s keeping his mind on football. He wants to start as a freshman in the fall, and he’s hoping a good batch of early grades might also help at his amenability hearing. He’s majoring in criminal justice.During an “amenability hearing” to determine whether a youth can be rehabilitated by the juvenile system, judges consider the child’s social history, education and family situation, as well as a mental health examination by the court’s diagnostic clinic.
One day, her mother told program managers that Desianiah was no longer welcome. The Cuyahoga Division of Children and Family Services stepped in, taking her to the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services office until they could find her another placement. After two days, she ran away. and I carried that idea out.” She declines to go into detail, but she once told a judge that she didn’t plan the robbery for money; rather, she was a follower, wanting to impress a friend.
Occasionally, a judge’s assessment of amenability conflicts with the results of a psychological evaluation, measuring a youth’s emotional, behavioral and cognitive functioning, as well as their likelihood to be rehabilitated and reoffend. Celeste Wainwright, Assistant Superintendent of the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court, gives a high five to a juvenile at the county detention center.Four days before her 17th birthday, Desianiah pleaded her original murder charge down to involuntary manslaughter. An adult judge later sentenced her to a minimum 13 years in prison.
But during her second turn in the juvenile detention center following her appeal, something happened. A kindly female guard took the 18-year-old under her wing, becoming her close confidante. In four months, Desianiah started to flourish. She earned her high school diploma, something various people told her she’d never do. She set her sights on cosmetology.
Each of the court’s six judges operates with a unique philosophy about what makes a kid redeemable and likely to do well if spared adult sanctions. Some more often weigh in favor of rehabilitation, where others don’t – and every so often, judges get it wrong.Eric’s homelife was in turmoil when he joined a group called the Blitz Gang, authorities said, and over two weeks in 2019, the crew robbed two Cleveland delivery drivers and committed two Lakewood carjackings.
Judge Nicholas Celebrezze denied bindover. “There are a lot more services that can be offered at this time,” Celebrezze ruled, declaring the teen amenable.The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office has pursued discretionary bindover less often in recent years. Where it asked judges to weigh in on 151 cases in 2019, it made only 58 requests in 2022, a Plain Dealer/cleveland.com analysis of amenability orders found.
In 2022, however, she presided over just four cases, granting none – prosecutors withdrew two of the requests as part of plea deals, the analysis showed, and she denied the others. That same year, as President of the Ohio Association of Juvenile Court judges,to the Ohio House of Representatives advocating to eliminate mandatory bindover and entrust decisions about “who does or does not belong in the adult criminal justice system” to judges.
Most notable is the court’s Administrative Judge Thomas O’Malley. He reviewed slightly more bindover cases than Floyd, during the four-year period, but granted nearly twice as many. He ordered transfer in 9 of 14 cases in 2019 and all eight of his cases in 2022 – he’s the only county judge with 100% bindover in any year.
By then, he was 17 and had received a year and a half of treatment in juvenile detention. He was on track to graduate high school and was earning top marks in the court’s behavioral assessment system. “He was doing awesome,” Jennifer O’Malley recalls. As he grew, Lamar watched his mother’s boyfriends beat her, too, he says. He never knew his father’s name. He witnessed his first shooting at 10.
When children cycle through the justice system, parents are sometimes part or the root issues. But they also might be a key to solving them. Juvenile Court officials say that for intervention services to work best, parents must participate in their child’s rehabilitation.
That means a juvenile judge reviewed his crimes and life circumstances and determined he was not amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system. His juvenile judge did not explain why in her transfer orders.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com But increasingly, Judge Thomas O’Malley says parents are absent altogether. The kids who enter his courtroom often arrive with grandmothers and aunts, rather than moms and dads. Less than 10% of kids live with both parents, he says. “I don’t know how to fix that.”
The court began shuttling him to residential treatment centers, he recounts. Some worked better than others. Then, in 2019, police accused 16-year-old Lamar of participating in a two-day crime spree. They alleged that he shot at a home, served as a driver during two other shootings that wounded at least one, and prodded a codefendant to commit a carjacking.
Arveontae was quickly arrested. The teen, from Cleveland’s Union-Miles neighborhood, was familiar with the juvenile justice system. At the time, he was on probation for a robbery after he and another youth stole someone’s bookbag on a train platform. He’d also been found delinquent for receiving stolen property and obstructing official business.
His mood went from friendly “to intense yelling, profanity and near-physical violence, even with police presence, in a matter of seconds,” an officer reported. His grandmother told police it was time for “a much-needed psych examination.” Police took Arveontae to the hospital several times.The court tried referring Arveontae to intensive family therapy, but efforts stalled when his mother wouldn’t participate.
His age didn’t qualify for mandatory bindover following the gas station robbery, but prosecutors requested a discretionary transfer. “It was cool,” Arveontae recalls of that period. “I take my meds, feel sleepy, go into my room and go to sleep.”Judge Thomas O’Malley acknowledged Arveontae’s longtime mental health issues at his amenability hearing in 2022, two months after Arveontae turned 16. O’Malley also noted that Arveontae had never been sent to a juvenile lockup run by the Ohio Department of Youth Services, or ODYS, which offers age-tailored treatments.
In that case, a 14-year-old with multiple personalities, who we are identifying as DN, had been bound over and given a life sentence for murdering his father’s girlfriend in Champaign County. DN blamed the murder on his alternate personality, “Jeff the killer.” The Supreme Court ruled that there was nothing to suggest that an ODYS facility couldn’t treat DN’s mental illness, returning him to juvenile custody. Last summer, at 21, he walked free.
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