TRIAL: Agencies failed Samuel, family

The revelations of the Samuel trial serve to illuminate two things: The absurdity of waiving Samuel to adult court and the shocking degree to which social service and law enforcement agencies failed this boy and his family.

There was plenty of information available to the prosecutor before the decision to waive Samuel to adult court. The question of guilt is not now, nor ever was, in question. At issue was the horrendous conditions in which he had spent his entire life. Of course it was a brutal crime but given the circumstances of his life it should have been clear to the prosecutor that juvenile court is where this case should be adjudicated. The case would have been settled in a few months rather than two years and treatment to correct or mitigate the psychological damage he has suffered could have begun long ago. Instead tens of thousands of dollars and two years have been wasted and for what? What possible reason could the prosecutor have had to make the decision he did?

As for the agencies failures, they likewise had plenty of information to recognize the severity of this family situation and to intervene. Here we have two young boys trapped in a well known, well documented, grossly dysfunctional family headed by a violent mentally ill father and no one did anything meaningful. If incompetence was a crime Samuels would have plenty of company on the docket.

JERRY SHRINER

Coeur d’Alene