Girl, 11, to go on trial for rock incident

[Sequoia]

Fresno -- Until the afternoon of April 29, 11-year-old Maribel Cuevas' only connection with law enforcement was involvement in a mentoring program sponsored by the Police Activities League.

But that day a rock she says slipped from her hand struck Elijah Vang, 8, in the forehead. A 911 call led to Maribel being arrested by Fresno police officers, handcuffed and taken to Juvenile Hall, where she stayed for five days before a judge released her on the condition she wear an electronic ankle bracelet.

On Wednesday, Maribel is scheduled to go on trial in Juvenile Court on felony assault charges. Authorities say the rock-throwing incident was too serious to be treated lightly.

But critics of the Police Department's actions, including Maribel's (father, say the treatment would have been different if Mirabel wasn't a Latina living in one of the city's poorer neighborhoods.

"If this was a middle-class or upper-class neighborhood it would have been a very different outcome," said the Rev. Floyd Harris Jr., who led a 100- person vigil Friday in front of Juvenile Hall to support Maribel.

"Police don't have the same respect for people of color in this town," Harris said.

Fresno's mayor, Alan Autry, commended the department in a statement. "In Fresno, we love our children too much to treat this like it was just a childhood dispute when in fact the consequences could have been tragic."


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/02/BAG2EE1BNU1.DTL

(Alan Autry, if you recall, played Bubba on the TV show "Heat of the Night")

[Kraklen]

1. She's a minority.

So of course she'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[fhqwhgads]

2. i don't know...

...what race the kid who got hit with the rock is, but i'm guessing he's not white either. if he were, this girl would have been charged as an adult.

[HEyHEY]

5. I think they would have skipped the trial and just executed her

[Kraklen]

6. deport her

then execute her.

[wli]

3. where were these cops when I was a kid?

Pure fascism anyway.

[HEyHEY]

4. She assaulted someone with a rock - if they wanna charge her they

Can.