Jim Kenyon with Rebecca Forbes in her home Friday
SYRACUSE -- A Syracuse woman who was burglarized by a teenage boy wants to change the Family Court Act to better address the problem of juvenile offenders.
Life has returned to normal for Rebecca and Kate Forbes and their daughter Annalise, but last month the family became the victims of an early morning burglary when a 13-year-old intruder entered their apartment while they were sleeping. "It angers me and also scared me even though he was a kid...I didn't know if he had a gun on him."
Syracuse Police nabbed the teen and a juvenile accomplice outside the apartment building on Lodi Street. Rebecca says she learned the 13-year-old had a record of six prior arrests. She thought the justice system would prosecute until she got a letter from the Onondaga County Attorney's Office informing her that the charges of burglary, larceny and resisting arrest were dropped pursuant to Family Court Act 310.1.
The letter read, "Under some circumstances, criminal charges against adults may be possible, where they are not against a juvenile."
Rebecca Forbes says juvenile offenders know the law allows them to get away with it. "They know they can't be touched because they're juveniles...it's terrible because he's going to continue and he's 13."
Forbes wants to change the Family Court Act and Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick says there's plenty of room for change. "When you hear people talk about the 'three strikes and you're out' law, it is really more accurate to say 15 strikes and you're out."
Fitzpatrick says unless an offender under the age of 16 commits a specific violent crime like murder, the case is often handled in private in Family Court by the County Attorney's office. Fitzpatrick would like to see a joint approach where the District Attorney's office can assist in such a prosecution. The DA says by the time his office prosecutes a 16-year-old for a crime, they are unaware of his or her criminal past, "because of the secrecy provisions regarding the Family Court Act... that is a bad system."
Rebecca Forbes wants to start a petition drive to convince state legislators to re-examine the Family Court Act as it applies to repeat juvenile offenders. Forbes says she isn't trying to put teens in prison.
"What we want is a juvenile delinquency program set up that can address this faster so it doesn't take 15 charges for a kid to get help."
