The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

On Dec. 28, police found 67-year-old Deborah Bretthauer dead in her apartment with “obvious traumatic injuries.” Jaered Long, her 16-year-old grandson, was arrested shortly thereafter and charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder.

Long’s arrest and charging led to multiple questions surrounding differences in the judiciary process between juveniles and adults.

For teenagers charged with a violent crime, the decisions of whether they will be charged as a juvenile or an adult are life-altering. In the cases of violent crimes — or an off-grid felony, as prosecutors sometimes label them — the differences in sentencing guidelines between juveniles and adults couldn’t be more stark.

“If a juvenile is adjudicated of an off-grid felony, they would be looking at a maximum sentence of 60 months or to the age of 22 and a half,” said Bryant Barton, assistant Douglas County district attorney and juvenile prosecutor. “Whereas if an adult is convicted of an off-grid felony they could be looking at a life sentence.”

Long — who pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial and a final decision on whether he will be tried as a juvenile or an adult — faces similar stakes. If convicted, the differences in a juvenile sentence versus an adult sentence likely would be more than 40 years.

The Journal-World interviewed professionals who work in Douglas County’s juvenile justice world to get a better understanding of how the often unseen system functions. Here’s a look:

Charges

When a juvenile — anyone between the ages of 10 and 17 — is arrested, the nature of the case will determine how he is charged, said Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson.

Under Kansas law, juveniles under the age of 10 may not be charged with a crime, Branson said.

If a juvenile is accused of misdemeanors or low-level felonies, he will likely continue through the court system charged as a juvenile, Branson said. In certain cases, however, juveniles are automatically presumed to face charges as an adult, or prosecutors may file a motion to upgrade their charges later in the process.

If a suspected juvenile offender — between the ages of 14 and 17 — is charged with multiple felonies, felonies involving firearms, more serious felonies like rape or murder, he will be presumed to be an adult, Branson said.

If a juvenile’s suspected offenses do not presume him to be an adult, the prosecution may file a motion later to waive him up to adult status, Branson said.

When prosecuting attorneys are considering how best to charge a juvenile they consider several criteria, called presumptions, to see if the suspected offender may be charged as an adult, Branson said.

These presumptions include:

• Whether the alleged offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated or willful manner.
• Whether the alleged offense was against a person or property.
• The alleged offender’s criminal history.
• The alleged offender’s maturity level.
• Whether there are services available to the court likely to rehabilitate the alleged offender.

If a suspected juvenile offender is either presumed to be tried as an adult or if the prosecution files a motion to upgrade the charge status, then a hearing is held where the defense will have an opportunity to rebut the adult charges, Branson said.

Ultimately the charging decision is left up to the judge, Branson said.

“Just because we file a motion to waive somebody up doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” he said.

In his more-than-12-year tenure as Douglas County’s district attorney, Branson said his office has moved for juveniles to be charged as adults around four times. At least one of those times the judge denied the motion, he said.

Currently, Long is charged as a juvenile, but the prosecution still has the ability to file a motion and charge him as an adult, Branson said. A decision will likely be made before Long’s next court appearance in early March, he said.

“It’s not uncommon for us to take our time in looking at these cases to make sure we’ve got all the information we think is important,” he said.

“It’s really kind of a function of the severity of the crime and to some degree the age. Obviously if we’re looking at an 11- or 12-year-old that would weigh differently in our minds than a 17-year-old would just because of the maturity level and knowledge of those people,” Branson added. “And as the crimes get more severe you do naturally start to see safety issues increase.”

There are additional and more specific criteria which might presume a juvenile offender to be charged as an adult or be used by the prosecution to file a motion to upgrade the charging status. A full list is available online at www.ksrevisor.org.

Public Information

Typically the names of juveniles accused of crimes aren’t released, Branson said. This is largely to shield the accused and help him through the court process and back into the community.

“It can be detrimental to the rehabilitation of that juvenile,” Branson said. “If everybody in the community knows exactly what they did, and I’m sure there are some people that would argue me on that point, but if everybody knows that juvenile’s business sometimes it’s tougher for them to conform to the system and get back into the right place.”

“Sometimes when everybody has their eyes on you it can feel a little hopeless,” he added.

There are, however, exceptions to the rules, Branson said.

“We believe it is in the interest of the justice system to protect juveniles from some of the scrutiny they may have if their names are released, so we generally have an office policy that we do not discuss juvenile cases with the public,” Branson said. “Unless it’s a major case that the public interest is served by discussing it. For example, we’ve talked about Mr. Long. It’s a high-profile homicide case and because of that we’ve used his name.”

There are more rules the juvenile court system follows for further releasing information about accused juvenile offenders, said Barton.

With each juvenile case there are two files, Barton said. The first file, called the official file, contains the criminal complaint, process, service, orders, journal entries and more. The second file, called the social file, contains documentation specifically directed toward the court.

The rules regarding the availability of information in juvenile cases has changed in recent years, Branson said.

“When I first started, juvenile cases were just sealed, period. Nobody got that information,” he said.

With changes in recent decades, the public availability of either the official or social files for any given case is often up to a judge, Barton said.

“In a situation where a juvenile is 13 or younger, those official files are not available unless a judge determines that they should be open to the public. However, when a juvenile is 14 and over, that information is open to the public,” Barton said. “With the social file, that information for a child 13 and under is not allowed to come out at all. But when the child is 14 and over, it’s completely up to the judge to determine if the information in the social file is released.”

On Jan. 14 Douglas County District Judge James George denied the Journal-World’s request for the probable cause affidavit in Long’s case, citing his status as a juvenile.

Process

While many of the terminologies between juvenile and adult cases differ, Branson said the two aren’t all that different. Within the past decade juveniles were given the right to a jury trial, shortening the list of differences even further.

“If an adult is convicted of a crime, well, he’s convicted. If a juvenile is found guilty of a crime, he or she is adjudicated,” Barton said. “Then the adult would go to a sentencing while the juvenile would go to a disposition, which is similar.”

Some juvenile cases stop before they’re filed, Branson and Barton said. Often, lesser offenses or offenses committed by juveniles with little or no criminal history can be recommended to the office’s pre-filing diversion program.

The program is operated through Lawrence’s Shelter Inc., with the main goal of helping kids back on the right track without filing criminal charges against them, said Amy Hill, juvenile intake and program supervisor at Shelter Inc.

“It’s usually first offenders that are given the opportunity to have that charge not go on their record and make better choices and move on,” she said. “It’s a three to six month program. We have standard conditions to the diversion and we tailor it to the family as well.”

Among the program’s requirements are 10 hours of community service per criminal charge, monitored grades and attendance and mandatory classes designed to help children examine their lives, their choices and the consequences of their actions, Hill said.

“We also do drug and alcohol testing,” said Gina Meier-Hummel, executive director of Shelter Inc.

If the juveniles pass through the program without violating the requirements, their offenses are not filed, Hill said. Since Shelter Inc. began the Pre-Filing Diversion Program in 1999, 1,465 juveniles of 1,632 juveniles have successfully completed the program, equating to a 90 percent success rate.

If charges have already been filed against a juvenile they may also qualify for a similar program, called Conditions of Release, Hill said. There, they are subject to many of the same requirements as the Pre-Filing Diversion Program, except a successful completion does not remove the charges from their record, but it is looked upon favorably by the court.

The vast majority of juveniles facing criminal charges are released into the custody of their parents, Branson said. But if the alleged crime is serious enough, or a judge finds them to be a potential danger to themselves or others, they may be held in the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center, 330 N.E. Industrial Lane.

If a juvenile is waived up to adult status, he is then transferred to the Douglas County Jail, 3601 North 1360 Road.

In a late-December detention hearing George found Long to be a danger to himself or others and ordered him detained.

Adjudication

If a juvenile is found guilty, he is adjudicated, Barton said. From there he goes to a disposition, which is comparable to a sentencing.

Disposition guidelines for juveniles can differ from adult sentencing guidelines, Barton said using off-grid felonies — which include more serious crimes like the rape of a child — as an example.

“The juvenile system by definition takes into consideration things that maybe the adult system does, but doesn’t spell out,” Barton added. “One is community safety; also you try to hold the juvenile accountable, and an effort is made to provide services or put items in place that will help the juvenile be a productive member of the community.”

Some dispositions may also straddle the lines between the adult and juvenile court systems, Barton said.

“Basically they can be sentenced to a juvenile sentence and an adult sentence,” he said. “If they can successfully complete the requirements of their juvenile sentencing, then that would complete their punishment, but if there are any problems that come up with satisfying the juvenile portion of it, then they’re subject to the adult sentence.”

Charged as a juvenile, if adjudicated, Long may face up to 60 months of imprisonment, Branson said. If he is waived up to adult status, he may face life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 50 years.

Long is scheduled to appear in court next on March 9 at 1 p.m. for trial setting.