Juvenile court

Apparently the counseling didn't necessarily work.

And we know juvenile is a joke, right? Juvie court is a joke, which is why they want him tried in juvie again for this.

Because nothing happens to you.

Nothing happens to you.

OK, so she the mob in this situation is upset and she kind of lays out some of the details surrounding it.

Now, the interesting part about this, because this is a juvenile and this all went down in juvenile court, the public is not allowed to know the sentence.

OK, so we're actually reading between the lines based on what the mom had to say to the press yesterday.

So stick around.

THE BOY WAS DRIVING A STOLEN CAR WHEN HE STRUCK THE LITTLE GIRL THAT SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

IT HAPPENED ON WEST PRATT STREET IN SOUTHWEST BALTIMORE.

THE BOY FACED SEVERAL CHARGES INCLUDING VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER AND NOW HIS SENTENCE IN JUVENILE COURT.

A SENTENCE SEALED FROM THE PUBLIC.

I'm Mike Costa, your host.

My guest this week is Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Rob Filyaw.

Judge Filyaw does not have the typical path to law and ultimately to the bench.

Rob, welcome to my Morning Cup.

I'm thrilled that you are.

And, you know, we've known each other not real well, but through Rotary and through YCAP and things like that.

And always had great respect for you and want to learn more about juvenile court.

But also want to be able to tell your story a little bit because you don't have the typical path to the bench.

In 1899, a social reformer, Jane Addams, and her colleague, Julia Lathrop, who founded Hull House in Chicago, started thinking about whether adult prosecution of and adult punishments levied on children were, in fact, the best way to both nurture children and protect public safety.

And so they created something called the Children's Court, which was part of the settlement house in Chicago, Hull House.

And in the Children's Court, all of the things that were assumed about the adult legal system were suspended.

Children were treated like children.

Judges were placed in a parental role vis-a-vis the child.

The Latin name for that doctrine is parents patriae.

And the notion of the court was that if the legal system did what was best for children rather than what was deemed punitive, then and relaxed all of the ceremony around the legal system, then the community would be safer and children would be better served.

But in reality, what happened was that the Children's Court very quickly, first of all, caught fire and was adopted around the country.

So right now, one of the biggest fights in this case is over where KJ should actually be prosecuted.

On September 8th, his attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to transfer the case from Superior Court to Juvenile Court.

They're also asking the court to keep the proceedings confidential because both KJ and his accuser are minors.

His attorney, Jason Sheffield, says that KJ intends to plead not guilty to every single charge.

We've been talking about it for weeks.

And the juvenile court in particular is something very close to our hearts at CFD because we understand that our families in this district sometimes have to have, you know, interactions with the juvenile court.

So we want to learn more.

about that and about Judge Bloom's leadership there.

And not to say that that, you know, removes their responsibility, but to say that it's a lot of the same folks who experience crime on both sides.

Interesting.

So Judge Bloom, can you share with us, so you're currently the judge for the Hamilton County Juvenile Court.

And what kinds of cases, just generally speaking, you know, you can't speak specifics, but like generally what's going on with that court? Absolutely.