Chapter 1. Test1

Introduction

Written by Elaine Cassel, J. D., M. A.

Lord Fairfax Community College

(c) 2013 Worth Publishers (Photo Credit: John Knill / Getty Images)

1.1 Presenting Complaint

Nate is a 20 year-old white male with a history of behavioral and legal problems since childhood. He is an unmarried high school dropout, who is still living at home (when he is not in jail). He is now in significant legal trouble, having committed a very serious crime. Three weeks ago Nate was convicted of armed robbery of a pawnshop in town. However, this was not his first time sitting in court awaiting sentencing. Indeed, he has been in trouble with the law since he was 10 years old; he has been in juvenile court many times, and his parents and social workers have tried for years to help Nate straighten out his life. Unfortunately, the best efforts of the juvenile court system and his parents have not been successful.

Nate first came to the attention of law enforcement when he set fire to a cornfield on the other side of his parents’ property. It was fall, the corn stalks were dry and brown, and he just wanted to see what a burning field would look like. He took some matches and gasoline from the shed, as he had seen his father do when he wanted to burn a pile of leaves. At dusk, he jumped over the fence, poured some gasoline on the ground by the first row of corn stalks, lit the match and hopped back over the fence. From the shed, about 100 yards away, Nate could see the flames shoot up into the dark sky. He was a little nervous, but not really scared. He thought it was cool to see the fire, and he figured no one had seen him. Well, he was wrong — the landowner had been a few yards away, gathering stalks to make a fall display of corn stalks and pumpkins for the entrance to his property. He called the local volunteer fire department and they came and quickly put out the fire.

The owner’s next call was to the Sheriff. He sent two deputies to Nate’s home. By this time his parents were home, and Nate was called into the living room. At first he lied about setting the fire, but when it became obvious that he had done it, from the owner’s testimony and Nate’s behavior, he finally confessed. “Yeah, I set the fire,” he said. “But I didn’t think it would burn more than the one row and what good is a bunch of old brown corn stalks anyway?” The Sheriff’s deputies reported the incident to the juvenile court, but since the owner of the farm could not take the time to go to court, file the papers and testify, no charges were brought. Saying “Well, boys will be boys, I guess,” Nate’s parents chalked up the behavior to a normal, albeit mischievous, curiosity.

Nate had shown this “mischievous” side before, when he was eight years old. His sister, Anne, had just gotten a kitten from the animal shelter. It was a pathetic, skinny little thing and Nate liked to make fun of it. One day, he picked the kitten up by the tail, and Anne yelled at him to put it down. Instead, Nate started swinging the kitten by its tail, until Anne, horrified, pushed Nate away and grabbed the kitten. She told their parents, and they scolded Nate, but that was the extent of their punishment. From then on, Anne kept the cat in her room when Nate was home. What scared Anne the most was the look in Nate’s eyes when he was abusing the cat He seemed to be enjoying inflicting pain and terror on a helpless animal.

When Nate was 11 years old, the day before Halloween he asked his parents if he could trick-or-treat in a nearby suburban neighborhood with some friends. There was no place to trick or treat in the country, so his parents said, “Sure, that sounds like fun.” A friend’s grandfather took Nate and three other boys to the entrance of a large subdivision about 10 miles from Nate’s home. Nate and his friends did a little trick or treating, but they had the most fun scaring the little kids and taking their candy. They would zero in on a victim, grab the child’s trick or treat bag, throw the candy up in the air and run. They didn’t want the candy—they just wanted to see the children cry. By the time the children had run home crying, Nate and his buddies were long gone.

When Nate entered 7^th grade, at the age of 12, he began to have more frequent trouble with the law. He hated school and started sneaking out and hanging out with some 14 year-old 9^th graders, who were truants themselves. One of them had an older brother, who used to meet them when the school day was over and take them all to the local convenience store for soda and ice cream. Then they would take Nate home. Nate told his parents that one of his friends’ parents was bringing him home occasionally, so he did not have to take the school bus. One day, his friend‘s older brother, who was 17 and had a driver’s license, decided to get gas and drive off without paying for it. Nate was in the back seat with two other kids his own age. As the car sped off from the convenience store, it wasn’t long before they noticed a police car following them. They were pulled over and questioned about what had just happened. Though they denied it, the officer told them that the convenience store had them on videotape, along with a photo of the license plate. They were all taken into custody. Because he was under age, Nate was held by the police until his parents arrived. When they arrived, Nate and his parents were given a summons to appear in juvenile court. When Nate went to court, he got no more than a slap on the wrist. The judge told him to stay away from the older boys, stay in school, and obey his parents.

But the pattern of truancy and brushes with the law continued. Nate was expelled from school for a week for smoking on school property. His sister, Anne, who was now in high school, had started smoking and Nate had stolen a few cigarettes from her backpack. Nate also stole money from her purse, but not so much that she noticed, just a couple of dollars here and there so he could have some spending money. The school reported Nate to juvenile court as being chronically truant and he and his parents were repeatedly going to court to explain his non-attendance. Since his parents worked so far away, all they could do was see that he got on the school bus in the morning. What happened after that was out of their control.

When Nate was 16, he dropped out of high school. His parents agreed to it, as he seemed to be getting nothing out of school and they were tired of having to take time off from work to attend court hearings. He was supposed to be finishing his degree online, through an “alternative education” program, but all he had to do was sign in once a day and participate in discussion boards. He blew off the assignments and tests. He didn’t plan to pass, and he didn’t care. He did the minimum to keep the county and his parents off his back. Nate started drinking at home alone, as his parents had plenty of beer in the house. Now that he was home alone, his friends and their older brothers had a place to hang out when they were skipping school. On weekends, Nate kept to himself in his room, playing video games and keeping up with his friends on Facebook.

When he was 17, Nate got his driver’s license and his father got him an old car. Now Nate could drive people around and since he was not in school, he was very popular. One of the conditions for Nate’s getting a car was finding a part-time job to help to pay for car insurance. So Nate found a job at an ice cream shop in town. One day, the temptation to take money from the cash register was just too strong. If Nate took a twenty-dollar bill, he would be able to buy a couple of six-packs of beer on his way home and call his buddies to join him. Because it was a small store, the owner noticed when money was missing, but he did not want to wrongly accuse anyone, and Nate was one of three kids working part-time. One night, Nate agreed to work late and close down the shop. He took $300.00 out of the register and locked up the rest in the safe. What Nate did not know, however, was that the owner had counted the money in the register before he left. He had left a large amount there on purpose. When the owner came in the next morning and found only $120.00 in the safe, he knew Nate had taken it. He went to the magistrate and took out a warrant for Nate’s arrest.

When Nate was arrested and questioned, he admitted stealing the money, which surprised the officers. Nate justified the theft by saying he was paid only minimum wage, which wasn’t even enough to pay for the gas to drive to the store. When Nate was taken to juvenile court, the judge ordered him into juvenile detention for 30 days. Nate’s parents were upset but they figured it might shake him up and make him change his behavior. They were wrong; Nate made friends while in detention and promised to keep in touch with them when he got out. Of course, Nate had lost his job at the ice cream store, and he worked in a series of part-time jobs off and on for the next two years. By this time he was abusing alcohol, smoking marijuana, which he got from his friends, and just hanging out and being a pain to his parents and sister.

At the age of 20, Nate and a friend came up with a plan to rob a pawnshop to get some money to take a cross-country trip. Though neither of them knew how to shoot a gun, Nate got his father’s .38 caliber pistol out of the dining room hutch, and said to his buddy, “Let’s go get ourselves some money. “ On a summer afternoon, the pawnshop was empty except for the clerk. Nate and his friend stormed in, wearing ski masks. Nate yelled, “Put ‘em up,” motioning for the clerk to put his hands in the air, just like he had seen on television. The clerk did what Nate ordered. Nate said, “Open the drawer,” meaning the cash register. The clerk complied. “Step back,” Nate said. Nate summoned his friend to take all the money while Nate kept the gun pointed at the clerk. With all the money stuffed in a gym bag, they ran out the door and into the car. They did not speed away immediately, however. They stopped to count the money and realized that they had gotten over $600.00.

Again, Nate showed his ignorance. The pawnshop, as most stores that handle money and valuables, had a video surveillance camera. Nate and his friend were caught in plain view of the camera. What’s more, the clerk had hit a silent alarm button on the side drawer unbeknownst to Nate and his friend. The time they spent counting the money gave the local police an edge. Three squad cars pulled into the driveway, blocking their car. The boys were ordered out of the car, and placed under arrest.

Nate pled guilty to armed robbery. This time, he was in serious trouble. His court-appointed defense attorney (his parents didn’t have the money to pay for a private attorney) was going to argue that he did not pose a serious threat to the community and should not be sent to prison for 10 to 40 years, as the law allowed. Instead, his defense attorney argued, he should be able to serve time in the local jail for one year and get alcohol and substance-abuse treatment and job training. The prosecutor had other ideas, however. As part of the sentencing, he had ordered psychological testing for Nate. The court psychologist had spent hours interviewing Nate and his parents, administering psychological and intelligence tests, and reviewing his past educational and juvenile record. Nate’s attorney had read the report. The report concluded: “This 20-year-old defendant is suffering from antisocial personality disorder. His behaviors reported before he reached the age of 15 supports this diagnosis. Nate is not a candidate for rehabilitation at this time. He has a character defect that makes him dangerous to the community.”

The attorney had warned Nate that he was looking at serious time. When the judge came on the bench, said he read the report, and asked if Nate had anything to say, he mumbled “no.” His attorney pled for leniency but to no avail. With that diagnosis, his fate was sealed. “Ten years in the State Penitentiary at Longwood,” the judge said.

1.2 Social/Family History

Nate and his sister grew up in a rural community, 60 miles west of a large city. The family had a nice home on five acres of land. Both of Nate’s parents worked in the city and, from the time he started grade school, were away from home 12 hours a day, counting commuting time. Nate’s sister, Anne, who was four years older, kept an eye on him when she got home from school. Nate’s parents were good and hard-working people, but from the time Nate started acting up, they were unable to deal with him. They tried family therapy and even had a parenting coach come to their home and observe the family interaction, but Nate’s behavior did not improve. They continued to support him emotionally and financially, but they were powerless to improve his behavior.

1.3 Multiple-Choice Questions