A bureaucratic mix-up kept a 15-year-old Edgewood boy locked up with adults at the Harford County Detention Center from March to September before he was transferred to the Hickey School for juvenile offenders -- three months after the error was reported to the state's attorney's office.
Documents in Harford Circuit Court show that the teen-ager told police after his arrest March 1 that he was born in July 1977. In fact, he was born in 1978.
The boy was arrested after a shooting in which he allegedly egged on the gunman by yelling, "Shoot him, shoot him!"
The youth was jailed as an adult on charges of assault with intent to maim, disfigure and disable; battery; assault; and reckless endangerment; and with various handgun counts.
State law allowed authorities to charge the boy, who they believed was 16, as an adult because of the violent nature of the crimes of which he was accused.
Saundra Warner, the assistant public defender who represented the boy, told Circuit Judge Stephen M. Waldron at a hearing last week that the boy was only 15 when he was arrested.
She said the state's attorney's office was notified in June that her client was a juvenile after his aunt insisted that he should not be locked up with adults at the county jail.
Joseph I. Cassilly, the Harford state's attorney, said prosecutors in his office became aware of the error in June, but believed they should wait for state Department of Juvenile Services officials to produce a birth certificate proving that the juvenile was 15.
"There should have been no need [for Juvenile Services] to file a reverse waiver" to charge the boy as a juvenile, Mr. Cassilly said. "The documents charging him as an adult were incorrect, and my office should have followed up to see that the matter was corrected."
District Public Defender Lloyd Merriam said reverse waivers typically are filed by Juvenile Services counselors. But he said sometimes matters are handled less formally with a telephone call or a letter to the state's attorney's office.
Citing privacy laws, Mr. Merriam would not discuss the youth's case, but he said that no matter which manner is used to notify the state's attorney's office, that office had an obligation to follow through on such information.
Typically, Mr. Merriam said, an assistant public defender would file a motion to dismiss the case "for lack of jurisdiction."
Mr. Cassilly said the confusion over the boy's status was prolonged by several postponements of the case during the summer.
Thomas Ryan, a counselor for the Department of Juvenile Services in Bel Air, declined to comment, saying that confidentiality laws prevent him from discussing any matter involving a juvenile.
Jacqueline Lampell, a Juvenile Services spokeswoman, also spoke with The Sun in general terms, citing privacy laws.
She said that normal procedure called for juvenile counselors to double-check the date of birth on all juvenile defendants.
"If a counselor discovered a discrepancy with the date of birth, it would be noted in a waiver summary," she said.
Ms. Lampell said that in a reverse waiver process, Juvenile Services prepares a request and delivers it to the state's attorney's office. Then the state's attorney's office contacts police to recharge the defendant as a juvenile and return the zTC paperwork to the state's attorney's office, she said.
Mr. Cassilly said it would have been far better that three people -- a prosecutor, juvenile services counselor and public defender -- "knock each other down trying to catch the ball rather than allow it to drop among them."
Mr. Merriam said the "ball never reached the public defender's field again."
On Monday, Master Theodore Hart granted the public defender's motion to dismiss the case against the boy and ordered him released to his mother after prosecutors said they could not go to trial because neither the victim nor 12 witnesses summoned to court had shown up.
Master Hart said he believed that prosecutors had done more than could reasonably be expected to build their case against the boy, but did not receive even minimal cooperation from the victim or any of 12 witnesses, all of whom failed to appear in court.
Mr. Cassilly said a similar error involving a juvenile's status should not happen again.
"I have already instructed my staff members to sit down with Juvenile Services personnel and work out a clear understanding of the procedures so that, if something like this ever happens again, everyone involved will know how to handle it quickly," the prosecutor said.
Mr. Merriam said he also would speak with juvenile services officials to seek improved ways to prevent a recurrence.