10-year-old arrested for public urination was treated like an adult criminal, lawyer says

The mother of a 10-year-old Mississippi boy arrested after urinating in her car is refusing to sign a probation agreement because the terms are strict and usually reserved for adults, the family’s attorney said Thursday.

The 90-day probation agreement stipulated that the boy, Quantavious Eason, who is black, would have to submit to random drug testing, observe an 8 p.m. curfew and meet with a probation officer once a month, Carlos Moore said. , the lawyer.

The boy would also have to write a two-page report on Kobe Bryant, Moore said.

Latonya Eason, the boy’s mother, had initially agreed to the probation during a hearing in Tate County Chancery Court on December 12, but after reading the full terms and consulting with Mr. Moore this week, she decided not to draw and fight instead. that the charges be dismissed, he said. NBC News reported the case this week.

“This boy is not a criminal,” Mr. Moore said. “He shouldn’t have to go through any of this.”

The legal battle stems from an encounter Quantavious and his mother had with police on Aug. 10 in Senatobia, Miss., a small city 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The family, who live in a neighboring province, believe the police’s treatment of the boy was rooted in racism.

The boy was waiting for his mother in her car, which she had parked outside an office while she was in a meeting inside, Mr. Moore said.

Quantavious didn’t see any public toilets nearby, Mr Moore said, “so he decided he couldn’t wait and got out of his mother’s car, opened the door, turned his back to the road and discreetly used the toilet. “

A police officer saw the boy and approached him, Mr. Moore said, and went into the office to pick up his mother, the lawyer said. Mrs. Eason scolded her son when she came outside, he said.

The situation, she thought, was over, Mr Moore said – a proportionate slap on the wrist for a seemingly minor and common offense.

Then, according to Mr. Moore, four more police officers arrived, including a lieutenant.

The lieutenant ordered that the boy, a third grader, be taken in a patrol car to the police station for referral to juvenile court. At one point, he was held in a holding cell for up to an hour while paperwork in the case was processed, Moore said.

“The only thing we can point to is racism, because all the officers were white, and this was a black little boy,” Mr Moore said.

As a minor, Quantavious was accused of being “a child in need of supervision,” Moore said. Mississippi law allows police to refer children as young as 7 to juvenile court if they do something that would be considered illegal for an adult.

But days after the arrest, Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler said in a statement this situation had been handled poorly.

“Under the circumstances, it was an error of judgment on our part to transport the child to the police station as the mother was present at the time as a reasonable alternative,” the chief said.

A week later, he announced that one of the officers involved no longer worked for the department and that the others would be disciplined. He also said the department would have department-wide youth training, “as we do every year.”

The experience continues to haunt Quantavious, who has started seeing a counselor, Mr. Moore said.

“He doesn’t trust law enforcement anymore,” Mr. Moore said. “He doesn’t even like going to football games or sporting events where the police are now.”

Mr. Moore said he had filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Quantavious and that a court hearing would take place on January 16.

“Probation is too long for what this boy did,” Mr. Moore said. “We don’t want him to get used to the criminal justice system.”

If the motion is denied, he said, the family plans to take the case to trial.

“We believe it has already been shown that it was an unlawful arrest,” Mr Moore said. “That’s why people were disciplined. So I’m surprised the prosecutor is still pursuing this case.”

Calls and emails to Senatobia police and the district attorney handling the case were not immediately returned.

Aside from the fight in juvenile court, the Easons plan to sue the city and police department in both federal and state court, he added.

Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.