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Teen faces prison after school prank

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Bucknut24

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Teen faces prison after sex doll prank goes awry

When 18-year-old Tyell Morton put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall on the last day of school, he didn't expect school officials to call a bomb squad or that he'd be facing up to eight years in prison and a possible felony record.

INDIANAPOLIS ?
When 18-year-old Tyell Morton put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall on the last day of school, he didn't expect school officials to call a bomb squad or that he'd be facing up to eight years in prison and a possible felony record.

The senior prank gone awry has raised questions of race, prosecutorial zeal and the post-Columbine mindset in a small Indiana town and around the country, The Indianapolis Star reported in its Tuesday editions.

Legal experts question the appropriateness of the charges against Morton, and law professor Jonathan Turley at George Washington University posed a wider question about Morton's case on his legal blog.

"The question is what type of society we are creating when our children have to fear that a prank (could) lead them to jail for almost a decade. What type of citizens are we creating who fear the arbitrary use of criminal charges by their government?"

A janitor at Rushville Consolidated High School saw Morton run away from the school May 31, and security footage showed a person in a hooded sweatshirt and gloves entering the school with a package and leaving five minutes later without it, according to court documents.

Administrators feared explosives, so they locked down the school and called police. K9 dogs and a bomb squad searched the building before finding the sex doll.

"We have reviewed this situation numerous times," Rush County Schools Superintendent John E. Williams told the newspaper last week. "When you have an unknown intruder in the building, delivering an unknown package, we come up with the same conclusion. ... We cannot be too cautious, in this day and age."

Morton was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and institutional criminal mischief, a felony that carries the potential of two to eight years in prison.

"I know there has been plenty of pranks done at that school," said Morton's mother, Cammie Morton. "I went to that school. When I heard what they was charging him for, my heart just dropped."

Joel Schumm, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, questioned the validity of the charges.

"Their reaction is understandable, but use the school disciplinary process," he said. "Don't try to label the kid a felon for the rest of his life."

The Rush County Prosecutor Philip J. Caviness told The Associated Press that he doesn't intend to seek a prison term for Morton, but said school officials acted appropriately and that the charges are warranted.

"I'm pretty comfortable with the charges that we've filed," he said.

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts focused on Morton's case recently in his nationally syndicated column, suggesting that Morton's case was another example of unfair treatment for a black youth without a wealthy family.

Morton's father brushed off that suggestion when Pitts asked him about it, and Morton's mother declined to discuss that point with The Star.

Morton's attorney, Robert Turner, also downplayed race, suggesting that the size of the small blue-collar city an hour southeast of Indianapolis played a role.

"I don't think they do this sort of thing very often," Turner said. "Had this happened in Indianapolis ... they would not have had this kind of charge filed."

Morton's mother said Tyell Morton wants to attend college, but is worried about the case.

"It's stressful for Tyell," Cammie Morton said. "He doesn't know where his life is going to end up. He has been looking - I'll just put it this way: He's scared."
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Buckeneye;1949944; said:
Delivered an unknown package? So.... was it so hard to walk into the bathroom and see what it was?

Maybe I can see the POV from the administration - but felony charges? Beyond insanity.
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I'm not sure if I'd walk into a place where a disguised stranger left and unknown package and then quickly fled. It was the prudent call to lock down the school. That aside, I agree that the charges are pretty overboard...I can see expulsion from school, but not prison.

Gotta love how they just have to play the race card...
 
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"We have reviewed this situation numerous times," Rush County Schools Superintendent John E. Williams told the newspaper last week. "When you have an unknown intruder in the building, delivering an unknown package, we come up with the same conclusion. ... We cannot be too cautious, in this day and age."
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This is completely understandable, and their actions in calling the Bomb Squad were justified.

But once they figured out it was a prank, that's the end of the legal process. It is not only ignorant to press charges, it is a gross waste of tax money.

You're supposed to be educators. Act educated.
 
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If a black kid wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves entering his school with a package containing a white, blow-up sex doll left in a bathroom stall on the last day of school and then leaving school five minutes later without the package is wrong.....





.....then I'm likely at Walmart listening to people
 
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Hopefully, they're trying to scare him and anyone else who might try a similar prank next year but if the felony charges aren't dropped - at a minimum - then these people have lost their minds.
 
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Gatorubet;1949980; said:
If a black kid wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves entering his school with a package containing a white, blow-up sex doll left in a bathroom stall on the last day of school and then leaving school five minutes later without the package is wrong.....





.....then I'm likely at Walmart listening to people
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Yep, I am here waiting for Gator to get that thar blow up doll so I can share with the missus, Man is she a she-devil....Me and Gator we are best buds, friends for life I say...
 

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MililaniBuckeye;1949953; said:
I'm not sure if I'd walk into a place where a disguised stranger left and unknown package and then quickly fled. It was the prudent call to lock down the school. That aside, I agree that the charges are pretty overboard...I can see expulsion from school, but not prison.
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It was his last day at school. I don't see in the article when he was identified, but it might have happened after he had already graduated.

But I would think that felony charges seem ridiculous - even to white folks in a southern Indiana Walmart.
 
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I'm pretty comfortable with the charges that we've filed.
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And this is why you should lose your job Phil.

Sometimes it seems the only thing scummier than a defense attorney is a prosecutor trying to score points.

The kid assumes the burden of reimbursing the taxpayers for the costs of the unit that responded to the call and the rest of the charges are dropped. Easy enough.
 
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