WASHINGTON — A D.C. mother is feeling a sense of relief because her troubled teen may finally get the help he needs from the DC Juvenile Justice system.
WUSA9 is not naming the mother to protect the identity of her son, because he is a minor. She says her son's troubles started eight months ago when he was charged with assault and robbery after a fight at a Metro station. The mother says she's tried everything she can think of to get her son help, including sharing their story with the media, and begging the court system to intervene.
“I’m relieved, overall,” the mother said. “It seems like it’s finally going to get somewhere.”
The woman told WUSA9 she was speaking out on behalf of all families who feel failed by the District’s approach to stopping its spiraling youth crime problem.
“I know just from conversations with other parents, peers, it’s a lot of us who are going through this,” she said.
In a court hearing Wednesday morning at the DC Superior Courthouse, Judge Andrea Hertzfeld and a prosecutor from the DC Office of the Attorney General indicated for the first time, they planned to recommend committing the woman’s 15-year-old son to a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility for his ongoing criminal behavior, which started in June of 2023 with the first-degree theft and simple assault conviction from the Metro incident.
Prosecutors say the criminal behavior continued when on Dec. 13, his mom’s NEST camera caught him allegedly breaking into his own family’s home.
Since June, the teen has had at least eight different custody orders for violating the terms of his release. He has repeatedly run away from home or the Youth Shelter House, which is a monitored group home for teens awaiting trial. As a teen with a first offense only, he was rarely held at Youth Services Center, a locked down facility for juvenile offenders.
The mom says the teen's problems continued after pleading guilty to those criminal charges from the metro station, agreeing to a Deferred Disposition Agreement (DDA) meaning the court offers a lighter sentence at a later date if the teen simply complied with the terms of agreement, including a curfew.
He didn’t, continuing to violate curfew and run away from Youth Shelter House.
When WUSA9 first spoke with this mother a week before Wednesday’s hearing, she said she lived in fear of what might happen if the courts didn’t step in an do more.
“Honestly one of my biggest fears is either hearing, you know, getting a phone call that something's happened to him, or him getting in trouble for something where there's no turning back from," she said.
The mother was especially frustrated the judge had yet to follow a court ordered evaluation submitted to her in November diagnosing the teen with Disrputive Mood Dysregulation Disorder and recommending that “Due to [the teen's] lack of responsiveness to less restrictive environments [the teen] be placed in a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility with a strong behavioral and trauma focus.”
But those reports are typically not considered by the judge until sentencing. So, when the teen had a custody order hearing that same day the court received that evaluation, the report was not considered, and the judge once again sent the teen back to Youth Shelter House.
He ran away 12 days later, leading to the alleged burglary of the family’s home and later a theft charge in Arlington.
Because those incidents violated the terms of that deferred plea agreement, the DC Office of the Attorney General has revoked the DDA and said in court it would finally recommend the teen be committed to a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility.
Judge Hertzfeld indicated she planned to follow that recommendation. A representative from the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services told the judge due to the paperwork required, it could be up to three months before they can place the teen in one of those facilities. Until then, he'll remain at Youth Services Center, a locked down facility for youth offenders.
The District does not have a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility. The closest one is Baltimore. If not, the teen could end up in Newport News, Georgia or as far away as Florida.
But after Wednesday’s hearing, his mother said she hopes this is the first step in getting the son she knows back.
The judge set the sentencing in the teen's case for March 8.
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