Teen Court News
2008 Law Day Celebration in Polk County
By Clever English (Polk County)
Volunteers will once again participate in the ‘Law Day’ celebration events for 2008, in conjunction with “Take Your Child to Work +1 Day”. The +1 represents local foster children who are invited. Teen Court will present a mock trial and allow the student visitors to participate. There is a mock trial (“Goldilocks”) for the younger students (elementary) conducted by judges and local attorneys; therefore in keeping with that subject, the teen court trial is a female charged with Burglary & Criminal Mischief for entering a neighbor’s home uninvited, eating food, and damaging property. Judges and other court staff spend many hours coordinating with various community and law enforcement agencies to provide lots of fun, educational activities (Crime prevention, Diversity, Civics, etc) that will help make the day memorable for these students and give them insight on the courts.
Attendees get souvenirs to take home including a certificate signed by Chief Judge David Langford, Court Administrator Nick Sudzina, and an individual photograph with Circuit Judge Dick Prince. This is an all day event on April 24, 2008 held at the lovely historical courthouse. Great food is provided throughout the day beginning with breakfast – fun for ALL!
The 2008 Circuit 4, Mock Trial Competition- Nassau County Teen Court Competition
By Charles Griffin (Nassau County)
The Nassau County Teen Court, a Youth Volunteer program sponsored by the Nassau County Clerk of Court; John Crawford, on February 29, 2008 held the annual 4th Judicial Circuit Teen Court Mock Trial Competition between Nassau, Duval and Clay County youth.
This year’s event drew many participating leaders from our local legal community as well as 5 distinguished Judges, locally this required to suspension of all Court procedures on the day of the event and brought Judges from both Duval and Clay County together with Nassau County for the event.
Judge Robert M. Foster and the Teen Court program Coordinator, Charles Griffin, Hosted the event. Our Honored guest were Judge Tim Collins of Clay County , Angela Cox of Duval County and our own Judge’s, Brian Davis and Granville “Doc” Burgess and Retired Senior Judge, Robert E. Williams.
Participating teams faced off in 3 separate courtrooms to challenge one another with their abilities to present the Prosecution and Defense of a case, they performed before a panel of Professional Attorney’s that also came from the three County area with the Nassau Bar Association as well as local Attorney’s sharing their time with the youth for this event.
The local Teen Participants range in age 11 to 18 yrs of age and come from area schools representing Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Callahan and Hilliard, which make this an all County program, challenging their peers from the neighboring County’s.
We are excited to report that out of six awards, Nassau was recognized for its Best Defense Attorney , Cailin Cascone , the Best Prosecution Team Award as well as overall 1st Place Team Award. Duval County won the Best Defense Team Award, best Prosecution Attorney Award and best Prosecution Witness, Clay County won the best Defense Witness Award.
Teen Courts are statewide programs with each sponsored by each County, either through their Clerks of Courts, County Sheriff’s, or School Board as well some not for profit organizations. Together they comprise the membership of the Florida Association of Teen Courts, which acts to direct the legal status for the Courts and Florida Legislative needs.
For Information about the program or the Competition event call 904-548-4611 and speak to Charles Griffin, Teen Court Coordinator.
FATC holds successful annual conference
By Stephanie Glass (Lake County)
The Florida Association of Teen Courts, Inc., annual meeting and conference were a great success. Jennifer Romelien did a fantastic job arranging the location and securing informative and pertinent speakers. The conference, which was held November 8 and 9th on Hutchinson Island, was attended by 37 people; 25 Counties were represented. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with our peers around the state, share ideas, and network.
The current Board of Directors are:
Stephanie Glass – Lake County President
John Heyne – Hernando County Vice President
Angie Martinez– Osceola County Secretary
Debbie Mueller – Clay County Treasurer
Allison Mikel – Seminole County Asst. Treasurer
Jon Messick – Manatee County Historian
Curt Jenkins – Suwanee/Columbia Counties Parlimentarian
David Medvec – Orange County
Barbara Artabasy – Santa Rosa/Okaloosa Counties
Ryan Brannen – Baker/Bradford Counties
Mary Carrier – Polk County
Jason Holthus – Alachua County
The association is looking forward to celebrating 20 years of Teen Courts in Florida during 2008. Next year’s conference is tentatively set for Tallahassee. More information will be forthcoming throughout the new year.
Click here for a picture of the Board
Citrus County Teen Court teens help community agencies
By Sean Glancy (Citrus County)
Recently, Citrus County Teen Court has organized some community service opportunities for teen volunteers to help local agencies with projects for their events. During these events, groups of teens get together and work with non-profits on these events such as fall festivals, shoreline cleanups, etc. These community service projects began during the National Youth Court month and have continued to occur at least once a month.
On September 8, 2007 teen volunteers helped a local non-profit theater named Playhouse 19. Playhouse 19 is a volunteer organization which holds plays with local actors from around the county. In preparation for the Playhouses’ upcoming season, teens helped the organization by cleaning chairs, vacuuming and general house cleaning jobs.
On the morning of September 15, 2007 the annual Adopt-A-Shore cleanup event was held. This event occurs on the third Saturday in September and is a kick off event for the Save Our Waters Week. Our teens “adopted” a section of the Crystal River State Preserve Park and helped clean along the shoreline. Some of the various items that our teens found were bottles, cans, plastic, and one teen even came a across a truck tire!! It put a great sense of pride into some of our teens, so much so that one of the teens actually continued to go back and help the park after the event.
On October 19, 2007 teen volunteers helped a local elementary school, Crystal River Primary School, with an annual fall festival. The teens put in their time taking tickets for games, manning booths for games and prizes, and helped with concessions.
On December 8 and 9, 2007 teen volunteers partnered with the Dream Society, a local non-profit agency, to help gift wrap gifts at a local Wal-Mart for the holiday season. In addition to gift wrapping, the teens helped customers to their vehicles after the gift wrapping and also collected donations for the organization.
More are events are being scheduled for the upcoming year, including a Train Car Cleanup. The teens will work with a local non-profit group named Sertoma to help clean a decommissioned train car that was donated from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. The train car will be used to hold meetings, events, etc. These community service projects have worked exceptionally well and continue to have more volunteers sign up each time we have them. The teens interact with one another, build camaraderie, and begin to understand the importance of community service.
Clay County Teen Court visits the Florida Supreme Court
By Debra Mueller (Clay County)
On Tuesday November 6, a group of Clay County teen attorneys were able to watch the Florida Supreme Court in action. The Supreme Court has been in existence since 1845 and is the highest court in Florida. Three cases were presented before the justices that day. The teens then had a catered lunch at the top of the Capitol Building where they learned more about their Supreme Court experience.
After lunch, the group visited the State House of Representatives where they actually presented a bill just like real legislators and then were allowed to vote. These would-be legislators voted against increasing the driving age to 21. Aren’t you glad these budding politicians have your best interest at heart? After a tour of the Old Historic Capital Building, the group then headed home.
Orange County hosts graduate and awards event
By David Medvec (Orange County)
The Tenth Annual Teen Court Graduation Event
and Teen Alternatives Scholarship Awards were held on April 12, 2007 at
the Orange County Historical Center in the Grand Jury Room. Judge Bob
Leblanc presented the awards to the volunteers and Attorney Juan Campillo
Lopez presented stipends and a scholarship. Teen Court had 33 graduating
seniors from various Orange and Seminole County High Schools this year
with over 100 hours of community service. Cassandra Huggins of Boone High
School was this year's recipient of the scholarship with over 700 hours of
community service. All other applying seniors received cash stipends.
This was a very unique evening having two of our prior teen volunteers in
attendance who are now attorneys, Scott Smothers of Wright, Fulford,
Moorhead and Brown and Daniel Gutierrez. Scott was the first scholarship
recipient and he spoke about his experiences while volunteering for the
program. Danny Gutierrez, who is a recent law school graduate, was the
first volunteer to come back to the program and sit as a judge.
Many thanks go to these outstanding individuals who continue to give time
and energy to the Teen Court program.
"Youth Court Volunteers Reaching up and out”
By Jennifer Romelien (St. Lucie County)
On 05/03/07, the 19th Judicial Circuit’s Juvenile Diversion programs, the Fort Pierce Police Department’s Peer Panel and the Port St. Lucie Police Department’s Youth Court held the 1st annual award ceremony. The ceremony honored the youth/teen court volunteers. There was 200 attendees, including the Chief Judge, Public Defender, both Police Chiefs and a variety of judicial/law enforcement dignitaries. But most importantly, the children and adult volunteers of our programs there along with their families attended.
Everyone received awards signed by the Trial Court Administrator and the Chief Judge of the circuit. However we had 3 beautiful wood carved plaques which were donated by: (1) The Department of Juvenile Justice, (1) The St. Lucie County Sheriff – Ken Mascara, and (1) from the State Attorney – Bruce Colton.
We had a vision to show our appreciation to all of those who keep our programs up and running however went into this with a $ 0 budget. All of the food was catered and paid for by the Port St. Lucie Police Department and the Fort Pierce Police Department. Tropicana Inc, donated the beverages and believe it or not we fed 200 people dinner and had enough to give the Police Department leftovers for the midnight shift! We also had great giveaways that were donated – which included a variety of gift certificates and passes for Lion Country Safari. St. Lucie County Commissioner Joe Smith was the master of ceremonies and did a wonderful job. The youth that received awards were very appreciative and enjoyed the ceremony. Overall, all of our hard work to put this event together was well worth it, and we look forward to next year’s exhausting event!
Click here for a picture of the group
