Teen Court back in session
By John Tompkins
The Facts
Published March 13, 2007
ANGLETON — After almost a year on hiatus, the Teen Court is now back in session.
Judge, jury and defendants worked more than two hours through three cases one night last week, said Susan Green, Teen Court coordinator.
“It really ran smoothly,” said Green.
Teen Court is a program in which minors charged with Class C misdemeanor offenses are tried by teenage lawyers and jurors.
“The defense attorney meets with the defendant and get the facts of what happened,” Green said. “It’s like a real court. The jury is just deciding their punishment.”
The program, which had been funded for seven years by a state grant, had become dormant in June 2006 when the Boys and Girls Club of Brazoria County stopped using reserve funds to keep it going.
Proponents of the program, including District Judge Randall Hufstetler, worked with local municipalities to try to save the court.
The cities of Pearland and Angleton and Brazoria County commissioners decided to chip in $20,000 from their 2007 fiscal year budgets. Lake Jackson City Council opted to pitch in $2,500. The money goes toward paying the salary of the Teen Court coordinator.
Green, who also is the county’s child support director, was named coordinator by Brazoria County Commissioners in November, and the job was made a county position. The position’s existence is contingent upon receiving the funds from the cities and county.
Teen offenders can go through Teen Court rather than be assessed punishment by a justice of the peace or municipal judge, Hufstetler said. Fighting, minor in possession of alcohol or tobacco, shoplifting and disorderly conduct are some of the types of offenses the teen attorneys and jury handle, he said.
“The biggest value I see for kids going through it is the mentoring involved,” Hufstetler said.
Offenders are not given financial fines or confinement, only punishment that involves giving back to the community, such as through community service or serving on a Teen Court jury, he said.
“We’ve had some kids who’ve been through the program as defendants and then come back as a volunteer,” Hufstetler said.
Bryson Byrd, 18, a Brazoswood High School senior, went before county commissioners to try to save the program. He has been involved with Teen Court since he was a freshman and now is a defense attorney.
“It’s opened tons of doors for me,” he said. “I do a number of extracurricular activities through people I met in Teen Court.”
Byrd said he aspires to be a lawyer, and Teen Court has given him a taste for the courtroom.
Abdul Pasha, 17, who prosecutes cases in Teen Court, said he also wants to be an attorney, but on the opposite desk as a criminal defense attorney.
“The more I was in Teen Court, I told myself I could have a good career at this,” the Brazoswood senior said.
Teen Court is meeting in different locations throughout the county, including Angleton, Pearland, Manvel and Alvin.
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