Early Time Change Costs Kid 12 Days In Jail

from the daylight-stupid-time dept

Mon, Apr 16th 2007 7:59pm — Carlo Longino

The early start on daylight savings time passed last month with little impact, both in terms of the predicted aclockalypse as well as the energy savings it was supposed to generate. However, the shift did have some severe consequences for one Pennsylvania 15-year-old: 12 days in the slammer. The kid made a call in to his school's recorded information line in the early hours of March 11, just a few minutes before the hot line supposedly received a bomb threat. School officials, in their haste to find the caller, matched his cell phone number to a list of callers to the hotline that morning, and immediately pointed the finger at him. His phone correctly recorded the call time as 3:12 am, which was apparently close enough for them to the 3:17 am entry in the system's call logs for the bomb threat. However, the officials hadn't set the clock in their call system properly, meaning the bomb threat came in more than an hour after the kid's innocent call, and it took nearly two weeks of the kid sitting in juvenile detention for somebody to figure it out. The real culprit here is somebody's stupidity -- because even if the time change hadn't occurred, the call times still didn't match up by five minutes.

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27 Comments

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tim stevens, 16 Apr 2007 @ 8:10pm

I smell lawsuit
To quote the race pimps, it's time to "name and shame."

Find the nameless "school officials" name them publicly have them explain their stupidity, demand an apology and them fire their sorry asses for incompetence. Of course, sue the school district as it has deep pockets.
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Security, 16 Apr 2007 @ 8:28pm

For the rest of his life - someone can Google him
Why was this 15 year old's name ever released to the press?

12 days in detention! Was he being held without bail - or was his parents unable to afford bail?

Did they ever find the caller who made that bomb threat one hour later?

Why did it take the D.A. so long to get that cell phone's records, almost two weeks?
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- AZIZA, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:26pm
  
  Re: For the rest of his life - someone can Google
  Most juvenile systems don't give defendants the option of posting bail. If you have a real lawyer and not a jackass from the PDs office, it's possible to get released to the custody of your parents, no matter what the crime, but my guess is that this kid's family didn't have the money to hire a lawyer.
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AZIZA, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:23pm

Hope he wins in civil court
This is one time when someone deserves as much money as they can squeeze out of the system. What if he'd been assaulted or worse while he was locked up? Someone needs to resign over this one, and the city involved needs to get out the checkbook and take care of this kid.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:27pm

12 days in detention! Was he being held without bail - or was his parents unable to afford bail?

Post 9/11 they are treating bomb threats as terroirsm.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:38pm

I'm surprised this story wasn't from Boston.
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Prophet, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:50pm

My Lawyer would have a field day
I may be no legal expert but i have had a lawyer on retainer for over 1.5 years now just in case i ever need one, but thats the problem i understand the need, I had to sue ( and won ) for custody of my child last year and if i would of had a Free Pro-Bono lawyer i would of lost quickly, so i agree with AZZIZA but this is going to get ugly for the schoolpoliceDA. And who knows what Mental Disdain for the Legal system this kid is going to aquire through this ordeal, they might of just runined a good kid ( although i dont know for sure) who might now rebel hard and screw his own life up before he even knows it.
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Bill, 16 Apr 2007 @ 10:48pm

The Cup is Half Full
Look at the bright side of things -- this young man now understands what prison is like and will never commit another crime ever. Certainly our criminal justice system discourages recidivism.

This is a lesson this young man will never forget!
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 11:16pm
  
  Re: The Cup is Half Full
  What was the lesson he was supposed to learn ? not to call the school while it's daylight savings time?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2007 @ 12:07am
    
    Re: Re: The Cup is Half Full
    What was the lesson he was supposed to learn ? not to call the school while it's daylight savings time?
    He learned that he might as well go ahead and commit crimes since he's going to jail anyway.
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- kevjohn, 17 Apr 2007 @ 8:36am
  
  Re: The Cup is Half Full
  this young man now understands what prison is like and will never commit another crime ever.
  
  Another crime?? He hasn't commited a crime in the first place! Your last name wouldn't happen to be O'Reilly would it?
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- Doug, 17 Apr 2007 @ 12:37pm
  
  Re: The Cup is Half Full
  Are you kidding me with that comment?! The kid didn't commit a crime; he need not be given a lesson he'll never forget. If you truly believe what you posted, let us take the same preventive measure and throw you in jail just to make sure you won't ever commit a crime. That makes sense to you?
  
  And, which criminal justice system are you referring to? The one I'm familiar with certainly does not discourage recidivism.
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- Dillenger69, 17 Apr 2007 @ 2:06pm
  
  Re: The Cup is Half Full
  BIll: this young man now understands what prison is like and will never commit another crime ever.
  
  "another" crime? What crime did he commit?
  
  That's like asking "When did you stop beating your wife?" to someone who never did.
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- Michael Finley, 8 Mar 2009 @ 4:19pm
  
  Re: The Cup is Half Full
  The lesson learned is that many people are caring and unfeeling as Bill. He can learn to get angry or learn to stay away from idiots like Bill. It is hard as idiots like this tend to end up in position of power with out any real responsibility.
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MadJo (profile), 17 Apr 2007 @ 1:28am

Is 3.12am the time from his phone or from the log?
Is the 3.12am time from the telephone-records of the hotline or from Cody Webb's cellphone?
If it's only the latter, mr. Webb has a valid case against these so-called investigators.
Because they clearly didn't do their job at all (which is to investigate)
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- zcat, 17 Apr 2007 @ 3:03am
  
  Re: Is 3.12am the time from his phone or from the
  RTFA.
  
  2:12am - The (wrong) time logged by the school phone system..
  3:12am - the (correct) time when he called.
  
  3:17am - the (wrong) time logged by the school phone system..
  4:17am - the (correct) time the bomb threat call was actually made.
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Michael Kohne, 17 Apr 2007 @ 2:48am

Times
The post points out that 3:12 does not match 3:17, however, if the school's phone system isn't set properly for daylight savings time, why do you have any thought that it would otherwise be correct? Most phone systems that I've seen have the time off by several minutes unless they have a way to automatically sync to a real time source or someone cares.

I'm not excusing the investigators for screwing up like this, but I doubt I'd balk at a 5 minute difference, either. Of course, I wouldn't stop investigating at that point, I'd verify whether the damn thing was right before I trusted the records.
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Steve, 17 Apr 2007 @ 8:02am

3:12 am!
What was a 15-year old doing up at 3:12 am on a school night. He should be sound asleep in his p.j's after a long evening of homework.
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- Anonymous Sloth, 10 Jul 2007 @ 2:03am
  
  Re: 3:12 am!
  You clearly don't know many modern fifteen-year-olds ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2007 @ 8:32am

and will never commit another crime ever.

Another crime? He didn't commit a crime in the first place!
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Witty Nickname, 17 Apr 2007 @ 8:56am

School Night
It was not a school night, 3:12 AM on the 11th means Saturday has just turned into Sunday.

I assume it was not a malicious reason, but I also wonder though, why would he call the school info line at 3:00 AM on a Saturday night (early Sunday morning for purists). He must be a real nerd.
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- philosopherott (profile), 17 Apr 2007 @ 9:36am
  
  Re: School Night
  If he is an athlete he might need to see if the school region is open to go in for a practice or a meet or match. When i was in highschool I needed to go in at 4 am some days to get to wrestling way in's on time where ever the match was that day. Even on sundays when tournaments where. I am sure that there are other legitmate reasons. maybe the hotline was in his phone book and he just went one line to far when calling some one else. give the kid the benifit of the doubt.
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Rob, 17 Apr 2007 @ 9:28am

How DARE you criticize our fearless heroic law enforcers as they swiftly act to heroically rid the streets of horrible evildoers? I feel much safer knowing this miscreant is rotting in jail, along with that woman who DARED expose her students to evil nasty PORN POPUPS on a classroom computer. When evil rears its ugly head, we must not HESITATE to ponder "facts", we must ACT IMMEDIATELY with SWIFT JUSTICE on the heads of those who would commit ACTS OF EVIL...

Heil Bush!
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SATAN, 17 Apr 2007 @ 9:37am

They are so...
They are so FUCKED now
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Warren, 17 Apr 2007 @ 6:16pm

Kafka meets Orwell
Sue the school principle for not making sure the phone system software was updated. What if that oversight had resulted in an loss of life? Good thing the kid wasn't assaulted in jail. And the blind person who couldnt tell the difference between a 7 and a 2 needs to find a different line of work where time is of no importance and reading isn't a requirement.
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Warren, 17 Apr 2007 @ 6:17pm

Kafka meets Orwell
Sue the school principle for not making sure the phone system software was updated. What if that oversight had resulted in an loss of life? Good thing the kid wasn't assaulted in jail. And the blind person who couldnt tell the difference between a 7 and a 2 needs to find a different line of work where time is of no importance and reading isn't a requirement.
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ignacio, 30 Jul 2008 @ 6:14pm

juvinalhall
good i liked it
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