Lewiston
The sentencing starts in the usual way.

All rise.

All be seated.

A reading of the charge: shoplifting at Wal-Mart, in this case.

But as the teenage defendant pleads for leniency – he knows what he did was wrong, it was an impulse, there was peer pressure- the trio of black-robed judges looks unimpressed. One rolls his eyes.

In Lewiston-Auburn Youth Court, it’s hard to get away with excuses.

“We just didn’t see any mitigating circumstances at all,” said 17-year-old judge Adam Ouellette.

For the past year, Ouellette and 15 other Lewiston-Auburn high-schoolers have judged, defended and represented the state against young criminals whose minor offenses have won them a spot before the Youth Court.

The idea was to give area students a real-life civics lesson and to give young offenders a chance to skip the big, bad world of real court.

After Lewiston-Auburn’s first year of Youth Court, both sides call the program a resounding success. The statistics back them up.

Young judges

The plan for a Maine youth court began four years ago after Auburn businessman Richard Kendall read about the success of hundreds of youth courts across the country.

Kendall was struck by the thoughtful decisions youth judges made and the effect such programs could have on crime. He pushed for one in Lewiston-Auburn.

Last spring, with help from the Auburn Police Department, Judge Paul Cote, several teenagers and community members, the Lewiston-Auburn Youth Court began to hear cases.

Eleven- to 19-year-olds who plead guilty to a minor charge, such as fighting, can go to the Youth Court for sentencing by their peers. Crimes dealt with in Youth Court do not go on permanent records.

Randy Robbins chooses who goes to Youth Court and who sees a regular judge.

A Youth Court coordinator and juvenile detective for Auburn, he looks for kids who haven’t been in much trouble, kids who may have bowed to peer pressure or good kids who simply made a bad mistake.

“I look for kids who have potential,” he said.

Three or four young offenders get referred to Youth Court every month. Some face charges of assault or criminal mischief. Most are there for shoplifting.

All are assigned a teenage representative to defend their interests. Another teen speaks for the state and pushes for punishment.

Three high-schoolers judge the case so that defendants cannot blame any one person for the verdict.

The judges can force the offenders to complete community service, write a letter of apology, draft an essay on the effects of crime on the community and pay restitution.

A stiff sentence

On Thursday, all three cases involved shoplifting.

One girl was cajoled by an adult friend into taking some makeup. Another girl stole a pair of shorts from a mall clothing store. And a boy took earrings and a wallet from Wal-Mart.

He excused his actions as “impulsive” and driven by peer pressure. The sentence: send a letter of apology to Wal-Mart, write a two-page essay on shoplifting and complete 15 hours of community service. Five hours were suspended and will be reinstated if he gets into trouble again.

It was a punishment harsher than even the state’s representative had asked for. It was the biggest penalty given that day.

The teen judges have heard such excuses before. They just didn’t believe he was sorry.

“These kids see through all the baloney,” said Paul Cote, a district court judge and Youth Court adviser.

Over the past year, the Youth Court has heard more than 30 cases. Only two teens have not completed their community service. They have been warned that their cases will be sent to real court if they don’t meet the Youth Court judgments soon.

Only two others have been arrested again.

In the traditional court system, 45 percent of juveniles arrested in Auburn last year were arrested again.

Youth alternatives

For Sonja Moulton, a 15-year-old sophomore, Youth Court offered a second chance.

Caught shoplifting, she was terrified about going to court. She couldn’t imagine what her punishment would be.

Facing other teens was not as scary as facing an adult judge, she said. But at the same time, it made a big impression.

“There’s no next time. Next time you go to adult court,” she said.

Coordinator Robbins said he could easily refer a dozen kids like Moulton to Youth Court every month.

But the court is operating on a small amount of money from grants. It can’t afford to hire people to train more teenage judges and representatives. Cote and the other advisers volunteer their time and lend the teenagers the materials they need to do their jobs.

“It’s been a long process, but it’s been very rewarding,” Cote said.

Youth Court will adjourn for the summer. Because most of the current members are graduating seniors, coordinators hope for a rush of new Lewiston and Edward Little high school students to join the program in the fall.

Many of the current members want to become lawyers or major in criminal justice after high school. Others say they want to do something completely different.

But they agree that youth court has made a difference in their lives and in their cities.

“I like the fact that I’m giving something back,” said Youth Court prosecutor Amy LaPrell. “I’m giving youth an alternative.”

ltice@sunjournal.com

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