FARMINGTON — Two 17-year-old boys from Rangeley and Avon on Thursday denied breaking into the Rangeley Lakes Regional School in early August and damaging musical instruments, desks, file cabinets and other items.
The teens appeared separately before Judge Evert Fowle in Juvenile Court in the District Court building. They each sat beside defense attorney Linda Sparks and their mothers and entered denials to juvenile felony charges of burglary and aggravated criminal mischief.
The pair are accused of causing more than $8,000 damage at the school either late Aug. 2 or early Aug. 3, Police Chief Russell French said in August. Most of the damage was in a storage room, where cooking oil had been poured over several objects and the floor, and a Yamaha keyboard and other items had been painted. Walls, heat ducts, sections of the stage, furniture and other classroom items were also damaged, French had said.
Judge Fowle explained to each defendant their legal rights, which included the right to a trial. He also told them the goal of the juvenile system is rehabilitation as opposed to punishment.
Each boy, not their parents, would have to pay $300 toward their legal defense by the end of the case as a lesson in responsibility, Fowle said. The boys both have jobs.
The teens will have to comply with a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., except for work. They will have to go right home after work, if it’s past 9 p.m.
Fowle asked Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins if house arrest was in order but Robbins said that would be too restrictive.
Fowle warned each boy of the consequences if they violate any of the release conditions.
The last to appear before Fowle was the Rangeley teen, who wrote a letter to the court. The teenager told the judge what he did for work and his plans to get his high school equivalency diploma, because he is not in school. His ultimate goal is to get a good job.
The teens are forbidden to go on the Rangeley Lakes Regional School property.
“You strike me as being somebody who can do a lot in life,” Fowle said. “I think you ought to go back to school and get your GED and go to college,” he said.
Fowle told him to aim high.
“Guilty or not guilty, I have no idea what it will be,” but get the situation behind you and move forward, Fowle said.
The teenagers are scheduled to appear for a hearing Nov. 10.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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