Teenager jailed for ignoring court order

Just a month after a judge gave him a four-year deferred sentence and told him, “I wish you good luck and hope you are not back here again,” a Springfield teenager was back in court Monday charged with never showing up for probation.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010712079879

Teenager jailed for ignoring court order         By ERIC FRANCIS, CORRESPONDENT         SPRINGFIELD — Just a month after a judge gave him a four-year deferred sentence and told him, “I wish you good luck and hope you are not back here again,” a Springfield teenager was back in court Monday charged with never showing up for probation.         Michael Marrone, who turned 17 last month, stood at the defense table in handcuffs Monday afternoon wearing a T-shirt that said in large letters “Have you seen my zombie?” as a public defender entered an innocent plea on his behalf to violation of probation.         By luck of the draw, Marrone ended up in front of Judge Harold Eaton, rather than Judge Patricia Zimmerman, who in late October had agreed to give Marrone what amounted to major break on separate robbery and burglary charges by accepting a deferred sentencing deal that she made clear was largely in consideration of Marrone’s young age.         Since that time, probation officers allege, Marrone simply walked out the door of the courthouse and never checked in with the probation office. He also did not begin alcohol and mental health counseling sessions that were part of the plea deal, in exchange for the state agreeing to hold off on sentencing him for four years and then to eventually expunge his record if he satisfactorily completed his end of the agreement. Truant officers also told probation officials that Marrone has not been attending Springfield High School since late October.         Marrone had pleaded guilty to a May 18 burglary in which he and another hoodie-wearing subject kicked in the plate-glass front door of the Mobil Station at the junction of River Street and Route 11 and made off with nearly $4,000 worth of cigarettes in a hastily arranged “smash-and-grab” raid. He also admitted to being one of three bandana-wearing teens who stopped an even younger trio of Springfield High students on Olive Street after school one afternoon in January, brandished lighters and a knife while making threats, and ordered them to empty their pockets before taking off a with a $5 bill one of them had in his wallet.         While Marrone’s public defender asked “for another chance” on behalf of the teen, Eaton noted that one of the charges for which Marrone recently entered a guilty plea was because of a violation of a court-ordered pretrial release condition, specifically that he refrain from possessing alcohol.         “In light of the complete disregard,” for the recent agreement, Eaton said he was not comfortable letting Marrone out without some monetary bail, so Marrone was returned to the Springfield jail Monday afternoon for lack of $2,500 cash or surety.         http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20101207/NEWS02/712079879