Frontier
justice

When 16-year-old Adam Bollenback slipped away from the cop who caught him stealing a six-pack of beer out of a Citrus County, Florida, woman’s garage, he must’ve known he’d be in trouble. But no one could have anticipated charges of burglary, petty theft and escape would land him 10 years in an adult prison.

Florida’s Department of Correction had suggested the boy wear an ankle monitor for two years. The Department of Juvenile Justice thought a stay in a youth facility would be best. Neither punishment seemed severe enough to Circuit Judge Ric A. Howard, who told Bollenback that the sentence was intended to “break your spirit right now.”

Defence attorney Jim Cummins asked that Bollenback be held at the Citrus County jail until protest motions could be filed, but Howard rejected the request. He also refused to have the boy segregated from adult inmates. Cummins intends to file a battery of motions against the sentencing. :
-Scott Saxon