Charge dismissed against boy who assaulted teacher

Associated Press

SEATTLE — A second-degree assault charge has been dismissed against a mentally retarded teen-ager who had been accused of attacking a Federal Way High School teacher.

King County Juvenile Court Judge Jim Cayce dismissed the charge Thursday without prejudice, which means prosecutors could recharge the 16-year-old.

Prosecutors had little choice but to go along with the dismissal, said spokesman Dan Donohoe in the King County Prosecutor’s Office. Under law, defendants must be able to participate in their own defense. A psychiatrist found the teen had no understanding of the legal process.

On Jan. 17, Cayce ruled it was unlikely the boy would ever be restored to competency so he could be tried in the Dec. 17 attack on teacher Jenny Panico-DiGiorgio, 25, who was hospitalized briefly.

In a separate development, Federal Way school officials have disciplined one employee and suspended another for two weeks without pay in the wake of the attack.

On Friday, district officials released the results of their investigation into the student’s enrollment, which came after a transfer agreement between Washington and California.

The teen, 6 feet 1 inch tall and 250 pounds, was returned to Bakersfield, Calif., on Jan. 26 after Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services revoked an interstate agreement that allowed him to be placed in a group home here with 24-hour one-on-one monitoring.

He is being held in juvenile detention there, pending a March 6 hearing in Kern County Superior Court where a judge will determine what to do with him.

He could be returned to Washington, DSHS officials say.

"If we have the services up here, (California officials) could seek to place him up here again … there is nothing that is preventing him from coming back," said Janette Benham, who oversees placement of out-of-state children in group homes here.

But given the teen’s social history, "I’m not sure that would happen."

To deny such a request, DSHS would have to prove the state could not offer the teen appropriate services, agency spokeswoman Kathy Spears said.

Washington Mentor, the private Federal Way home where the boy lived from October until the assault, told Cayce it was willing to double its staffing for the boy so he would have two monitors at all times.

The boy has a long history of impulsive and violent behavior, and a record as both victim and aggressor in sexual assault. According to court records, he assaulted a substitute teacher in California and threatened peers. He is described as "routinely aggressive, noncompliant, oppositional, defiant and argumentative," and had been kicked out of 15 schools there.

Citing their investigation, school district officials said Washington Mentor minimized the teen’s violent history in California. They said the home also did not provide complete information about his past arrests before he enrolled at Federal Way High School last fall.

Representatives of Washington Mentor declined comment Friday, citing the need to protect the student’s confidentiality.

Federal Way schools Superintendent Tom Murphy would not identify the two school employees who were disciplined.

He said a "letter of direction" was sent to an employee who should have been more persistent about seeking the student’s records. He said the employee who was suspended did not follow district policy governing student records.