Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Douglas County Attorney Don Klein back to the program,
counselor good morning, good morning, Good to have you back on.
The community is saddened by these six young boys out
the other night and they ended up killing a man
sixty four year old mersat Jamma and horrified by the
(00:23):
fact that one of them was eleven, and further horrified
by the fact that he could not be detained because
of his age, and so the judge apparently felt he
had to let him go. And then you wonder, don
don't you let him go to where? What kind of
home must that be?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, you know, you let him go right back to
where the problems emanate from. It's really counterintuitive. Here's somebody
that's previously been charged with gun charges stealing cars and
now is involved in a first degree murder, and you
(01:02):
send them back home. I mean, it makes no sense.
I was down at the legislature last year saying we've
got to change this law, and Sheriff Hansen was also
and we got nowhere just to right now, you can't
charge somebody as an adult until they're fourteen years of
age or older. And you can't detain somebody unless they're
(01:23):
thirteen years of age or older. And you know, the
even the fact that our person that day, the last time,
argued to have him at least put on this home
program or at least have a GPS monitor on him.
And there are some judges who feel that that's detention,
which it's not. You're just keeping track of where the
(01:44):
person is. For goodness sakes, you know, my whole things
about public safety here and certainly in juvenile court. We
care about this young person to try and turn them
around the right direction. But that's not helping, you know,
that's that's not No consequence is not an answer to
(02:04):
turn somebody's life around. So it's very frustrating from our standpoint,
you can tell. I mean, yeah, I get pretty upset
about that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It is for everybody. Apparently, Judge Brown and Channel six
their credit did a great report on this. Judge Brown
apparently felt that if he used the home detention sentence
that that amounts to that amounts to detention because if
the kid violates it, then he has to go into detention.
That seems to be twisted logic to me. I know,
(02:35):
the AMA Police Officers Association is not happy. So what's
that you run into a brick wall of the legislature.
What's next, Well, you.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Know, that's the problem we have to make. I'll be
down there again. We'll be trying to get the law
changed to change the age of being able to charge
somebody as an adult or being able to taint somebody.
We have a pretty good example. We don't have to
guess what can happen, and we already have what about
a year and a half ago to thirteen year olds
(03:08):
that were involved in both in first degree murders about
as premeditated as you can get. One was already sent
down to the youth center in Lincoln and escaped, and
still another car had a gun. You know, it's an
example of that's not going to work. We have two
(03:30):
examples of that with those two thirteen year olds, and
now we have you know, the biggest change I've seen
in doing this kind of job over a period of
years is the number of young people involved in very
violent crime. This didn't happen twenty five years ago, at
least not as regularly as it seems to happen right now.
So I mean there has to be you know, and
(03:52):
I talked to foster parents who have some tough kids,
and they tell me don that there needs to be conquinces.
These kids aren't going to get it unless there's some
serious consequences to their behavior, and they're not going to change. So,
I mean, that's that's where we're at. There's a lot
of people out there who portray themselves as experts to say, well,
we can't do gain these kids at all. You know,
(04:15):
that's that's the wrong approach. Well, I think you have
to uh number one, for public safety purposes and sometimes
to help this kid realize, how, you know, what have
I done? What am I doing in my life? You know,
make him think a little bit about it.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Tell us little kid is out, This little kid is
that gott Lord knows what he's doing tonight. But do
they do those who oppose locking them up have an alternative?
And if so, what is it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I'm not aware of any really other than well let's
you know, uh send them back home and and try
and offer them some uh some classes. But the other
thing is, you know, there's issues with regard to education.
There's schools, uh you know, I'll be some of these
alternative schools that they send young people to. You know,
(04:58):
we got to get kids and and excited about education
very early preschool, I think, you know, and so the
kid learns, wants to learn, has some hope. But if
you get a kid all the way to junior high
and they can't read or do math, then we got
problems because it seems like they just go through the
system and we're not helping them.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I just want to be clear, Don, what Nebraska loss
says that if you're twelve or under, you can basically
do whatever they all you want, thirteen or under now
twelve or under under thirteen you can do it, thurtay,
and the law can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
We can't detain them. No, I mean it's it's like
I said, it's extremely frustrating. And we've even talked about,
you know, with the legislator. We said, hey, you know
what's going to happen. And sometimes in the game world,
what's going to happen. Let's give the gun to Jimmy
or whoever who's twelve years old, and nothing's going to happen.
(05:57):
They're not stupid, they know what's going on. Uh. Just
creates these kinds of problems unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Don, Thanks for the time. Let's stay in touch on
any oppress.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Any anytime. I think the publish should be aware. I
appreciate the opportunity, and the public should be aware of
this and it's an issue. It's a problem that needs
to be addressed. So you got it.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Thanks Don. Don client, Douglas County attorney, here on KFABS
Morning News
Welcoming Douglas County Attorney Don Klein back to the program,
counselor good morning, good morning, Good to have you back on.
The community is saddened by these six young boys out
the other night and they ended up killing a man
sixty four year old mersat Jamma and horrified by the
(00:23):
fact that one of them was eleven, and further horrified
by the fact that he could not be detained because
of his age, and so the judge apparently felt he
had to let him go. And then you wonder, don
don't you let him go to where? What kind of
home must that be?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, you know, you let him go right back to
where the problems emanate from. It's really counterintuitive. Here's somebody
that's previously been charged with gun charges stealing cars and
now is involved in a first degree murder, and you
(01:02):
send them back home. I mean, it makes no sense.
I was down at the legislature last year saying we've
got to change this law, and Sheriff Hansen was also
and we got nowhere just to right now, you can't
charge somebody as an adult until they're fourteen years of
age or older. And you can't detain somebody unless they're
(01:23):
thirteen years of age or older. And you know, the
even the fact that our person that day, the last time,
argued to have him at least put on this home
program or at least have a GPS monitor on him.
And there are some judges who feel that that's detention,
which it's not. You're just keeping track of where the
(01:44):
person is. For goodness sakes, you know, my whole things
about public safety here and certainly in juvenile court. We
care about this young person to try and turn them
around the right direction. But that's not helping, you know,
that's that's not No consequence is not an answer to
(02:04):
turn somebody's life around. So it's very frustrating from our standpoint,
you can tell. I mean, yeah, I get pretty upset
about that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It is for everybody. Apparently, Judge Brown and Channel six
their credit did a great report on this. Judge Brown
apparently felt that if he used the home detention sentence
that that amounts to that amounts to detention because if
the kid violates it, then he has to go into detention.
That seems to be twisted logic to me. I know,
(02:35):
the AMA Police Officers Association is not happy. So what's
that you run into a brick wall of the legislature.
What's next, Well, you.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Know, that's the problem we have to make. I'll be
down there again. We'll be trying to get the law
changed to change the age of being able to charge
somebody as an adult or being able to taint somebody.
We have a pretty good example. We don't have to
guess what can happen, and we already have what about
a year and a half ago to thirteen year olds
(03:08):
that were involved in both in first degree murders about
as premeditated as you can get. One was already sent
down to the youth center in Lincoln and escaped, and
still another car had a gun. You know, it's an
example of that's not going to work. We have two
(03:30):
examples of that with those two thirteen year olds, and
now we have you know, the biggest change I've seen
in doing this kind of job over a period of
years is the number of young people involved in very
violent crime. This didn't happen twenty five years ago, at
least not as regularly as it seems to happen right now.
So I mean there has to be you know, and
(03:52):
I talked to foster parents who have some tough kids,
and they tell me don that there needs to be conquinces.
These kids aren't going to get it unless there's some
serious consequences to their behavior, and they're not going to change. So,
I mean, that's that's where we're at. There's a lot
of people out there who portray themselves as experts to say, well,
we can't do gain these kids at all. You know,
(04:15):
that's that's the wrong approach. Well, I think you have
to uh number one, for public safety purposes and sometimes
to help this kid realize, how, you know, what have
I done? What am I doing in my life? You know,
make him think a little bit about it.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Tell us little kid is out, This little kid is
that gott Lord knows what he's doing tonight. But do
they do those who oppose locking them up have an alternative?
And if so, what is it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I'm not aware of any really other than well let's
you know, uh send them back home and and try
and offer them some uh some classes. But the other
thing is, you know, there's issues with regard to education.
There's schools, uh you know, I'll be some of these
alternative schools that they send young people to. You know,
(04:58):
we got to get kids and and excited about education
very early preschool, I think, you know, and so the
kid learns, wants to learn, has some hope. But if
you get a kid all the way to junior high
and they can't read or do math, then we got
problems because it seems like they just go through the
system and we're not helping them.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I just want to be clear, Don, what Nebraska loss
says that if you're twelve or under, you can basically
do whatever they all you want, thirteen or under now
twelve or under under thirteen you can do it, thurtay,
and the law can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
We can't detain them. No, I mean it's it's like
I said, it's extremely frustrating. And we've even talked about,
you know, with the legislator. We said, hey, you know
what's going to happen. And sometimes in the game world,
what's going to happen. Let's give the gun to Jimmy
or whoever who's twelve years old, and nothing's going to happen.
(05:57):
They're not stupid, they know what's going on. Uh. Just
creates these kinds of problems unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Don, Thanks for the time. Let's stay in touch on
any oppress.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Any anytime. I think the publish should be aware. I
appreciate the opportunity, and the public should be aware of
this and it's an issue. It's a problem that needs
to be addressed. So you got it.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Thanks Don. Don client, Douglas County attorney, here on KFABS
Morning News
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