ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ST. CLAIR SHORES, MICH.
SOURCE: Associated Press|
A couple whose 16-year-old son burglarized churches and kept a 4-foot marijuana plant in his bedroom were convicted Thursday under the community's parental-responsibility ordinance for failing to control the boy.
Anthony and Susan Provenzino were fined $100 each, the maximum, and ordered to pay $1,000 in court costs.
After hearing three days of testimony, the jury of six deliberated barely a half-hour.
``I think this was a vote in favor of the family and vote in favor of parental responsibility,'' said Robert Ihrie, city attorney in this well-to-do Detroit suburb.
The Provenzinos' son, Alex, is serving a year in a juvenile detention center after pleading no contest to breaking and entering and marijuana possession.
The Provenzinos were accused of failing to control Alex after his 1995 arrest on charges of burglarizing churches and his arrest the following month on charges of assaulting his father with a golf club. Alex was arrested again in September on charges of breaking into at least six homes.
``You already knew your son broke into a church. What else did you need to know?'' said one juror, who refused to give her name.
Stolen property confiscated from Alex's room included a gun, a knife and a strongbox. Police also took a 4-foot dried marijuana plant from Alex's closet. Alex also admitted stealing $3,500 from a church collection box.
The boy's parents had contended they did their best with him but admitted violating an order that he be supervised at all times.
Anthony Provenzino, 48, testified that he held the justice system partly responsible for failing to keep his son in custody longer the first time he was arrested.
Howard Davidson of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law in Washington, D.C., said the concept of criminal sanctions for parents of wayward children is not new, but the number of such laws has increased in recent years.
However, he said many proceedings are held in juvenile court and not open to the public.
The Provenzinos, who have four children, pay $155 a day for their son's incarceration. Their attorney argued that is punishment enough.
``These `bad parents' are paying every day, paying court costs,'' William Bufalino said. ``They are paying for the sins of their son. They are not paying for their sins. They don't have any.''
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